While nerds everywhere might have high hopes for the new Star Wars films being pioneered by Disney, dreams of LucasArts receiving the same revitalizing treatment were dashed today with the news that Disney has shut down the developing and publishing arms of LucasArts.
LucasArts has had a troubled history these past few years, what with the ugly rumors surrounding Battlefront 3 and the Force Unleashed series being canned before the second game even came out. Star Wars 1313, which made a good impression last year at E3, hasn’t really made another big appearance since then, another victim of LucasArt’s internal struggles. Star Wars: First Assault, the digital-based first-person-shooter, has also been cancelled.
Disney has made it clear that this doesn’t mean the end of Star Wars games by any means, just that we won’t see another one developed internally by LucasArts. It’s a sad day for the 150 employees laid off by this move, and we here at GamerSushi hope the land on their feet. That said, having another developer take a stab at the franchise might be just the kick it needs to bring Star Wars video games back into relevance.
What do you guys think about this news? Sad to see LucasArts go? Which studio do you think will pick up Star Wars? Which team would be the best fit for Star Wars 1313 or a new Battlefront?
Source – Game Informer
It’s sad to see any game developer get shut down, but LucasArts just hasn’t put out anything good in years. They fell into a bad case of sequelitis, and the few times they tried to work with new IPs, they were poorly received by critics. It’s obvious they aren’t the same powerhouse they were back in the 80s and 90s. 1313 looked good, but given LA’s track record, I’m pretty sure some of us were expecting it to fail.
If Disney doesn’t decide to do 1313 in-house, I can picture Ubisoft taking the reins. Third-person titles are definitely something that company is familiar with (although they can be hit-and-miss as well).
I hope someone picks up battlefront.
It’s sad that so many people lost their jobs, but all the mourning and reminiscing is for games that were released 15 years ago and longer.
If you like the games Lucasarts used to make, buy Telltale games. Most of those employees went there.
Despite the layoffs, this is terrific news and well spawn hopefully more frequent and quality Star Wars games in the future.
Sounds like Disney is continuing to be a bunch of douche-bags honestly. They keep buying properties, then close them down or lock them away just to make a profit or have something so no one else can. Its not right to do that. There are things that Disney has purchased that I know I’ll never get to see again, because Disney has bought them and shipped them off to a back room somewhere. They make no profit from it, but then neither does anyone else.
Why they’re allowed to do this, I don’t know. Either way I feel sad about what happened to Lucas Arts. It’s just another nail in the coffin of Walt, whom I’m sure would not approve of the companies current path. Nuff said.