Disney Shuts Down LucasArts Just 154 Days After Acquiring It.
An anonymous reader sends news that Disney is closing LucasArts,Just 154 days after acquiring LucasArts as part of their larger, $4B acquisition of Lucasfilm, Disney has dissolved the classic video game development company.
LucasArts has confirmed layoffs as it shifts to licensed games instead of internal development.
The game studio has been around since 1982, and brought us classics such as Labyrinth, The Secret of Monkey Island, X-Wing, TIE Fighter, and Star Wars: Battlefront. They also published Star Wars: Galaxies, Knights of the Old Republic, and Star Wars: The Old Republic.
“After evaluating our position in the games market, we’ve decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company’s risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games…. As a result of this change, we’ve had layoffs across the organization.”
An anonymous unnamed Disney executive says,
We are looking for proven external partners who can help us provide video games to our fans. We still believe in the video game industry, we still will provide Star Wars games, we’re just looking at different models rather than internal production.
Beginning today, Disney will continue to license out the LucasArts properties (namely Star Wars), but has ceased the development of all internal projects. Some projects (such as the incredible looking Star Wars 1313) may find new homes with other development houses, but their status is currently up in the air.
As to the 150 developers who lost their jobs, my best wishes, and I look forward to seeing your work in a galaxy right here, sometime very soon.
