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LucasArts Reduces Staff After Cancellations
cordsie writes "In a move that should come as a surprise to absolutely no one at this point, the once venerable LucasArts has laid off thirty of its staff. The brief article implies that the layoffs were due to the recent cancellation of the sequel to Sam and Max and the Full Throttle follow-up." S!: Ferrago has a story noting this reduces the LucasArts staff count "to about 389", still a significant number, and an earlier International House of Mojo story regarding the layoffs has a commenter alleging: "Among the people let go were... [the] Director of The Dig, Escape from Monkey Island and most recently Full Throttle 2... as well as both the Lead Engineer and Producer of the late Sam and Max 2 game."
... may the force be with you!
I can just imagine the board meeting:
"If it doesn't say 'Star Wars' in the title it won't make cash. Sack everyone who's not working on a Star Wars console game."
I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.
No offense but as soon as LucasArt steps out of the starwars zone, they are plain aweful.
Which brings back to the original statistics. What percentage of gamers nowadays are devoted starwars fan that'll buy anything starwars related. It's a much smaller percentage, now that the market is saturated with starwars garbage.
...(and I'm sure those who were laid off don't see it this way), but this at least releases good people into the field to potentially work on other, better, franchises. That is, unless they end up at EA or something.
For a time, lucusarts was a pretty unique entity. Many development houses find themselves under the thumb of a publisher, but with the staff at lucasarts was the developer *and* publisher for many of their titles.
With Sam and Max and FT2 cancelled, coupled with the resignation of president Simon Jeffrey and the firing of the director of some of the great adventure titles, I have a sinking feeling I know what has happened. Lucasarts has decided to put all of its weight behind Star Wars Licensing. The suits have taken over: why make novel titles when you can put out a star wars game that will make way more money?
star wars = +huge revenues from box office to merchandise.
:(
sam and max = pc games sales in BIG slump.
hope you star wars geeks are happy
Among the people let go were... [the] Director of The Dig...
... I can't even find it on the Lucas Arts website (though, I have to admit I didn't try super hard). I have to admit it is hard to beleive they would make a sequel to a game that you can hardly even find on Google (although I have to admit I did play the game through completion when I got it 8 or 9 years ago).
Is this (or rather, _was_ this) the sequel to the 1995 DOS game "The Dig"? A quick search of this (the 1995) game on Google shows remarkably little
The firing of some of the most well-known adventure game producers from LucasArts should present some new opportunities. These producers can either start their own companies, or be hired by existing adventure game developers or publishers. LucasArts' loss is someone else's gain. Just you wait... Although they won't be allowed to make sequels to games that have rights belonging to LucasArts (or Sierra), I don't think some fresh gaming ideas and stories would hurt the industry (take Syberia for example). Let's stay positive... just think of this whole LucasArts and Sierra saga as corporate reshuffling and industry reshuffling. These talented individuals will find good work. They will continue to produce games that they love and be proud of.
What are sales figures for Lucas Arts' latest games? Was Monkey Island 4 unprofitable? I wish the were a boxofficemojo.com for games...
This is sooooo sad... this means LucasArts is dead. I mean, who cares about Yet Another Star Wars Franchise Game (tm), except for Star Wars fans ? It seems to me they've laid off all of the remaining creative people at LucasArts, the last hopes for good adventures are really dead. When Sam and Max 2 was cancelled there at least a very slim hope that they would finish it someday (the game was almost ready for RTM, AFAIK), but this move shows that LucasArts has no interest whatsoever to do something creative and unique...
Sigh, just look through their press releases section and see how many times they mention Star Wars. While they have had some really good Star Wars games, there are lots of low quality ones that counted on the Star Wars name to sell. I have seen some of these that despite their low scores, they managed to end selling enough copies to be re-released at a cheaper price though programs like Sony's "Greatest Hits" series.
And it looks like their innovation and originality dying even more, they recently announced Mercenaries which is a generic 3rd person military unit behind enemy lines preventing North Korea from releasing nukes. Gee, I wonder where they got that *brilliant* plot, who would have ever thought about one involving North Korea and nuclear weapons in this day and age?
Even with their recently released original titles things haven't been going well. I wonder if those who canned Sam & Max 2 were also responsible for giving RTX Red Rock and Wrath Unleashed the ok. Plus games like Gladius and Armed and Dangerous probably could have done better if they were given more time. Now it looks like Lucasarts is going to take the safe and easy route by releasing cliches and Star Wars titles.
I can understand the canceling of Full Throttle 2, it was not living up to the original(I recall some game magazines who got to play some of it were disappointed ) and they didn't want to disappoint the fans. But I can't really deal with their canceling of Sam & Max 2 when things seemed to be top quality. Even Steve Purcell thought it was good, and I trust him more then Lucasarts with how Lucasarts has been doing for the last few years.
I think it was about two years ago the company head was going on about how they were going to restore things back to Lucasarts past history of releasing high quality and original titles, and look at how *well* they have accomplished that. While the games were original, they did not have the old Lucasarts quality and game play wise were quite poor. They have pretty much failed at producing high quality original titles, their releasing anymore adventure games seems unlikely, and are pretty much producing just Star Wars games. Thus for now I have given up with Lucasarts, unless they under go through some drastic changes I don't see anything worth my while being released by them.
No offense but as soon as LucasArt steps out of the starwars zone, they are plain aweful.
I realize when trolling it's always best to throw in at least one typo to hook all the spelling nazi's but there's such a thing as pride in your work. By making such an obvious mistake, your trollish intent becomes clear. Far better to misspell using a homonym or some such whenever possible.
I mean, come on.. everybody knows it's "into" not "out of"
That Jesus Christ guy is getting some terrible lag... it took him 3 days to respawn! -NJ CoolBreeze
So, with Lucasarts in decline does this mean that the adventure genre is in decline and on it's last legs? Are there still gamers out there that still demand games of an adventure genre or are they all console 3D gamers now?
I guess if the lead for Sam And Max got canned, then the protestors can fold their flag and go home.
I'm not surprised to see Lucasarts pulling their support from the adventure titles. They see it as a dead genre and want to focus more money and development on guaranteed sellers like Galaxies and Jedi Knight. I only wish they would realize how wrong they are.
Why bother anymore? No matter how much their games ruled, they have given up adventures and that's where they used to be good at. That and X-Wing, which they also seem to have given up.
Seems like this is my final goodbye to LucasArts.
Dear Sirs,
:)
:D
Please try to consider this an opportunity. We are loyal fans who love your games. It is sad to see the ones who made such amazing games as "the dig," "sam and max," and "full throttle," let go like this.
Your art, directing, and style are magnificent. Dont ever forget this.
The reason you were let go was because of shitty, poor management. You should be HAPPY to get away from these people.
Now, A request. Dont stop making games. We love your sense of humor, your writing abilities, and your direction. If you guys release another comedy adventure game WE WILL BUY IT.
In fact, Ive stopped buying lucasarts games recently due to the stagnation your old fuckhead management seems to love so much. So, what I'll do is spend that money on YOUR games instead.
Were waiting!
no
LucasArts can re-release "Rebel Assault" on DVD with a special preview of Episode 3.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
Aaarrgghh! You just reminded me that I have Loom laying around on 5 1/4" floppies, and I don't have a 5 1/4" drive anymore!
The sadness. Loom was probably my first introduction to adventure games (along with LSL1.)
If you're gonna count stuff lke Labyrinth:
Rescue on Fractalis: Also outstanding for the time
Eidolon: A little slow, but fun
Ballblazer: Absolutely fantastic! Too bad the souped-up Playstation version was not so hot...
Night Shift: Total pain in the ass, but a cute puzzle game.
"There are people who do not love their fellow human being, and I _hate_ people like that!" - Tom Lehrer
Grim Fandango was awesome and they should make another one.
These guys need to gravitate toward The Adventure Company, the last bastion of adventure games.
http://www.adventurecompanygames.com/tac/
They are releasing quite a few with more coming. Some good comedy titles would be a welcome addition to their typically dreary lineup.