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Disney Closes LucasArts
An anonymous reader sends news that Disney is closing LucasArts. 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. The company held a meeting today informing employees of the layoffs. "In some ways, the news is not a surprise. LucasArts had seemed directionless in recent years. The company's core business of games based on the Star Wars license have been largely disappointing in both quality and sales. While the company had some success with games like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and the Battlefront series, both of those franchises seemed to have died on the vine. The cancellation of Star Wars Battlefront III was particularly ugly, which led to nasty public fingerpointing between LucasArts and developer Free Radical. ... LucasArt's other big franchise, Indiana Jones, has failed to make much of a dent in games in recent years, with the exception of Traveller's Tales LEGO Indiana Jones series that, once again, was not developed by LucasArts. Meanwhile, series like Uncharted and Tomb Raider, which are both heavily influenced by the Indiana Jones films, have thrived." If only they hadn't abandoned the X-Wing series of games. I would have bought a new one of those in a heartbeat. Update: 04/04 18:09 GMT by T : Dice.com's news service (Dice.com is the corporate parent of Slashdot) mentions one small silver lining for those employees who stuck it out to the end: the best kind of parting gift. "Soon after the acquisition, a number of people departed LucasArts, deciding the time was right to head out in search of a new job. Many others remained, encouraged to hang on as long as they could by talk of generous severance packages. Sources among those laid off say the packages were, indeed, generous."
It's now a redundant (meaning duplicated) department. This does not mean the games will stop, it means that they will be made by Disney.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Run by Bioware and EA so not affected. Probably the thing of the future instead of developing in house Disney will sell the Star Wars license to whoever wants to pay.
Which will probably result in better games anyway.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
> Run by Bioware and EA ...
>Which will probably result in better games anyway.
Said no one ever.
The hidden story here is this: if your core business is not making computer games, and you decide to have an in-house team to do the games, keep in mind that these people are not driven as hard as they would be on the open market where the game is their only product.
When a team is in house, the customer are the other divisions of the company who need to be "satisfied" by what looks like a good project; this is a layer removed from the customer, who actually determines if the product succeeds by buying it or not.
This is the same reason people make fun of government employees. There's no quality-end-result motivation; the real job is to work the job, and to keep taking money for doing whatever it is hasn't gotten them fired yet.
Regarding Star Wars titles, Knights of the Old Republic was great, part 2 was clearly rushed and unfinished, but still very enjoyable. Somebody (not EA) should put some effort into a part 3 (and not involve EA in any way whatsoever) and I'd buy that! (Did I mention I wouldn't buy it if EA had anything to do with it?)
LucasArts hasn't *created* anything in nearly a decade. It's been a licensing wing of Lucas for years, and Disney's being financially smart to roll it into their other licenses. However, it's a strong name in the gaming industry for a reason, and for historical reasons, they'd have done better to keep the name while rolling it into another division.
All kings is mostly rapscallions. -Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
I am going to take business advice from a person who can't actually read and hasn't got a clue about the company he is talking about?
For your information, Lucasarts THRIVED when it developed games internally, it was when they outsourced development that the rot set in. So... the history of Lucasarts 100% invalidates your rant and proofs you are a silly person nobody should listen too.
You must be a Romney voter because logic just doesn't exist for you does it? It is generally accepted that first party titles for consoles are the must haves, the once of most reliable high quality.
You can spot the downfall of Lucasarts when during the opening graphics of X-Wing vs Tie-Fighter between the iconic logo's, there was a silly little bi-plane animation of a the 3rd party studio that got involved. And while the game offered some intresting new features, it just couldn't hold a candle to the solid quality of its ancestors. Some more disasters followed until the company was reduced to ordering totally unrelated companies to produce mods for other peoples games.
Inhouse = Solid quality and must buy titles each and everyone of them
Outsourced = meh
You might make fun of government employees, while you pay a fortune to save the privately run industries like the car and banking industries saying Romney was cheated because people like the editors of financial news papers just didn't get his policies and recommended right wingers vote for a left wing black guy.
Oh and to get back on topic, the only GOOD Disney game, was an inhouse title as well, Stunt Island. Google it, it was amazing for its time and is still unique.
In reality, in house means putting the interest of the company, YOUR company first and the intrests of your company are the customers. For 3rd party developers, the customer is the publisher NOT the plebs in the shops.
Just see what happened to Bioware when it stopped being a publisher and had to dance to EA's tune instead of listening to customers.
Hell, all the most respected studio's are those who develop their own games. Unreal, Id, Blizzard etc etc. It is the publishing houses and their slave companies that everyone looks down upon.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I think the key word is "heyday". LucasArts has been pretty blah for the last 5 years. I still own Tie Fighter and many of their early adventure games (this article prompted me to go over and check if I still had the CDs) and they were awesome. But at the end of the day it costs money to run a studio and if they're not making money to cover their costs, what's the point of keeping it going any more?
Seriously, fuck Disney! I remember the LucasArts games back in their heyday
The article at Wired.com sums it up best: "The LucasArts that died today is not the one you loved, and it was never going to be again."
Loom & Grim Fandango
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