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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."
Noooo!
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.
When there's fingerpointing and one of the two dies suddenly...
the other guy wins, right?
Finger pointing followed by death usually implies force lightning.
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
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.
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
because he said something you dont like he must be a romney voter? dude. let it drop. your bias is both obvious and misplaced. you spew vitriol at every opportunity it seems. you tie everything back to an election you already wona nd (mis) characterize people based on completely seperate and unrelated topics. give it a rest
signed, a fellow obama voter
The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.