Disney cancels Star Wars games after shutting down LucasArts

In the early morning of April 3, 2013, Disney shut down LucasArts and laid off 150 of the video game subsidiary's staff, according to Kotaku.com. Both of the studio’s current projects, Star Wars: First Assault and Star Wars 1313, have been cancelled.

 

Though LucasArts will no longer develop video games, its name will still be used by Disney to license games.

 

“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," Disney explained in a statement.

"As a result of this change, we’ve had layoffs across the organization. We are incredibly appreciative and proud of the talented teams who have been developing our new titles.”

 

The world was shocked by Disney’s acquisition of LucasFilm and LucasArts last year. Though some Lucas fans saw this as an ill omen for their favorite franchises, none were as apprehensive as the LucasArts employees; when LucasArts ceased all hiring and product announcements in September, many saw it as a sign of their coming demise.

 

A history of setting the bar high and making unforgettable classics

 

LucasArts was founded in May 1982 as the video game development side of George Lucas’ film production company, Lucasfilm Limited. After humble beginnings producing Atari games like Ballblazer and Rescue on Fractalus!, LucasArts would then proceed to provide the gaming world with nearly three decades of quality entertainment.

 

In 1987, LucasArts —then known as Lucasfilm Games— set the standard for point-and-click adventure PC games when they published Maniac Mansion. This game introduced the “SCUMM” engine, the scripting language the studio would continue to use for their later adventure games, including Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure, and LOOM. The wildly popular The Secret of Monkey Island, published in 1990, helped cement the company as one of the leading developers of the adventure genre, shoulder-to-shoulder with industry heavy, Sierra Online.

In the early 1990s, the title’s success would be followed by Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle.

 

It was also in the 1990s that LucasArts released the first Star Wars games for the PC, namely Dark Forces, X-Wing, and Rebel Assault —all of which were well-received by fans and critics alike.

After a brief stab at the strategy genre with Afterlife, the company returned to its adventure game roots with the Sam & Max series and the cult hit Full Throttle.

 

The new millennium saw LucasArts producing more Star Wars-themed games, even selling their licenses to external developers such as BioWare, which made Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic; and Pandemic Studios, which was behind Star Wars: Battlefront.

Games developed in-house, such as The Phantom Menace and Fracture, however, began to experience a decline in quality and consequently profit. 2008’s Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was the studio’s last game to meet any considerable success. Its 2010 sequel’s sales performance was underwhelming.

 

In 2011, LucasArts announced Star Wars 1313, an action-adventure game that revolved around a bounty hunter and his adventures in Coruscant’s subterranean world. On March 2013, however, information surfaced that Star Wars 1313 and Star Wars: First Assault were to be put on hold so that priority could be given to the development of the upcoming film, Star Wars Episode VII. — TJD, GMA News