Disney closes Lucasarts, Cancels all current game projects.

[WesMordine]

A Dark Forces remake! Wow, that would be mind-blowing. Same story, current hardware. Imagine what could be done!

 

[Spartan Rex]

A glimmer of "a new hope"
https://www.gameinformer.com/b/news...s-rep-says-star-wars-1313-might-be-saved.aspx

 

[Natrix]

Before It Was Cancelled, Star Wars 1313 Was Going To Be About Boba Fett

We've learned a great deal about Star Wars 1313 over the past few months, and today we've got one more huge detail thanks to a reliable Kotaku source: last year, just before E3, LucasArts shifted focus and turned it into a game about the masked bounty hunter Boba Fett.
The Strange Status of Star Wars: 1313, A Hot Game With an Uncertain Future
It's not unusual for a newly-revealed video game to disappear for eight months. It's not… Read…

This happened last May. Star Wars creator George Lucas looked at 1313—which at that point had been scrapped and refocused multiple times—and told the team he wanted it to be about Boba Fett, the mercenary whose origins as a clone were revealed in the Star Wars prequel movies.

You can see concept art from this version of Star Wars 1313 above. Boba Fett stands over someone who looks a whole lot like Bossk, a lizard-like bounty hunter who Fett has apparently captured. They appear to be in the seedy underworld of Coruscant.
Disney Shuts Down LucasArts, Cancels Star Wars 1313 And Star Wars: First Assault
Disney has laid off the staff of LucasArts and cancelled all current projects.Read…

Sadly, LucasFilm cancelled the troubled game yesterday, when they shut down LucasArts, the 30-year-old video game studio responsible for 1313, among many other games. Although LucasFilm has said that 1313 and the studio's other cancelled game, Star Wars: First Assault, could be licensed out to other developers, I've been told by multiple sources that chances are very slim. Development on the game had been on hold since last fall, as we reported in February.

"They ended up with movie tech that wouldn't fit in a game, and game tech that wouldn't fit in a movie," a source told me. "1313 was always in danger of not being made."

 

[IrishJedi]

"They ended up with movie tech that wouldn't fit in a game, and game tech that wouldn't fit in a movie," a source told me. "1313 was always in danger of not being made."

This is LucasArts circa 2004-2013 in a cold, hard nutshell. People can be pissed at Disney all they want, but the truth is this was a mercy killing.

The only people I feel bad for are the 150 or so employees who lost their jobs... the ones who weren't in the (mis)management responsible for putting them in that position in the first place.

 

[FQRizzo]

This is LucasArts circa 2004-2013 in a cold, hard nutshell. People can be pissed at Disney all they want, but the truth is this was a mercy killing.

The only people I feel bad for are the 150 or so employees who lost their jobs... the ones who weren't in the (mis)management responsible for putting them in that position in the first place.

I'd agree with this. The LucasArts I loved was long gone.

 

[ProgMatinee]

My favorite LucasArts games:

Pit Droids (originally for PC, now available as an iphone or ipad app, really really fun puzzle game)
Gladius (awesome turn based gladiator game for PS2 and XBOX)

 

[LasVegasYankee]

My favorite LucasArts games:

Pit Droids (originally for PC, now available as an iphone or ipad app, really really fun puzzle game)
Gladius (awesome turn based gladiator game for PS2 and XBOX)

Actually forgot that Gladius was a LucasArts game. I still have that game and play it from time to time.

 

[lerath666]

Some of the BEST lucasarts games had nothing to do with starwars

Escape from monkey island & Gladius are prime examples.

Nice to hear I was right about 1313 being about Fett.... and it would be neet to see it liscensed out to... say..... Bioware?

 

[WolfStark]

Boba Fett, wow how uninspiring is that? On the other hand, the pics do look good but I would prefer creativity especially in terms of the protagonist. The Twi'lek in the picture is looking great for that role. And who should get the license? CD Projekt of course. They have the potential to make a great game with the needed depth, EAware? Never ever, they lost all the reputation in the last year.

It is definitly not a pity, that LucasArts is shutted down, Disney isn't even going far enough. Most games are already licenced to other publishers and they failed hard the last years. Republic Commando was a poor standard shooter, the Battlefront series a copy of Battlefield, Lethal Alliance average with potential and The Old Republic a copy of World of Warcraft, just with voice over and cinematic dialouges (well as far as it works with that engine). Telltale made the best out of the licences they got but the rest doesn't cast a positive light on LucasArts and their quality control if they even have something like that). Disney would be well advised to create a whole new department for that issue, which wouldn't even think about working with EA.

 

[lerath666]

\d The Old Republic a copy of World of Warcraft, j\.

hey now. that's not nice.

Wow's actualy a popular game, with some good mechanics.


TOR is to wow , more or less what gobots was to transformers.

 

[Drakul]

Gamespot did a series of videos in honor of Lucasarts, you need to them, so many memories!

https://www.gamespot.com/search/?qs=remembering+lucasarts

 

[Sachiel]

The Walt Disney Company has a licensing agreement with Electronic Arts.

The Walt Disney Company (DIS) and Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) today announced a new multi-year exclusive licensing agreement to develop and publish globally new games based on Star Wars characters and storylines.

Under the agreement, EA will develop and publish new Star Wars titles for a core gaming audience, spanning all interactive platforms and the most popular game genres, while Disney will retain certain rights to develop new titles within the mobile, social, tablet and online game categories.

“This agreement demonstrates our commitment to creating quality game experiences that drive the popularity of the Star Wars franchise for years to come,” said John Pleasants, Co-President of Disney Interactive. “Collaborating with one of the world’s premier game developers will allow us to bring an amazing portfolio of new Star Wars titles to our fans around the world.”

“Every developer dreams of creating games for the Star Wars universe,” said EA Labels President Frank Gibeau. “Three of our top studios will fulfill that dream, crafting epic adventures for Star Wars fans. DICE and Visceral will produce new games, joining the BioWare team which continues to develop for the Star Wars franchise. The new experiences we create may borrow from films, but the games will be entirely original with all new stories and gameplay.”

 

[jimmie_dimmick]

Well that sucks

 

[Enthus]

Great. EA. Just who I always wanted to have sole rights to Star Wars games To be fair, Lucasarts wasn't exactly pumping out quality games at their end, either.

 

[Johnny Utah]

EA did Dead Space. To me this is good news.

 

[Kamandi]

"Exclusive" rights. A multi years deal.

(shakes head)

 

[Sachiel]

Battlefield: Star Wars

 

[RavenEye]

EA? You mean the people who gave us THE SIMPSONS GAME.

 

[RavenEye]

Battlefield: Star Wars

Uh-Oh... Spoke to soon... This gonna be good...

 

[snappahead]

I called it the day Disney bought Lucasfilm. Sad.