onlysublime Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 http://kotaku.com/disney-shuts-down-lucasarts-468473749 Disney has laid off the staff of LucasArts and cancelled all current projects. Staff were informed of the shutdown this morning, according to a reliable Kotaku source. Some 150 people were laid off, and both of the studio's current projects--Star Wars: First Assault and Star Wars 1313--were cancelled. This comes after weeks and months of rumors involving the studio, which was acquired by Disney last fall. In September, LucasArts put a freeze on all hiring and product announcements, which many staff saw as the beginning of the end. Today, it's official: the longrunning studio is no more. in loving memory: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hyper_Eye Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 What a shame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Algus Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 I really miss Battlefront. What a great franchise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 Did they buy it to intentionally kill it? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck D. Head Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 Did they buy it to intentionally kill it? I am sure they will either open their own studio for the SW games or incorporate them into another studio. They probably looked around and decided it would be easier to start from scratch than to incorporate their corporate philosophy into an established company. I am betting many of the talent Lucasarts staff will find their way back into whatever entity handles the SW properties. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onlysublime Posted April 3, 2013 Author Share Posted April 3, 2013 Disney is going the licensing route. in other words, they're going to whore out the Star Wars trademarks and copyrights and milk them for all their worth. the Disney-way... (actually, the Atari way in recent years as well) http://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/03/disney-closes-lucasarts/ "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 informed Game Informer 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." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reaperman Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 (edited) Beating droid 9 and achieving 'masterblazer' status was one of my finest gaming moments... So, just who is going to make the star wars games? Somebody has to. Granted lucasarts didn't make the majority of those. Edited April 3, 2013 by Reaperman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vic George 2K3 Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 This sounds like a bad, belated, and totally lacking-any-sense-of-humor April Fool's joke. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onlysublime Posted April 3, 2013 Author Share Posted April 3, 2013 http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/04/03/disney-closes-game-publisher-lucasarts.aspx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cimerians Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 (edited) Lucasarts was really just garbage for a while unfortunately but its really sad to see that they are now finally gone. Lots of great memories. May never see another Tie Fighter or X-Wing game again......or Grim Fandago...Full Throttle....Maniac Mansion......... First couple of games I ever bought were Koronis Rift and Rescue on Fractalus Ron Gilbert @grumpygamer56m Sad day today, but not surprising, you had to see that coming. I was employee #9 at Lucasfilm Games. Edited April 3, 2013 by cimerians Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onlysublime Posted April 3, 2013 Author Share Posted April 3, 2013 sadly, I didn't buy the early games like Ballblazer and Rescue on Fractalus... I pirated them. The piraters were great. They sold disks that had multiple games all presented in an easy-to-choose menu. I was just a kid and it was hard enough to get my dad to buy me the 1200XL for how much it cost when we bought it. He'd buy me Disney titles like Walt Disney's Mickey in the Great Outdoors (the game took forever to load; he got the cassette version; it would take 20 minutes to load and often, at the end of 20 minutes, it'd error and I've have to reload it again): still have no idea, to this day, how to play The Eidolon. spent a lot of time trying to figure that one out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LynxVGL Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 A lot of folks online are berating Disney's decision, but let's be honest. The best LucasArts titles of the past few years weren't even developed inhouse. This isn't that big of a deal. The LucasArts many remember died in the early/mid-nineties. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cimerians Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 still have no idea, to this day, how to play The Eidolon. spent a lot of time trying to figure that one out. That was a weird game where you were in some kind of machine and I never figured it out either. lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vic George 2K3 Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 (edited) A lot of folks online are berating Disney's decision, but let's be honest. The best LucasArts titles of the past few years weren't even developed inhouse. This isn't that big of a deal. The LucasArts many remember died in the early/mid-nineties. Pretty much any publishing house that used to do their own software development is now just a shell of its former self, and in some cases a pretty fragile hollow shell. Edited April 3, 2013 by Vic George 2K3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raskar42 Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 The last remnants of the old republic have been swept away... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cimerians Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 (edited) Internal video made for an old LucasArts (then Lucasfilm Games) company meeting. Tim Schafer@ ! Edited April 3, 2013 by cimerians Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reaperman Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 sadly, I didn't buy the early games like Ballblazer and Rescue on Fractalus... I pirated them. The piraters were great. .... still have no idea, to this day, how to play The Eidolon. spent a lot of time trying to figure that one out. Those two statements might be related, I think. The Eidolon was a bit of an 'RTFM' game. Not as bad as Koronis Rift, though--now that game really needed a manual. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Helmet Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 Not surprised by this at all. Why keep LucasArts around when you already have Disney Interactive? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cimerians Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 Not as bad as Koronis Rift, though--now that game really needed a manual. Yup that one needed a manual especially for all the symbols: Here it is http://www.c64sets.com/set.html?id=65 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onlysublime Posted April 3, 2013 Author Share Posted April 3, 2013 I think I was able to figure out Koronis Rift. But The Eidolon... man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RARusk Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 In the fall of 1991 I was employed by LucasFilm Games as a gametester. I did work on two games: "Defenders of Dynatron City" (NES) and "Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (The Action Game) (C64, Amiga, PC - and credited within the game manual). It was a temp position and I was let go in early 1992 as these projects wound down. I tried to return to them but was unsuccessful. I left for Colorado in 1993 and haven't been back to California since. After being interviewed by Kotaku about three years ago (because of my GameFAQs work) I realized that I may be able to utilize my guides as a way to maybe return to the gaming industry. Although I have sent resumes to various companies my long term goal was to return to LucasArts Games. As you can imagine, today's news has left me deeply saddened and gutted. I understand what has happened the last few years and the possible long term benefits to this new model but this doesn't make me any less hurt. I don't know if any of these potential projects will head east to Austin. I also don't know if I should try to focus on Disney Interactive, a company I hadn't paid much attention to. Right now I am throughly bummed and the cold, gray skies outside my window perfectly match my dour mood. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emehr Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 TIE Fighter, X-Wing, Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis... Great stuff. I still own them for the Mac and keep older hardware around to play these games when the mood strikes. It's really sad to see the company get dissolved like this. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karokoenig Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 The finest moments of my gaming history have been connected with Lucasfilm Games. Starting with Labyrinth on the C64 (a game that deeply fascinated me back then. Day of the Tentacle, the Monkey Island games, Loom (anyone remember THAT one?) and especially Grim Fandango. They always had the balls to do experiments (Loom) and made extremely clever choices. Think about Grim Fandango. At that time with the available technology, animated persons looked like stick figures and had clumsy facial expressions at best. "Let's do it anyway", they said, and built a brilliant and rich story around skeleton characters. I guess the bad sales figures on Grim Fandango were part of LA's demise. I say: shame on you, gaming community, for disregarding such a masterpiece, just because some critics didn't like the new control interface. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 Apparently nobody cares about Pipe Dream Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iswitt Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 ^ No, I care. That game was pretty boss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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