After 30 years in the business, LucasArts – one of the most iconic development studios and publishers in the video game industry, closes its doors for good.
It was announced today that Disney has decided to shut down the veteran studio and lay off 150 staff member. The fate of Star Wars 1313 and Star Wars: First Assault, two games the studio was still working on, is still unknown though some sources claim the two were cancelled.
“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,” LucasArts parent company LucasFilm said in an official 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.”
According to this statement, it seems other studios will still be able (and maybe encouraged) to develop new Star Wars games in the future, thus creating this “broader portfolio”.
When Disney has acquired LucasFilm, LucasArts and the Star Wars franchise back in October of 2012, the company has promised this won’t affect any of the games currently in development by LucasArts. Evidently, this was not the case…
On a more personal note: LucasArts is responsible for some of my all-time favorite titles. Games like The Curse of Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango are in my top 10 list of best video games of all time, and I still replay them, and many other games by the studio, whenever I want to remind myself what this great medium can accomplish.
We here at GamersPack are truly sad to see a studio with such a rich history and distinguished record close it’s doors, and wish only the best to all of its employees.
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