LucasArts Closed!

[Krakerman]

That's right, Disney has shut down LucasArts and cancelled all its current projects, including Star Wars 1313 and Star Wars: First Assault.

According to Kotaku, 150 people were laid off in the closure...

“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 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.”

According to a LucasArts representative, Star Wars 1313 could still be saved through licensing...

"It is worth noting that we are looking for proven external partners
who can help us provide video games to our fans. We still believe in the
video game industry, we still will provide Star Wars games, we're just
looking at different models rather than internal production... They're
evaluating everything. There's always a possibility that it [star Wars
1313] can still come out via licensing."

But, a second source also told Kotaku that the chances of Lucas licensing out 1313 are "very slim". The odds are "effectively zero," the source said.

Well, there you have it. Very sad news. Good luck to all the people affected...

News taken from MaxConsole!

[hansolo77]

WHAT?!! Thats crazy! George Lucas should never have sold out to Disney. It may turn out to be the biggest mistake of his life. If he hated being bashed and bullied while he was in charge, just wait till he see's what comes out of Disney. I had high hopes that Disney would be making great things for the Lucas Franchises. But this is insane to pull the plug on all things LucasArts. Next thing you'll see happen is Disney closing up LucasFilm too, and then Skywalker Sound and THX.

I was looking forward to Star Wars 1313 too..

[nullPointer]

I don't know if I'd exactly say that earning 4 billion dollars was the worst mistake of George Lucas life, but it could certainly be viewed as (potentially) doing a disservice to his fan base. Closing LucasArts certainly seems to confirm this. On the other hand I actually had (and have) some degree of hope that new ideas and vision will help to reinvigorate the Star Wars franchise. First order of business - write midi-chlorians and Jar Jar out of the cannon (now those I might call the worst mistakes of his life).

But yeah ... I was a bit sad to hear about this whole LucasArts business. I was looking forward to some of the games in development, but even moreso it's sad to think that this is the end of a gaming legacy. The Monkey Island series, Maniac Mansion series, Full Throttle, KOTOR games and (particularly) Grimm Fandango were all excellent games / series.

[Draco1962]

Don't forget the epic X-Wing Vs. TIE Fighter series! My sons and I spent many a day trying to out rank one another, especially going through the ranks of the Empire - good times!

[Krakerman]

In the wake of LucasArts closure this week, Raven Software -the devs behind Star Wars Jedi Outcast- have decided to release the source code for the game and its sequel, Jedi Academy.

The code released is only for the single-player portion of both games.
The games are available under the GPLv2 license. You can grab it below!

- Jedi Academy Source Code [sourceforge]
- Jedi Outcast Source Code [sourceforge]