Disney Shuts Down LucasArts - cancels all current game projects

[Aulayna]

Disney Shuts Down LucasArts, Cancels Star Wars 1313 And Star Wars: First Assault

[Jinx]

Late April Fool's please?

[ShinGundam]

Ouch.

[G13]

This is the end of an okay era.

I think everything was set in motion for this after TOR became free to play. Sucks that all those people lost their jobs.

[Dr. rydrum2112]

Rebal Assualt, Dark Forces, The Dig, Indiana Jones movie games (and the original Fate of Atlantis), Loom...

[Quindiana Jones]

They could have at least made another Battlefront first.

They could've added Disney characters on top of the Star Wars heroes.

[Bolivar]

It's sad whenever this happens, but they actually had a really cool next-gen game in the works that a lot of people were intrigued about. It's disheartening that a project can just die like that.

[Skyblade]

Honestly, I'm not that sad. LucasArts has been in a decline for quite some time.

Although I do seem to be one of the only people who really didn't think that highly of what they've shown of Star Wars 1313.

There is potential for good stuff from the IPs, but the company itself is not doing well, and revamping it would be a lot of work, probably more than it's worthwhile for Disney to take on, especially since they haven't done a lot of game work themselves. Let others use the IPs, and let LucasArts die.

[Xannidel]

And I remember playing many of their games, Monkey Island, Full Throttle, Dig, Loon, ect
They will be missed by many but they have not really made anything THAT good for awhile, I know 1313 had great potential too because I was so pumped for it. I wonder if their IPs can be salvaged.

[Aulayna]

I suspect Disney will just sell out rights to the IPs now to the highest bidder for a tidy profit.

[XxSephirothxX]

It helps to remember that this is not at all the same LucasArts that gave us X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter or Monkey Island or Grim Fandango, but it still sucks to see those people lose their jobs.

Star Wars 1313 probably would not have been an amazing game, but as a bit Star Wars fan I'm sad to see it die. It was basically Star Wars Uncharted, at least from what they showed off last year, and I'd totally be in for a 7 hour thrill ride set in the Star Wars universe, especially since it focused on bounty hunters and the seedy side of Coruscant rather than Jedi.

Disney has said they may farm the game out to another developer to finish, but that's really unlikely to happen. Kotaku quoted a source saying chances are effectively zero the game will ever be finished. Since Disney plans to license its properties out to other game developers in the future, I hope that at least nets us some good Star Wars games. And in my wildest dreams, Double Fine can buy the rights to some of those old adventure games.

[Larahl]

I just want to know the secret of Monkey Island.

[nik0tine]

Could this be the best post ever?

That's the illusion of giving George Lucas all the credit.

On the original Star Wars he was surrounded, had a mentor and creative collaborators from whom he learned much, and with whom he sparred. By the time of Phantom menace, he was Christ himself lifted by a righteous army of Yes-Men, and more than ever before, the sole creative source of the product he was making. And right there, in the glint of Jar Jar's eye, is the truth on display.

About ten years ago I read a review of an exclusive theatrical screening of Marcia Lucas' workprint of Star Wars, the screener they exhibited internally before most special effects were added and long before John William's score was completed or possibly even conceived. The reviewer described a much quieter, languid movie, infused with the kind of score that is in this trailer. Not without trouble, but apparently it worked. Certainly not as solid as the movie we know, but a worthwhile alternative to experience. Such a style would be in keeping with science fiction films of the 60's and 70's, from 2001 and Solaris to Logan's Run, and even George Lucas' brilliant THX-1138.



Here is an interview with Gary Kurtz worth reading. It confirms something I felt even as a kid: From the public perspective it seems George Lucas is the sole creative force of his brainchild "Star Wars". But filmmaking reality is that one or more other invisibles are shapers of the body and soul of the collaborative project. And in fact, here it was George, his publically underappreciated wife Marcia, quite significantly his friend and producer Gary Kurtz, and later Irvin Kershner (taking the seat warmed by George's mentor Francis Ford Coppola) -- the "Beatles" foursome that made Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back work so well.



But like the Beattles, what was creative gold was interpersonal hell. They didn't get along. The collaborators completely disbanded after Empire Strikes Back, George and Marcia divorced soon thereafter, and ever since then George has been running large as the sole lord and master of his gazillion dollar franchise, surrounded by talented but totally subordinate managers and creatives. The result?

Ewoks.



And all the rest of that undead Star Wars crapola ever since. From Coppola to Crapola. Shame, like the Beattles, they had a good thing
 going. Well, for art anyway, not for their collective mental health I guess.

 And gobs of money.

[Shiny]

Lucas Arts came in to speak at my school a few months back and pretty much confirmed that Disney would be taking over. I didn't think that would mean shutting down LucasArts though. This is horrid. Disney continues to ruin everything.

[Rostum]

And in my wildest dreams, Double Fine can buy the rights to some of those old adventure games.

Grim Fandango 2 please!

This is horrid. Disney continues to ruin everything.

I don't know, I have a feeling any company would have shut the studio down. It just is not performing, and is mismanaging the fantastic IP they have.