Disney is to close LucasArts, multiple websites have reported this morning.
The news follows Disney's acquisition of George Lucas' media empire last year, including the once-great game developer behind classics like Jedi Knight, Battlegrounds, X-Wing, and a host of point and click adventure games in the 1990s.
"After evaluating our position in the games market," a Disney statement reads, "we've decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimising the company's risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games.
"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."
Some 150 staff have been laid off in the wake of this announcement, according to Kotaku, however there's still a small chance that the previously unveiled Star Wars 1313 might one day resurface.
"It is worth noting that we are looking for proven external partners who can help us provide video games to our fans," a LucasFilm representative explained.
"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 [Star Wars 1313] can still come out via licensing."
LucasArts was founded in 1982 by George Lucas, and in its 31 year history was involved with the development of more than 130 games. According to the same LucasFilm representative, the mood at the studio today is grim.
"It's super sad," he said. "It's a terrible day"; it seems unlikely that the legion of fans the studio has built up over the last three decades will disagree with that assessment.
NZGamer.com
source: newshub archive
