Exit 1313

[CoGro]

http://kotaku.com/disney-shuts-down-lucasarts-468473749

LucasArts no more, 1313 cancelled.

This was expected but 1313 looked promising enough to make this announcement disappointing for many.

[DoubleSith]

As expected.

A sad day for me, since I grew up playing a lot of the classic LucasArts games like Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle. TIE Fighter is still my favorite Star Wars game of all time. It pisses me off seeing how badly the company was managed this past decade.

Worst part is, the future does not look any brighter for SW games. Disney's videogame branch has been arguably even more mismanaged than even LucasArts. All those Avengers games have been pretty great, right?

Big licensed games (apart from sports stuff like Madden and FIFA) just don't happen anymore, so expect the future to be filled with Star Wars Angry Birds type stuff instead of 1313s.

[CoGro]

As expected.

A sad day for me, since I grew up playing a lot of the classic LucasArts games like Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle. TIE Fighter is still my favorite Star Wars game of all time. It pisses me off seeing how badly the company was managed this past decade.

Worst part is, the future does not look any brighter for SW games. Disney's videogame branch has been arguably even more mismanaged than even LucasArts. All those Avengers games have been pretty great, right?

Big licensed games (apart from sports stuff like Madden and FIFA) just don't happen anymore, so expect the future to be filled with Star Wars Angry Birds type stuff instead of 1313s.

I'd like to think they'll get some decent studios working on SW-related projects. I'm praying Rocksteady gets their chance. If they can apply to SW what they did with Batman on the Arkham series, we'll get something special.

[DoubleSith]

I'd like to think they'll get some decent studios working on SW-related projects. I'm praying Rocksteady gets their chance. If they can apply to SW what they did with Batman on the Arkham series, we'll get something special.

Sure, but I doubt Warner Bros. (Rocksteady's owner) is going to pony up for the Star Wars license and line Disney's pockets when they've got their own IP to exploit.

There's a reason why major licensed games are dead. James Bond, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter - it's just added expense to already skyrocketing budgets that make little sense financially. Most of the mid-tier publishers and developers that thrived on licensing properties don't exist anymore, and the big publishers prefer to control their won IPs so they can freely exploit them. It's why Disney themselves have made it clear that they are concentrating on mobile and social games.

EDIT: And now layoffs at ILM as well. What a bloodbath.

“It’s impossible for ILM to absorb all of those resources,” said a Lucasfilm spokesperson, “so with this change came the necessity for ILM to align itself and take responsibility for its own resources.” The company would not disclose the number of staffers who are being let go, but the group includes IT staffers and support staff.

Variety

[Topeka]

Lucasarts as the beloved company who put out fantastic games has long been dead. This is unfortunate for those who are out of work today, but the loss as a whole is more sentimental than anything. TIE Fighter and Jedi Knight are two of the standout games from the 90s, period.

1313 may still have a shot, if even a far one. [Gameinformer]

For those interested now would be a good time to grab any of the cool stuff from the FTP and VIP press pages.

ftp://ftp.lucasarts.com/

https://www.lucasarts.com/company/vip/1313.html

[DoubleSith]

Lucasarts as the beloved company who put out fantastic games has long been dead. This is unfortunate for those who are out of work today, but the loss as a whole is more sentimental than anything. TIE Fighter and Jedi Knight are two of the standout games from the 90s, period.

1313 may still have a shot, if even a far one.
Gameinformer

About 1313:

Publicly, Disney is saying their current games could be licensed out to a different publisher or developer, but according to our source, that's unlikely. Our source says Lucas has pursued the option for "one or both games," but nothing happened. "With the teams now basically being dispersed I think both games are effectively dead forever," our source said.

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

Kotaku

[royalguard96]

Looks like part of this is unfolding just how I thought it would.

Disney's first (and at this point only) responsibility is to start repaying its investors who contributed to the $4 billion purchase price. Easiest way to do that? Act like a majority of corporate America in the 21st century, and that's go into full-blown cut-cut-cut mode. These moves by Disney are making me look forward LESS to Episode 7. And Disney, please spare me the "we're devoting all resources to Episode 7" line of bullshit. That is simply corporate speak for "we're intent on tearing this whole thing down to build it up in our own profit-driven eyes."

I hate this. Maybe I am/was naive to place Star Wars in this make-believe place in my head that was removed from all these real-world realities, but the Disney acquisition as pissed all over that concept. As someone who did lose a job based on a corporate transaction, I am more sensitive to this kind of bullshit than most.

Many people mention TIE Fighter, Monkey Island, etc. as LucasArts games they enjoyed, but I got a lot of great hours out of the mass-market titles like the Super NES games, the Episode III game, TFU, the Battlefront series, and even the Episode I game was a delightful pain in the ass. 1313 looked very promising and I'm very disappointed we won't be seeing it.

I hope those that lost their jobs at LA as well as the LFL animation division land on their feet soon. These are talented people who labored on a franchise I loved, and brought me long hours of entertainment. Respect to all of them.

Many fans like using 1983 or 1996 as the "death" date of Star Wars. For me, it will always be 2012.

[Cryostar]

The problem is, aside from TFU, what products has Lucas Arts physically developed, in house, over the last decade?

KOTOR and it's siblings are BioWare and Obsidian
Galaxy's was Sony.
Empires was Petroglyph
Lego and Clone Wars were by Traveler's Tale.
Kinect was done by someone else too.

If 90% of what they developed is just thought up in house and then shipped out, then you take those idea people, move them over to Disney Interactive with the LucasArts banner, and embrace the model. You may view it as 21st century corporate america, but it's just good business practice.

[DoubleSith]

1313 was going to be about Boba Fett

Kotaku

[Cryostar]

Well that's going to piss a few people off...

[royalguard96]

Well this just keeps getting better, doesn't it...

[Bandersnatch]

I wonder if this means that they have other, bigger plans for Boba, like a film or series rather than a game. Or maybe not. Hard to tell, really.

[E_CHU_TA!]

The contention had been that 1313 was the depositary for the LAS. I suppose that the standalone films may now be the final reservoir for this material.

The ancillary bloodbath from the Disney acquisition certainly raises the stakes for Episode 7. It’s hard to image that the expectation level for the film could get any higher than it is now. If Into Darkness proves to be a disappointing ride, except a shitload of knee-jerking to commence from the fan base.

[stan Marsh]

As sad as I am about losing another season of Clone Wars, or the chance to play 1313 etc., I am far more upset that quite a few folks are out of work right now. Having gone through it myself, I wouldn't wish it on my worse enemy.

[Mike_Droideka]

I went through it myself back in '08.
Sure a big fat pay-cheque helped ease the pain, but unlike myself, the LucasArts people are at the top of their field.
They'll be snapped up fairly quickly by another company, I would imagine.

[Cryostar]

An interesting article over on slashdot the other day...

http://games.slashdot.org/story/13/04/0 ... ture-games

[DiMeS]

An interesting read about the end of LucasArts

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/04/the-la ... lucasarts/

[Inv8r]

Read through that Kotaku article - very depressing, and the beta video of...whatever that was looked like a hell of a lot of fun. So, in essence we don't get BF3, or any other shooter/combat game set in, you know Star WARS, because Disney is sqeamish about looking like they support school shootings?! Jesus Christ on a pogo stick. Maybe our heroes and whatever baddies we end up with in E7 can just chat about their feelings in the new trilogy, and how they hear what the other side is saying, but feel that their position tries to invalidate them as a person. Nice too that Disney is acting like a giant corporate jackass and straight out lieing to the subsidiaries about what direction they intend to move. Go so to hell, Disney.

[royalguard96]

Read through that Kotaku article - very depressing, and the beta video of...whatever that was looked like a hell of a lot of fun. So, in essence we don't get BF3, or any other shooter/combat game set in, you know Star WARS, because Disney is sqeamish about looking like they support school shootings?! Jesus Christ on a pogo stick. Maybe our heroes and whatever baddies we end up with in E7 can just chat about their feelings in the new trilogy, and how they hear what the other side is saying, but feel that their position tries to invalidate them as a person. Nice too that Disney is acting like a giant corporate jackass and straight out lieing to the subsidiaries about what direction they intend to move. Go so to hell, Disney.

This is pretty much perfect.

[DoubleSith]

Apparently more layoffs at Lucasfilm today, this time affecting Licensing, Marketing and Publishing.

Rebel Force Radio

[Cryostar]

[DoubleSith]

A week after layoffs at Walt Disney Studios, Lucasfilm was hit this week with pink slips of its own. More than two dozen staff members were laid off, I have learned. The cuts came primarily in the company’s financing, licensing and distribution divisions and were not all together unexpected. In an email to employees earlier this month, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said all significant organization changes at company would be completed by the end of April. Sources tell me that this latest round of cuts is presumed to be the last as Lucasfilm fully integrates into its new owner Disney, which bought the Star Wars creators for $4.05 billion in October.

Deadline

[Cryostar]

Stupidest decision.....ever.

http://www.superherohype.com/news/artic ... -agreement

[Alexrd]

Stupidest decision.....ever.

But good news for those who took this "We’re likely to focus more on social and mobile than we are on console" as the end of Star Wars gaming.

I don't have a problem with EA making Star Wars games, but exclusivity is never good.

[Bandersnatch]

I love Battlefield 3, and was hoping that there would be a new Star Wars Battlefront game coming out at some point. Having EA do it is fantastic, imo.

[Cryostar]

I don't know, guys. Dead Space has a decent story, but the game play is clunky.

Battlefield 3 was ok, but do we really want Battlefront 3 to be Battlefield 3 with a new skin?

It just seems like there could have been someone else other than EA, who is in the midst of laying everyone off because outside of sports games, they haven't had a decent success in years.

[Bandersnatch]

Looks like Disney has registered a few new domain names:

www.gunganfrontier2.com
www.starwarsalliance.com
www.starwarsrebels.com
www.starwarswolfpack.com
www.wolfpackadventures.net
www.wookieehunters.com
www.order67.net

[Alexrd]

A sequel to Gungan Frontier?

[Bandersnatch]

I didn't know there was a Gungan Frontier 1. I just looked it up, and it appears to have been a piece of Lucas Learning schlock. Well, this is Disney after all, so we're bound to see some more Star Wars kiddie stuff come from their video games.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.

[thecolorsblend]

What's Order 67? Bring the Jedi ice cream instead of shoot them?

[Cryostar]

Burn the bodies so they dont come back as jedi zombies

[sithwitch.com]

Order 67 is a Satanic Rock Concert, Virgin Sacrifice and Royal Wedding:
http://youtu.be/oDjNxMVjsf8

[Bandersnatch]

Star Wars Battlefront Reboot?

http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/index. ... t-returns/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cmo-YYoH ... e=youtu.be

[Cryostar]

Nice cinematic....would be nicer if it were gameplay.

[VT-16]

It's the new Frostbite engine, I reckon the gameplay will actually look that clear.

[yarq]

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[yarq]

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