Disney shuts down LucasArts, 'Star Wars 1313' fate unknown

Disney shuts down LucasArts, ‘Star Wars 1313’ predestine unknown

6 views - published on April 3rd, 2013 in Disney News tagged Disney, disney news, disneyland, walt disney, walt disney world

Yannick LeJacq
, NBC News contributor
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6 hrs.

Star Wars 1313

Less than a year after appropriation a primary video diversion bend of a mythological “Star Wars” franchise, Disney is shutting LucasArts Entertainment Company.

According to a matter creatively performed by Game Informer, Disney is shutting down LucasArts in sequence to pierce a association divided inner diversion development, selecting instead to permit a “Star Wars” IP out to a wider accumulation of third celebration developers than was presumably accessible in-house.

“After evaluating a position in a games market, we’ve motionless to change LucasArts from an inner growth to a chartering model, minimizing a company’s risk while achieving a broader portfolio of peculiarity Star Wars games,” a matter read. “As a outcome of this change, we’ve had layoffs opposite a organization. We are impossibly elegant and unapproachable of a gifted teams who have been building a new titles.”

The predestine of a arriving action-adventure diversion “Star Wars 1313,” along with a full border of a stream layoffs from LucasArts, is unclear. The video diversion website Kotaku is reporting that LucasArts has laid off 150 employees so distant and has cancelled “1313,” though another report from Game Informer claims that a deputy from a association still thinks a diversion could come out by a chartering agreement.

The news comes after several years of abating earnings for a struggling diversion developer. Despite a iconic status of “Star Wars” in cocktail enlightenment today, LucasArts’ core business plan of building and chartering games formed on a renouned sci-fi authorization has usually declined in sales and vicious reception. One of a many new big-budget reboots of a franchise—BioWare’s large multiplayer online purpose personification diversion (MMORPG) “Star Wars: The Old Republic”—was meant to be Electronic Arts’ response to a rare success of Activision Blizzard’s “World of Warcraft” series. But after opening to initial regard from diversion critics and fans, a array unsuccessful to attract a poignant assembly to replenish EA and BioWare’s six year-long, $200 million investment, and a diversion was eventually incited into a free-to-play pretension in a hopes of sketch in some-more players.

As a developer, LucasArts has also struggled to keep tip talent from competitors in a industry. The association captivated doubt in a summer of 2012, for instance, when famed diversion attention maestro Clint Hocking (who had assimilated LucasArts after operative on a “Splinter Cell” and “Far Cry” franchises) left his position but a singular “Star Wars” diversion to uncover for his dual years as a artistic director.

Disney acquired LucasArts, along with Lucasfilm, final Oct for $4.05 billion.

Yannick LeJacq is a contributing author for NBC News who has also lonesome games for Kill Screen, The Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic. You can follow him on Twitter during @YannickLeJacq and strech him by email during ylejacq@gmail.com.

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