It is always a shame to have to write these articles, and it seems that more and more developers are getting shut down these days. The latest casualty? LucasArts. Disney has decided to let go all of the staff, and disband the entire operation, and instead will use the name only to publish their games.
What's more disappointing is that all current LucasArts projects are now dead. Star Wars 1313 is officially no more, which is incredibly disappointing as it looked to be the most promising Star Wars themed game in quite some time. The two biggest Star Wars successes of the last decade, Star Wars: Battlefront and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic series were both externally developed. The studios' last known success was 2008's Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. The follow up sequel was a conceived as a commercial failure.
Officially, they had this to say: “After evaluating our position in the games market, we have 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.”
Does that mean that Star Wars 1313 is dead forever? Most likely.
A sad day for fans of Star Wars everywhere today.
