The worst has happened. The second fatal aftershock of the Disney takeover of the Lucas property has been felt.
It is being reported that Disney, which acquired Lucasfilm and LucasArts last year in a $4 billion acquisition, has shut down the LucasArts division. This comes days after Disney pulled the plug on The Clone Wars TV series and the planned Star Wars Detours spin off. Disney said the following in a statement to Game Informer:
"After evaluating our position in the games market, we've 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. 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."
The publishers has had a checkered past indeed, although with a huge back catalogue of awesome games, Star Wars and non-Star Wars related, this is a bad move in my opinion. It is a crushing blow to fans of the LucasArts name and gamers everywhere. The company that helped define the modern adventure game genre is no more. The most recent LucasArts project that we were aware of was the underground crime game, Star Wars 1313. However there have been scores of rumours for months now that the project had ceased development. This is now confirmed. All that is left is news about the fate of Star Wars: First Assault. This now looks very bleak too, as does the conclusion to The Force Unleashed. Some of the most notable games from the publisher's history were Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Star Wars: Battlefront and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Sadly, the last game published by LucasArts was Kinect Star Wars for the Xbox 360 last year. Disney now seems set to move to an umbrella gaming company, one set on mobile gaming production. This is a dark day for Star Wars fans. We will monitor this story as it develops.