Lucasarts shut down

[Flarecobra]

http://www.theforce.net/latestnews/story/Disney_Shuts_Down_LucasArts_150959.asp

...I'm in shock. Pretty much all that'll be left is the licence for games. The fact that they also shut down all current projects is worrisome as well. No word if it'll affect the movies though.

[Bells]

Did they had any other projects going that weren`t star wars based?

Yeah this is kinda sudden... but quite frankly? As far as studios go, i`ve seen greater teams than lucasarts bite the dust. And when was the last Star Wars licensed game that was genuine good? Not just "fun for a little while" ?

So far this seems only focused on their games division... now, does that affects the Old Republic MMO?

[Flarecobra]

Yeah, they also had some Indiana Jones things going on too I beleve.

[Aerozord]

Didn't most of the big names jump ship awhile ago?

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

To be fair, the golden age of LucasArts was in the 90s when point n click adventures & the x-wing / tie fighter series were at their strongest. Since then it has been in an inevitable downward spiral.

I'm honestly surprised it lasted as long as it has, really. Sad news but long overdue news.

[Azisien]

They're wholly responsible for "I'm Han Solo." Off with their heads!

[Also they haven't made a decent game in like 15 years]

[POS Industries]

I'm mostly just disappointed about 1313 being canceled, since it looked interesting.

[Revising Ocelot]

I don't know why anyone is bothered by this. All the talent had moved on before there was even a PC in my house. Day of the Tentacle was one of the first games my brother bought, and that was at least 5 years after it had been made.

[greed]

My only game that I cared for that had much to do with Lucasarts was KotoR2, which they fucked over and nearly ruined. So uh yeah. A man cannot escape his karma I guess?

[Sky Warrior Bob]

Yeah, it's been a long while since Lucasarts has produced any decent games in house, or anything that wasn't a Star Wars or Indiana Jones title. It's hardly a loss, as most of the real talent moved to Doublefine & Telltale.

[RickZarber]

I'm mostly just disappointed about 1313 being canceled, since it looked interesting.

Agreed. Though I can understand how if you were Disney, and the first game of your newly acquired super-popular all-ages IP to come out from under your umbrella was going to be an adult-aimed (if not M-rated) shooter, you might not consider that the best move.

[Marc v4.0]

I don't think that notion is even on the same level that they are thinking. Disney owns lots of IP and Companies that don't cater to their super-Disney image, and it's never bothered them at all.

It was a simple matter of LucasArts having not been profitable for a good long time, and it being much cheaper to just dissolve them and use the licenses as they wish.

[stefan]

Agreed. Though I can understand how if you were Disney, and the first game of your newly acquired super-popular all-ages IP to come out from under your umbrella was going to be an adult-aimed (if not M-rated) shooter, you might not consider that the best move.

You realize that disney literally owns porn studios, right? They probably didn't give a shit about 1313 either way.

[Magus]

Yeah, the only issue in most of the stories has been that they just don't want to be financially invested in game development. That's the bottom line. It's not an image thing, I don't think. I think their pretty free reign with the Marvel properties attests to this. They just want to make money off of selling off the licenses to the IPs, which is mostly risk-free (they could sell them off to the wrong companies and dilute them with crap, of course).

[RickZarber]

Whoops, I meant to say that as "even if the LucasArts shutdown hadn't happened", but totally failed to include any version of that whatsoever into the post. Herp-a-derp.

Magus, you're right about Marvel though, so, yeah who knows, maybe they'd have still okay-ed 1313.
You realize that disney literally owns porn studios, right? They probably didn't give a shit about 1313 either way.
This, though... What? You're comparing apples to... pornges. You seriously don't think they care about looking after the reputation of their (extremely profitable) all-ages IPs?

[Marc v4.0]

Whoops, I meant to say that as "even if the LucasArts shutdown hadn't happened", but totally failed to include any version of that whatsoever into the post. Herp-a-derp.

Magus, you're right about Marvel though, so, yeah who knows, maybe they'd have still okay-ed 1313.

This, though... What? You're comparing apples to... pornges. You seriously don't think they care about looking after the reputation of their (extremely profitable) all-ages IPs?

Much like the Porn studios, the Lucas IPs aren't their precious Disney all-ages brands. So, no, they wouldn't have given a shit. They didn't give a shit about Marvel movies, blowing up Nazis and blowing up terrorist tanks and such. They don't give a shit that they are the parent Company of studios that make adult films. They wouldn't have given a shit about whatever LucasArts had going that they got in the deal.

It is CHEAPER to close the studio and only hire outside developers to handle the IPs when they need them. Simple as that, nothing more and nothing less.

[Azisien]

With what you have to pay software engineers, salary plus benefits, damn right it's cheaper to close the studio with a profitable game development rate of 1 per ~10 years. I would have closed LucasArts too, in a second.

[RickZarber]

It is CHEAPER to close the studio and only hire outside developers to handle the IPs when they need them. Simple as that, nothing more and nothing less.

I am not contesting this. I was not even trying to imply that what I was saying was a contributing factor, despite my total failure to communicate this point at first. I simply meant to say: "Still, I could imagine someone taking issue with it anyway." I just didn't realize that this would be a contentious opinion! Hahah. I do disagree that there would be no kind of oversight from the parent company on IPs they have invested in, but I don't really feel like arguing over it, so never mind me.

[Bells]

as far as i can find, Disney having any direct link to actual porn is an Urban Legend.

Do we have any sort of source to confirm this...?

As far as i can tell the most "mature" thing Disney owns is Miramax... and that's the movie studio that puts out There Will be Blood AND Bananas in Pyjamas for crying out loud!

[Magus]

as far as i can find, Disney having any direct link to actual porn is an Urban Legend.

Do we have any sort of source to confirm this...?

As far as i can tell the most "mature" thing Disney owns is Miramax... and that's the movie studio that puts out There Will be Blood AND Bananas in Pyjamas for crying out loud!

Walt Disney himself used to regularly bang hookers and film it for release in theaters. He just wore a hat and a pair of sunglasses. The man dedicated his life to banging those hookers.

Now, he's banging frozen hookers in cryogenic heaven...:(

[Aerozord]

when did that happen? Cause we are talking about Disney the company not Disney the film maker. Sure he did lots of stuff before the company was founding and even then things outside of the company