Walt Disney announced that LucasArts will cease as a game creation entity. 150 people have been reportedly laid off, though no number was made official.
“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,” read a statement from Lucasfilm. “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.”
While there have been rumors that the studio’s two projects, Star Wars 1313 and Star Wars: First Assault, have been canceled, LucasArts left open the possibility of them seeing the light of day. “It is worth noting that we are looking for proven external partners who can help us provide video games to our fans,” they told Game Informer.
“We still believe in the video game industry, we still will provide Star Wars games, we’re just looking at different models rather than internal production… They’re evaluating everything. There’s always a possibility that it [Star Wars 1313] can still come out via licensing.”
The announcement comes after Disney’s acquired Lucasfilm and all associated assets for $4 billion. Doubts about LucasArts rose when Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that Lucasfilm will focus on mobile and tablet games as opposed to console projects.
