Disney closes LucasArts

[RRS]

After 30 years... LucasArts will remain only as licensor. All current projects cancelled, most of the staff sacked.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucasarts#Acquisition_by_Disney_and_closure
and all over the net, like: http://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/03/disney-closes-lucasarts/

[Smiling Spectre]

I am fine with it. Did they do anything good recently? Licensed, yes, but proprietary?

[Scatty]

Sometimes, there just comes time to depart.

[Mighty Midget]

One step closer to Leia and the 7 droids.

[MrFlibble]

Frankly I have no idea what to say here.

Does this only concern the game department? Are they going to keep cranking the CGI series out?

On another note, I wouldn't mind some more series done by Genndy Tartakovsky (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genndy_Tartakovsky). Now that guy has class (anyone here seen Samurai Jack?).

[RRS]

It's about the game department. New STAR WARS movies are in the making (not just the next trilogy), although recent announcements changed the fate of certain animated series.

I dislike Tartakovsky's style, be it Samurai Jack or Clone Wars - not my thing.

[Japo]

I wonder what they mean by reducing risk. Is it that they didn't want damage the Lucas brand by releasing something shitty under it? But if they're not going to use it, why's that important? Are they keeping it for future use?

The Clone Wars has boring story like all Star Wars pre-episode 4, and I've never watched Samurai Jack, but what made Genndy Tartakovsky famous was Dexter's Laboratory, whose seasons 1-2 are one of the best TV comedy shows ever.

[Smiling Spectre]

Well, it looks plain and clear for me, Japo. LA as publisher and licensor have a big portfolio - from Indiana Jones to Star Wars. I had a good time with Lego Star Wars, for example, and I don't think that Monkey Island or, say, Sam & Max exhausted of all potential. Even Star Wars: Angry Birds have it's good sides. But all of this was made not by LA. As developer, LA looks like empty shell of company for me. So it looks very reasonable to cut expenses, have all pluses as licensor, but no minuses as developer. And they always can flesh it up back, if they really want it (but I doubt it). Thumbs up, Disney! :)

[Ironlion]

Given that developers recently released the source code for Jedi Knight 2, I can't help but wonder what this means for the status of LucasArts IP's now.

Basically what I'm getting at here is...maybe we'll be seeing A few missing old gems here on Abandonia in the near future?

[arete]

Oooooh :mischief:

[Japo]

Disney didn't release Jedi Knight 2, it's "copyright Activision" (http://sourceforge.net/projects/jedioutcast/).

If there's one company known for its copyright zeal that's Disney. LA or Nintendo are also very strict, but Disney's famous for having successfully lobbied several times for copyright strengthening legislation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Term_Extension_Act#Support) during the past century. The last time we heard from them (http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?p=301539#post301539), both Disney and LA actively forbade any copying of any of their games, however old.

Well, it looks plain and clear for me, Japo. LA as publisher and licensor have a big portfolio - from Indiana Jones to Star Wars. I had a good time with Lego Star Wars, for example, and I don't think that Monkey Island or, say, Sam & Max exhausted of all potential. Even Star Wars: Angry Birds have it's good sides. But all of this was made not by LA. As developer, LA looks like empty shell of company for me. So it looks very reasonable to cut expenses, have all pluses as licensor, but no minuses as developer. And they always can flesh it up back, if they really want it (but I doubt it). Thumbs up, Disney! :)
I get what they're doing, but although it's unclear from Disney's published statements, the media claim that LA is being closed down as a publishing company too. It's unclear what this would mean, but probably we'd no longer see the LA logo anywhere; maybe mentions in copyright or trademark fine print, maybe nothing.

I'm also aware that LA was dead before, but I'm not quite sure why Disney consider "risky" having it develop its own games. I think they're just downsizing the conglomerate to scale down business, because of the depression or whatever.
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.http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/04/03/disney-closes-game-publisher-lucasarts.aspx