Regardless, it’s still an ignominious end to a studio with such a legacy behind it, regardless of how tarnished that legacy became in the end.
We may need to start a collection to purchase Mr. Rubin a defibrillator.
Maybe someone somewhere will be able to create a new TIE Fighter.
If it’s any consolation, Battlehawks, SWOTL and the Xwing/Tie Fighter games were all made at Totally Games, not at LucasArts.
:-O
Obligatory angry purple tentacle.
Sad to see them go. Even though they hadn’t knocked one out of the park recently, I have so many fond memories of their games it doesn’t really matter to me. I used to play XWing and Tie Fighter with friends, and later we played games like Full Throttle as a team.
I hope everyone involved with those companies lands on their feet.
Wow! So much for getting LucasFILM and LucasARTS games to GOG :(
Luckily I have all Lucas adventures in their original boxes!
With SCUMMVM + copies of the games by the dirty pirates the legacy will live on.
Hope everyone at Lucas will land on their feet quickly and find a better job / opportunity fast!
Fuck you Disney.
Ditto. Sad news, and sorry for all those losing jobs, but I agree with Scharmers, magic died long ago.
I think the last game I bought (and actually loved) that was developed by LucasArts was Gladius.
Such an awesome, underrated game that sadly didn’t do well. A current console generation sequel would have been so great.
But yeah, my childhood PC gaming was all about LucasArts (and Microprose, Origins, and SSI).
I focus group tested Ballblazer for the Atari 800, which was Ballblaster at the time. Or maybe it was the other way around. I got paid like $40 and free soda. It must’ve been 82 or 83. I’m old.
LucasArts’s golden era ended with Jedi Knight 1, sadly. The other Jedi Knights were good but outsourced to Raven (who are now sadly relegated to cranking out Call of Duty DLCs…). After Jedi Knight, the Episode 1 era started and LucasArts went to shitter alongside it. This has been very much expected. Still sad though, the legacy is incredible. Now I wonder if we are ever going to get LA on GOG.
We might. They’re going to continue to exist as a license and copyright holder.
Perhaps, but given the fact that the true glory days of the company happened 15+ years ago, and given the fact that LucasArts has been struggling for half a decade to successfully develop merely competent products, it’s hard to get too choked up about the decision to close the studio.
I still feel the tug of nostalgia this news inspires, and I certainly feel for the 150+ people who have been suddenly laid off. But every year better developers with better track records are forced to close. We should remember all the incredible games LucasArts made, but we should also remember that the people behind those games left the company a long, long time ago.
It’s as if 150+ voices suddenly cried out and were silenced…
Anet tweeted that they are hiring:
Guild Wars 2 @GuildWars2
Our best wishes to those affected by the layoffs this week. We are currently adding to our team: ArenaNet #gamejobs ~RB2
Damn - Sorry to hear that and I hope everyone gets back on their feet quickly!
Also, 1313 cancelled - I wonder what that does to the other star wars game, First Assault?
Edit: well, both are gone.
I was about to write the same sentence, you were faster.
What a classic studio, and and to see it finished, and after the last lackuster years…
Shame about LA, they made some amazing games back in the day. Can’t say that I’m too surprised though. I read some time ago that they were moving towards less internal development and more licensing. The studio closure would be the conclusion of that path.
Man, I think the last Lucasarts game I bought was Jedi Academy. That was 10 years ago.
My own reflection on this was having a look over http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LucasArts_games , sorting it by release year, and having a few memories about their legacy releases from the late 80s throughout the 90s. Especially with their original IP, they had almost as many classics as misses. Beyond a little nostalgia, it’s sad to see a studio get disbanded. But hey, Disney ‘reduces their risk’ by letting others do the work under license. Whee.
Yeah, someone’s gotta own the rights. And someone usually likes getting paid.
Basically this. I hope all the employees affected by the layoffs find their feet quickly but I definitely feel that the gaming scene has lost basically nothing by the shutting down what has been (for some time) a pretty impotent studio. LucasArts - in the form its held for half a decade - should be shut down, the talent allowed to move on, and some reboots given to the properties they held. Maybe as Disney I would have dumped the top brass and gotten new creative leads but they did what they did. I assume that Disney doesn’t plan to abandon the gaming universes LucasArts offered, and again, hoping all the workers affected by the studio closing find new opportunities soon.
Well, maybe we’ll get to see Obsidian get to do KOTOR3 now (although I always felt that Bioware took where they were heading with it and turned it into Mass effect.)
I can’t be that sad about the LucasArts of the last decade, but I am definitely sad about the LucasArts I remember.
Video stolen from Tim Schafer’s twitter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KniAHS2siRs