Disney shutters Star Wars game unit with 200 layoffs
Incredibly appreciative and proud of the talented jobless
Just a few months after snapping up George Lucas' Star Wars empire, Disney is shutting down its game unit LucasArts and laying off around 200 employees.
All work has ceased on the two new games announced last year, Star Wars: 1313 and Star Wars: First Assault, although they could be revived if another game-maker takes over.
In a statement released to US media including Game Informer and the Wall Street Journal, Disney said that Star Wars games could still be made by companies under licence.
"After evaluating our position in the games market, we've decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimising the company's risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games," the company said.
"As a result of this change, we've had layoffs across the organisation. We are incredibly appreciative and proud of the talented teams who have been developing our new titles."
According to the WSJ, fewer than ten people will be left at the firm to work on licensing deals, after a couple of hundred employees get their pink slips.
Disney agreed to acquire the game firm's parent Lucasfilm in October last year for $4bn and was hinting even at the time that LucasArts could be on its way out.
While the Mouse immediately started talking about new Star Wars movies, it also hinted that the Lucas empire would be moving away from console game development.
LucasArts was big in the 90s, when its Monkey Island series and Maniac Mansion game were hailed by critics along with its Star Wars-based offerings. But the firm's star has dwindled since then and the last internally developed game it released was 2010's Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II. ®
COMMENTS
The PR-speak decoder says...
"After evaluating our position in the games market, we've decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimising the company's risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games,"
Translation:
"After realising that we might make a balls-aching loss on flogging games which will doubtless be knocked off within hours of their release by pirates in China or Eastern Europe, we've decided to chuck out all these horrible geeks. We'll just charge other starry-eyed mugs a hefty fee to take the risk. We cop for the royalties if it works, they cop for the losses if it doesn't. Win-win!"
Re: Fucking Disney
I'd have thought Lucas would have binned it if it weren't making a few bucks, also.
Disney just want the Star Wars name for film, presumably and nothing else. Then, when they've murdered Star Wars, like all the European folk tales and everything else they've butchered over the years, they'll wonder why everyone's sick to death of it.
Then they'll blame piracy or something for lack of exorbitant profit and try to make everyone's lives just that tiny bit bleaker because of it.
Cynical? Damned right. Money and/or shareholders involved.
Re: the nerve
"I guess sometimes it's better to shut up."
I don't know whats more pathetic - whether they assume everyone else is so stupid that they believe this PR guff or whether they're so stupid they actually believe it themselves. Either way, it must take a special kind of moron to work in a PR department.
the nerve
So proud we sack them.
I guess sometimes it's better to shut up.
