LucasArts Closed Down

[pinkbubblegum]

LucasArts was acquired by Disney when they bought Lucasfilm and Disney decided to shut it down. LucasArts isn't as great as it used to be but Star Wars 1313 looked mighty promising.

Hopefully another developer picks it up. A lot of people (me included) seemed to be looking forward to its release.

[Gone2Ground]

Still, what was the last good game LucasArts put out? Force Unleashed 1?

From a buisness perspective, it's a good call for Disney, LucasArts have been loosing money for ages. From a gaming perspective, it really sucks

[Rehab]

I've heard conflicting reports on 1313 and

regarding whether they were completely canceled or put on hold, but yeah, sounds like development heck. Was considering making a topic myself, but thought I should cool down a bit before going full "YOU BLEW IT ALL UP/YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE" mode. Sucks, regardless Edited April 4, 2013 by Rehab

[Klokinator]

All I care about is that there's no disney princesses in star wars 7-9 and that they better keep Abrams as director of everything good for eternity.

[Murdok Dracul]

Yeah I'm not too bothered about this. The last Star Wars game I played and wasn't disappointed in was Force Unleashed 1. Before that, it was Jedi Knight 2&3. I'm sure there will be other Star Wars games in the future, and who knows, it might turn out for the better if they're developed by a company other than LucasArts.

[Knight]

RIP Battlefront 3

[Rehab]

Well I am bothered about it and do care

sympathize, damn it

Seriously, if for no other reason, then for the people out of a job. Some of whom must have had hands in creating some great games over the years.

[Raven]

The only Star Wars game I ever played was Jedi Power Battles for PS1. Good times.

[redturtle806]

At least they released the source code for Jedi Outcast/Academy. I could go for a fan remake of either of those games.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/04/after-lucasarts-closure-jedi-outcast-and-jedi-academy-go-open-source/

[Esau of Isaac]

Yeah I'm not too bothered about this. The last Star Wars game I played and wasn't disappointed in was Force Unleashed 1. Before that, it was Jedi Knight 2&3. I'm sure there will be other Star Wars games in the future, and who knows, it might turn out for the better if they're developed by a company other than LucasArts.

Please tell me you're just glazing over KotOR and that you weren't disappointed in them compared to Force Unleashed.

[BrightBow]

Well, Kotor 2 at least was incredible unfinished. Calling it disappointing is an understatement. To release a game in such a state is an insult to the customers.

Going through the half-finished HK droid factory was an interesting experience, though. Developers notes all over the place.

[Rehab]

Whoever was responsible for rushing The Sith Lords out the door so hard was being a shortsighted jerk, yeah, but the game managed to be an incredible addition to Star Wars regardless. It's still one of my favorite games ever, despite its weak points.

[BrightBow]

Personally I find it difficult to enjoy a game like that. It gets me upset and depressed, thinking about what it could have been.

Especially after going through the sound files. Listening to the confrontation between the party and Traya at the end and stuff like that. To see that all the work of the actors and writers just rots there. It's just such a waste.

Edited April 5, 2013 by BrightBow

[Inactive Account]

Obligatory pedantic statement: neither KotOR game was developed by LucasArts, only published by them. (1 was BioWare and 2 was Obsidian, and then LucasArts fucked Obsidian over resulting in the game's brokenness.)*

Since they'll still be licensing, it's possible that some other studio will be able to pick up 1313, and so on.

Still pretty damn disappointing, and really sucks for everyone who worked there. They also didn't bother informing applicants of the hiring freeze that preceded this which [string of swearing].

Edited April 5, 2013 by kdanger

[Klokinator]

Yeah, what a shame. /sarcasm

I mean the last twelve games were just so good, not to mention those delightful prequel movies. If you honestly believe that Star Wars will have no other games, think again. If Disney is going to buy out the rights to the movies, you can bet your sweet untouched ass that they will form a new company (probably under a name other than Lucas, as they want the disney connotation behind star wars and not lucas' legacy) and that the games will either be better or at least only as bad as the current ones are. With JJ Abrams directing the movies though, I think we're gonna have the best star wars trilogy since the conclusion of the first one 30+ years ago.

Though Clone Wars is a really good cartoon :O

[Esau of Isaac]

Well, Kotor 2 at least was incredible unfinished. Calling it disappointing is an understatement. To release a game in such a state is an insult to the customers.

Going through the half-finished HK droid factory was an interesting experience, though. Developers notes all over the place.

It was an unfinished game, but aside from the end that wasn't glaringly obvious. The plot was sensible, the characters were quite varied, and the gameplay was better than its predecessor (at least in my opinion).

Obligatory pedantic statement: neither KotOR game was developed by LucasArts, only published by them. (1 was BioWare and 2 was Obsidian, and then LucasArts fucked Obsidian over resulting in the game's brokenness.)*

Obsidian has such a bad habit of getting fucked by other people. Like a bit more recently with the New Vegas Metacritic bullshit.

Also yes make a KotOR II thread, it's one of my favorite games ever

Edited April 5, 2013 by Esau of Isaac

[pinkbubblegum]

So many mixed opinions on this haha ;;

It's regrettable that LucasArts is shutting down, but I do get why a lot of people aren't finding this too much of a shock (sadly). Their track record's been pretty muddled recently, producing more unremarkable games than good ones. Money undoubtedly went down the drain to produce those lackluster titles.

But they DID develop and publish some really fun games. I just feel kind of down since their upcoming releases seemed to have a lot of potential to make LucasArts' standing good again (1313, please get picked up soon)

I was quite okay with KotOR 2, but only because I got to play it with the fan patch restoring some cut content I guess? (I played the games pretty late)

[Samias]

I personally feel that LucasArts was becoming a detriment to Star Wars games. Force Unleashed had its moments but was far from perfect. Then Force Unleashed 2 came out and was pretty bad. However, their enforcement of their loan of the Star Wars license was absolutely ruining games that should have been better than they were. KOTOR2 was notoriously incomplete, and though it was in a playable state, it was clear that a lot of content ended up on the cutting room floor. KOTOR3 never even happened, despite promises by LucasArts to continue the series, only to be replaced with the Old Republic, which we all know did not meet financial or critical expectations. Star Wars Galaxies was also a casualty of all sorts of executive meddling, killing off the most interesting aspects of the game through the New Game Enhancements update, and basically made a piddling amount of money until it was eventually shut down to make way for SWTOR. And let's not forget that Kinect Star Wars exists, and while it could be considered successful from a financial point of view, this is not the direction most Star Wars fans ever wanted. Unless there is some strange subset of fans that really, really wanted to have Lando have a danceoff with Vader. The rest of the game development at LucasArts had been frozen for months, during the period of time where Disney was negotiating with George Lucas to acquire the Star Wars rights, so the company was essentially bleeding money and doing nothing.

Unfortunately 1313 and Battlefront 3 might have had a chance of being good, but LucasArts has been declining hard and was dragging down the Star Wars property with it. There's a chance that another company might be handed the code and asset library but if that's the case, there's a coin flip of a chance of the game retaining its integrity if it doesn't get lost in development hell.

Edit: If there's anything I'm really going to miss, it's probably going to be Monkey Island.

Edited April 5, 2013 by Samias

[IGdood]

RIP Battlefront 3

MUH BATTLEFRONT 3

[Icon of Sin]

The only game I really remember playing from them was Star Wars Racer, which was pretty cool back in the day.

I suppose it's sad to see them go, but such is the business.

[Constable Reggie]

Super Star Wars trilogy was the shit.