Disney Closes LucasArts
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
Fortunately the work of the individual can sometimes be distinguished from the overall project. If someone actually worked their ass off on a project given limited time and resources to do so and did something worth presenting then it will be acknowledged. Let's say Battlefield Earth (a much reviled title) had amazing.... sound. That sound guy has work to be proud of regardless of the title. In the same way, developers own code that they can actually point to as their work. Will it hurt them that they don't have a huge title to their name? Yes. But I'd think most hiring developers would at least be willing to take a look at the portfolio of people impacted by this from what was once a great place.Grouchy Imp said:
This is a misconception that people need to drop. Disney did NOT put them out of their misery. They closed a studio but the IPs live on because Disney is selling those titles to other companies. That means studios that care about the titles and think it's worthwhile enough to invest in buying them from Disney will now have a crack at making those titles. Hell, they'll probably hire some of the Lucas Arts developers who had previously been working on those projects but they'll mix in their own business models which will hopefully mean they do a better job than the bloated mess that Lucas Arts became.GAunderrated said:
An easy example of this was the bankrupcty of THQ who for whatever reason just couldn't get their act together. Their IPs got distributed to companies who actually wanted to do something with them.
Maybe if the IPs were getting scrapped instead of sold off. We (as consumers) potentially lose nothing here. People who actually have something to contribute to these IPs will buy them off Disney (who IS selling them) and will try to do something new with them or just keep the crappy lucas arts status quo. You are only seeing the death of a bloated company that got really bad at what they did at this stage of the game.VoidWanderer said:
So, in fact, this could be the best thing that has happened to our beloved titles. Unless you genuinely believe that Lucas Arts has been a legitimate steward of the titles and that they weren't phoning it it at all over the last decade. In which case you're wrong. Almost empiracally wrong but admittedly subjectively so. I mean, really, this last decade has been everything with the Lucas name on it taking a giant dump on everything it once was. Like if Picasso had spent the last ten years of his life finding old masterpieces he'd made and did hand-paint art over them.
So Kirk or anyone screaming over this needs to take a step back and understand the difference between the death of an IP and the death of a studio.
Here, take a look at Metro: Last Light: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro:_Last_Light
as well as its development company: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4A_Games
Note that the original publisher (THQ) had to go bankrupt and subsequently ended up selling the publishing rights (IP rights) of the game.
Koch Media bought it for $5.8 million and the exact same development team is still developing it with new resources available to them that weren't available when they were in THQ.
Frankly, we should be incredibly grateful to Disney stepping in and saving the Star Wars franchise and all of these things from the increasingly more inept hands of Lucas. But that gratefullness can be withheld until we see the first movie and what they do with it.
I really hope I will get to see Star Wars 1313, KotOR 3, BF3, RC2, and all those things... But it's a real shame LucasArts won't be doing any of them. Hope those people can find a job soon.
All the Star Wars gaming memories of my youth aside, Full Throttle was one of my favorite games of all time. I would like to be optimistic and think that this move is to make the games that will come out STRONGER. I would like to think that this means that new games will not feel like generous demos of bigger projects we'll never see (Force Unleashed 2 lasted for what, forty five minutes? I think I actually spent more time playing and replaying the demo of the original game than it took to beat the second one), but I just can't put the Pollyanna glasses on anymore.
I'm torn. One one hand, I would like to see something like a boycott against certain corporations for the way they have treated their products and their customers, but at the same time, and though I doubt it would actually accomplish much, I would hate to see franchises I care about (or at the very least enjoy) destroyed because we turned our backs on them.
There is an issue here with scale. Disney's facebook page has something like 4 million+ likes. The article about Lucasarts closing had around 193 comments (as of the time I read it.) It reminds me of the "ant attacking a sleeping elephant" speech from Fist of Legend.
*- Re-posted from the earlier version of this thread
I'm torn. One one hand, I would like to see something like a boycott against certain corporations for the way they have treated their products and their customers, but at the same time, and though I doubt it would actually accomplish much, I would hate to see franchises I care about (or at the very least enjoy) destroyed because we turned our backs on them.
There is an issue here with scale. Disney's facebook page has something like 4 million+ likes. The article about Lucasarts closing had around 193 comments (as of the time I read it.) It reminds me of the "ant attacking a sleeping elephant" speech from Fist of Legend.
*- Re-posted from the earlier version of this thread
Whatever. Their in-house development hasn't been terribly relevant in years.
The only part of this that's shocking is how they got to such a state, considering it was owned by George Lucas.
The man pandered and hucked out merch at every opportunity; but I guess after TOR bombed they felt the need to re-evaluate their strategy to avoid making such costly mistakes again. (which explains how party-dross like Star Wars Kinect made it; that game looks like it was made on a tiny budget)
The only part of this that's shocking is how they got to such a state, considering it was owned by George Lucas.
The man pandered and hucked out merch at every opportunity; but I guess after TOR bombed they felt the need to re-evaluate their strategy to avoid making such costly mistakes again. (which explains how party-dross like Star Wars Kinect made it; that game looks like it was made on a tiny budget)
Not necessarily. If they release licensing rights, you can bet your ass EA and Dice will snatch that shit up in a heartbeat and make it a Star Wars themed Battlefield game. Tell me that wouldn't be awesome (given that's basically what it was when Battlefront came out).boradam said:
THE BEAST IS DEAD! Honestly, it's about fucking time, they've made nothing but shit since, well, quite a while.
Carnagath said:
Ideally, yes. Telltale seems to have cornered the market on classic adventure games though, & with good reason: they're pretty great at it. I'm willing to bet they'll be bidding on this IP
This.Vhite said:
Back in the day a Lucasarts logo on a game box used to be like a seal of excellence. They were right up there with Bullfrog, Westwood and Origin Systems. But the Lucasarts that brought us Loom, Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, X-Wing, TIE Fighter, Dark Forces, Jedi Knight and Grim Fandango (along with a dozen other awesome titles) hasn't existed for a long, long time. Better that it finally goes to join it's contemporaries.
RIP
You can't be as big and sucessful as Disney without maknig hard choices. This is one but LucasArts had run its course and although I am sad about 1313 I hope Disney continue it from somewhere else in its scarily large and hopefully not to evil empire. Hope Disney sorts out those out of work as best they can.
LucasArts only published the majority of the franchises you're talking about. People need to do a quick Google search on what LucasArts actually developed rather than worrying about sequels to games they didn't make.PoloniumFist said:
I am sick of reading comments of people hating on Disney for closing down a studio whose in house development team had been creatively dead for almost a decade.xdiesp said:
Seriously, name the last good game LucasArts DEVELOPED, not published.
People complaining about Disney need to get off their high horse. You do realize that just because Disney owns something, doesn't mean its automatically overly corporate trash right?
You're aware that Disney did own Miramax when Miramax was making movies like Pulp Fiction right?
Oh wow, a Star Wars Radio Drama reference!GodzillaGuy92 said:
While I understand the reasoning behind the decision (the last decent game published by Lucasarts that I bought was Empire at War back in 2006), it's still sad to see a company responsible for much of my gaming childhood shut down.
As a tribute, here is a selection of the soundtrack to their crowning achievement.
It's sad to see the end of LucasArts, but in all honesty this was probably the better move. The recent stream of Star Wars-related video gaming content shows that more third parties need to try and make Star Wars games.