LucasArts is gone

Gamers, it’s time to mourn the loss of one of our oldest and most respected gaming icons. After 31 years, LucasArts has been shuttered by Disney. Around 150 employees were laid off.

According to Kotaku:

Publicly, Disney is saying their current games could be licensed out to a different publisher or developer, but according to our source, that’s unlikely. Our source says Lucas has pursued the option for “one or both games,” but nothing happened. “With the teams now basically being dispersed I think both games are effectively dead forever,” our source said.

It’s sad news but not unexpected. They were purchased as part of the massive deal that brought the entire Star Wars universe under the control of Disney. The game development wing had not produced a winner in years, even failing to capitalize on the success they had with 2008’s Star Wars: The Force Unleashed by botching the sequel.

The biggest sign of the end came before the acquisition when they released Kinect Star Wars, one of the lowest points in gaming in 2012.

The biggest disappointment is that Star Wars 1313 is now cancelled. Chances are very slim that they will be able to license it out to anyone, meaning that the one promising title for the team in three years is not going to get completed. Here’s what we’ll miss:

RIP LucasArts. You’ll be missed.