They had it coming - worst run studio ever.... http://news.yahoo.com/disney-lays-off-staff-game-192010366.html;_ylt=A2KJ2Ua1klxRzm8AjnPQtDMD .. LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Four months after acquiring "Star Wars" maker Lucasfilm, The Walt Disney Co. is shutting down video game production at subsidiary LucasArts and laying off staff as it focuses on the less-risky, less-expensive path of licensing its characters and stories to other developers. A Disney spokesman confirmed the layoffs Wednesday, but didn't say how many people were affected. Website Kotaku said 150 people were laid off, citing an unnamed source. Two games that had been in production, "Star Wars: First Assault" and "Star Wars: 1313," were canceled, Kotaku said. Disney has been moving away from games that are expensive to make for consoles, like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and toward apps. One example of the licensing model is Rovio Entertainment Ltd.'s November launch of "Angry Birds Star Wars." ...
This is terrible, lots of Wookies and Ewoks filling for unemployment. Good luck getting a job in the food industry with all that hair/fur.
If I had a flag I'd be flying it half staff. Grew up on xwing and tie fighter. Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2
The downside of this is that licensing adds another layer of cost to game publishing and generally the quality of the games goes down. LucasArts was a pretty crappy developer but even a good developer is going to have trouble putting out quality games once the licensing is taken into account. The best games are original productions from small studios, usually the second generation of the game when the studio has made enough to really ramp up the spending on the sequel.
