In 1982, Star Wars owners LucasFilm, under its leader George Lucas, launched LucasArts as a way to branch out in the then new video game industry. Today, a long and acclaimed history has come to an end with the announcement that LucasArts will close its doors after over 30 years.
Game Informer reports that, according to a statement from LucasFilm's new owners Disney:
After evaluating our position in the games market, we've decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company's risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games. As a result of this change, we've had layoffs across the organization. We are incredibly appreciative and proud of the talented teams who have been developing our new titles.
The closing of LucasArts is estimated to impact 150 of its employees today. The team was working on a new Star Wars game, Star Wars 1313, that was first shown at E3 2012. However, a statement from a LucasArts rep seemed to suggest that the game could live on and be finished by another developer.
LucasArts both developed its own games, many of them Star Wars titles, and also published games that were developed by third party teams. While it released a ton of Star Wars-themed games over the past three decades, many PC gamers believe the best LucasArts titles were its original adventure games such as Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango, to name just a few.
Source: Game Informer | Image via Disney
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