LucasArts Has Been Shut Down by Disney

<p>As if to follow up on the <a title&equals;"High Moon Studios Hit With Layoffs" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;high-moon-studios-hit-layoffs&sol;">High Moon Studios layoffs<&sol;a> we reported on yesterday&comma; it has come to light that Disney has closed LucasArts&period; In a statement released by the company&comma; a shift from internal development to a licensing model was detailed&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;After evaluating our position in the games market&comma; we&&num;8217&semi;ve decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model&comma; minimizing the company&&num;8217&semi;s risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality <em>Star Wars<&sol;em> games&period; As a result of this change&comma; we&&num;8217&semi;ve had layoffs across the organization&period; We are incredibly appreciative and proud of the talented teams who have been developing our new titles&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While talking to <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;polygon&period;com&sol;2013&sol;4&sol;3&sol;4179334&sol;disney-closing-lucasarts-game-publisher-layoffs-reported">Polygon<&sol;a>&comma; LucasArts stated that they will handing game development over to 3rd party studios and are looking into other ways of releasing <em>Star Wars 1313<&sol;em> and some of their other titles&period; This echos what Game Informer got from a LucasArts representative in an <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;gameinformer&period;com&sol;b&sol;news&sol;archive&sol;2013&sol;04&sol;03&sol;lucasarts-rep-says-star-wars-1313-might-be-saved&period;aspx">interview earlier today<&sol;a>&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;It is worth noting that we are looking for proven external partners who can help us provide video games to our fans&period; We still believe in the video game industry&comma; we still will provide <em>Star Wars<&sol;em> games&comma; we&&num;8217&semi;re just looking at different models rather than internal production&&num;8230&semi; They&&num;8217&semi;re evaluating everything&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s always a possibility that it &lbrack;<em>Star Wars 1313<&sol;em>&rsqb; can still come out via licensing&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;kotaku&period;com&sol;disney-shuts-down-lucasarts-468473749">Kotaku<&sol;a>&comma; at least 150 employees have been affected&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;