LucasArts Shut Down By Disney

Thanks, Disney...

....
...
No...Why?...

That is why I hate Disney. I am a huge fan of Star Wars, but I have decided that I will not support Disney, therefore I will no longer purchase licensed Star Wars products of any kind. Sucks, but I have many other things I enjoy.

Sad news. 1313 looked incredible too.

Grim Fandango was my favorite thing Lucas Arts did. I had always hoped they'd put out a sequel or re-make it.

Damn it Disney, why do have to be so evil?

better grab those super star wars games, they were fantastic. some of the best SW games ever, to me. Other than old properties dissappearing, though, I don't mind it's not very sad, they hadn't done much good in a few years.

I doubt the VC releases will go anytime soon, Disney's owned the rights to them for months now, they might go when the license to have them up ends and Disney will probably re-release them in some other way.

What I'd like to see is Disney giving TellTale the rights to an episodic video game version of the Clone Wars, in order to finish it properly.

I'm just gonna quickly buy Zombies Ate My Neighbors

In the future, every mid-size developer or smaller will be devoured by a larger company who would just close down the smaller company and refuse to take on any of their IPs.

I didn't know Disney even owned LucasArts! I guess if Disney even continues to make Star Wars games or movies they probably won't be as good anymore...I hate that because some of the Star Wars titles on Gamecube like Rogue Squadron, Rebel Strike, Bounty Hunter, and Jedi Outcast II were some of my favorite games...And it's sad that 1313 might never see the light of day.

@Five-seveN: While Rogue Squadron is technically a LucasArts title, it was made by Factor 5. All future Star Wars games will be done by 3rd party, so it's not all doom and gloom if all you're worried about is bad Star Wars games.

I feel sorry for those who lost their jobs today, I hope they find work soon.

Wwhat the hell? Disney you little piece of THIS ACCOUNT HAS BEEN SHUT DOWN BY DISNEY

Playing Battlefront 2 is some of the most fun I ever had as a child/teen growing up.
Co-op in Rogue Squadron 3 on GCN was incredibly fun as well!

@Chunky_Droid Yeah...seems like Star Wars games haven't been as good as they used to be early in the last decade though.

Death to the mouse.

LucasArts haven't made a good Star Wars game in a long, long time, so this could actually be good for gamers. I know 1313 looked good, but once upon a time The Force Unleashed looked amazing too with the physics engine they had. It's the same thing with the movies... I really doubt Disney will make anything worse than the prequel trilogy, not with JJ Abrams on board.

Grab the Super Star Wars trilogy and Indiana Jones game off of the Virtual Console before they go away, guys.

No biggie. There hasn't been an amazing Star Wars in ages. Hopefully, this means some good ones will be in development soon.

if anything this means there will be more new star wars games

Super Star Wars
Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Super Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi
Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures

All of these have been made by Factor 5, not LucasArts directly.

To be honest this is the best thing that could have happened.

Do you really want games made under Disney's thumb? Look at what happened to Epic Mickey.

What was Epic Mickey missing that we can put in Epic Mickey 2? A better camera? Consequences for a consequence based game? Combat that isn't mundane? No, what Epic Mickey was lacking was SINGING AND DANCING.

What the hell, Disney!? Turning in his grave, little Yoda would be! I had a feeling this would happen when the takeover was announced months ago but really didn't want it too until LucasArts had at least managed to get 1313 to retail. That game looked wicked! And just to throw my own opinion into the fray, The Force Unleashed was actually a greatly enjoyable game and had a decent storyline to go with it. The second one however is a different story.

@Zodiak13

Be sure not to watch The Avengers 2 or any of the other upcoming Marvel movies (or the new Star Wars trilogy) as they are all Disney productions!

I haven't enjoyed a LucasArts game in years and years. It's a shame to see people lose their jobs, but they were a far cry from how great they were in the 90s.

Sad, sad news. My hopes for a proper next gen sequel to "Rogue Squadron" diminish by the day. And even a GC port would be perfect on the 3Ds, I would not dare imagine how a new game would look like on the Wii U. I'm not even gonna talk about all those Amiga/PC memories I have of their many, many games...

No...... I still remember Rogue Squadron on the GameCube... I think it's the one with the "assault waves" (vagues d'assaut) in which my brothers and I were always hiding in the hole, waiting to blast enemies off as they kept on coming...

Now, it was ten years ago, and I don't have any memories from LucasArts after that time...

While it sucks for the Lucas Arts employees, it will probably be a good thing for Star Wars games in the future. I mean c'mon Lucas Arts hasn't made an awesome game in quite some time. The only thing I'm afraid of is an EA Star Wars game. Bioware excluded of course, although with some hesitation. ; )

@DePapier That was Factor 5 who made the Rogue Squadron games as well as the Super Star Wars series. They've been gone since the beginning of the PSWii60 generation.

LucasArts hasn't made a great Star Wars games themselves in a long time.

This makes me sad. I have really fond memories of several Star Wars video games. I hope third-parties are willing to give the franchise a go and develop something worth while in the future.

Oh come on. Disney may do a better job anyway.

Don't leave me LucasArts!
You were my only friend >_<.

Man... Disney made me so mad I just want to kick their-... Never mind...

makes me laugh when people love disney for letting capcom remake ducktales, yet hate them for closing lucas arts.
business is business, and lucas arts has obviously not been making money for a while for disney to close them down. had lucas arts been turning profits, then disney would have kept them open, simple as that really.

I believe Armed and Dangerous was lucus arts too, I loved that one on the first Xbox.

Pretty much all the SW games mentioned in these comments were not made by Lucas Arts. Not the Rogue Squadron games, not Jedi Outcast or Jedi Academy, not Battlefront or Knights of the Old Republic. This move to license games to 3rd parties is exactly what produced all those great games.

Many of the people behind the great LucasArts point and click games are also now at TellTale. I've always said a studio name means very little, because people will always move on. Irrational, Sony Santa Monica and Microsoft Game Studios have all tweeted that they'd be interested in hiring some of those that lost their job over this.

The best LucasArts games in the recent past were the Monkey Island remakes. I don't understand the anger towards Disney in this situation. When was the last time LucasArts released a great Star Wars game that was developed internally? Most of the best ones were made by third parties which is what Disney has just announced will be how all of the future LucasArts games will be. The days of LucasArts Point and Click games is long gone. I personally don't see this as a great loss for the industry.

@SparkOfSpirit Oh OK. Well I guess I'm not in position to complain about anything then.

this is sad, I thought they only bought the starwars ip not LucasArts/Films completely. hope those guys move on to disney interactive/buena vista games, loved to see them help with future kingdom hearts games.shame.

@Peach64 Thanks for the details, I guess it's actually not bad after all.

Nintendo will buy the rights to Battlefront. They will make Battlefront 3 exclusive on the Wii U.

A man can dream... but seriously, Nintendo, wake up and buy some of these titles.

@LDXD Yeah...You're just about right. Hayden Christian was an awful actor. Episode III was good IMO, but I and II not so much.

Another game created by LucasArts (back when the company was called Lucasfilm Games) was Maniac Mansion. I have a copy of the version released for the Nintendo Entertainment System (the NES).

Oh wow

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
-Darth Vader

LOL that's what happens for selling Star Wars to Disney! Just about anyone could have seen this coming a mile away! At least this particular studio is high-profile in name, so the employees should have relatively little trouble finding work elsewhere...

Sun of a... i hate you Disney.

I may have to download Indy.
Already downloaded Ghoul Patrol, have ZAMN on cart, and if anyone wants them, the Super Star Wars games are luckily only worth a few bucks each on cart.

Another legendary developer going down, and of course a exodus of VC games (you can bet on it)!

It's a pity! Hopefully this doesn't mean the end of Monkey island, and hopefully some good developers will work on future Starwars games!

Personally I still think the upcoming movies could be great! After all, Marvel fans seem to be pretty pleased with the Avengers movie! So I have a feeling Disney will serve us Starwars fans right with the upcoming movies!

@LDXD Here's the reason: check out the interview George Lucas had with Bill Moyers, filmed for The Power of Myth. Turns out the core of Star Wars was based on various mythologies, religious texts, and cultures throughout human history, from Christianity to Buddhism to Japanese Bushido! Star Wars was not based on sci-fi, as episodes 1-3 suggest... the sci-fi elements are just a flavoring, a shell, even.

Vader tempting Luke? Similar to Satan tempting Jesus. Spiritual gurus seeking out a seemingly unremarkable child (Anakin), then somehow "knowing" that they are "the prophesied chosen one"? Similar tactics to finding the next reincarnation of the Buddha in Buddhism. Blindfolding yourself to "sense" your enemy's movements and thoughts? Ancient Japanese Bushido teaching.

Star Wars is essentially a modern retelling of mythological legends and religious scripture. George Lucas said so himself.

Well dang, that sucks. Granted, LA has been a bit misguided recently but hopefully people can find jobs and other developers can do awesome things. I imagine the license fees will be reduced somewhat....at least I hope so.

Hey Nintendo, time to make a Star Wars lightsaber game on the cheap....yeah?

Awesome! Thank you Mickey.

Where did I put the rat poison...?

@Peach64 actually, I can't think of a better director than Abrams for the new Star Wars films. Star Trek, M:I3 and Super 8 were great movies and from what I've heard Trek 2 is no less.

That was a big mistake Disney.

Well... Between this and of course the defunked Factor 5, there's as much chance of seeing rogue squadron on the WiiU virtual console as there is ice in hell...

@GreenDream #53
Don't forget that Lucas also used the outline of every story ever made for Star Wars, translation, he barely even wrote the plot. If Star Wars had been released this year, no one would care because, in reality, it is barely even notable. The only reason it is even popular is because it was original for its time, not because it was good.

While Factor 5 was responsible for most of the Star Wars games I loved... 1313 looked awesome. Not necessarily the gameplay, but the concept of it was just so intriguing. I really hope it doesn't get dissolved.

If he used the outline for every story every made, then every story has the same outline, in which case, no story has ever been notable but the first. And it couldn't plagiarize the plot and still be original. It was popular for a lot of reasons. Special effects, atmosphere, music, world-building, plot, etc.

I never thought much of Lucas Arts, but I do hope Disney lets them finish their current projects. I hate seeing that happen to anyone. If the employees reorganize as an independent studio, Disney could always license the projects back to them.

Another reason for me to hate Disney,now there is no Star Wars the Clone Wars,which was one of my favorite shows!

too bad it's shut down...I needed something to use my last wii points on on most of the lucas arts games in case they do get pulled from the wii store

Just because Lucas Arts (which hasn't done anything of note since the last Dark Forces sequel) has been shut down, doesn't mean the projects will die.
The only decent Lucas games in the last decade were the Lego ones developed by others.
Edit: Other articles suggest the new Star Wars games were stopping production but that with the closure of LucasArts they can go to other companies who can save them.

Lucas Arts is just a name now. None of the old magic was there anymore. Last in-house game was Star Wars Kinect. Yep. Shut it down. People don't often realize that even back in its heyday, many key games were outsourced to other companies. X-Wing and Tie Fighter included. So it was always partly about managing the IP carefully and that part will still be around. It's like Rare. It's not the same company or people. It hasn't been the "same" since before Microsoft took it.

Frankly, I think this will mean better Star Wars games in the future. I'm okay with that.

Stay classy Disney.

Ouch. I certainly didn't see this coming. Was this really necessary? Either way this will hopefully not impact the games in any way.

so Disney fails at making video games so they have to drag Lucas Arts down with them? just one more reason why i hate Disney,

I'm really glad I purchased the Lucasarts pack on Steam when they were selling the entire catalog of classic games for a really affordable price. Lucasarts haven't been the same for a long time. All of their best games were released back in the 90's. Titles such as Grim Fandango, Monkey Island, The Dig, Loom, Maniac Mansion, Sam and Max, TIE Fighter, X-Wing, Jedi Knight and Zombies Ate My Neighbors will long be remembered. That Lucasarts died a long time ago. The new Lucasarts which churned out Star Wars games by the thousands was closed by Disney. As aaronsulivan said, it is just like Rare. People remember the good times and apply it to the current business, which they shouldn't. I do wish it didn't happen though.

I'm pretty sure the Rogue Squadron games were published by Lucas Arts, but developed by Factor 5. Granted they haven't done anything lately worth noting. Still this is very disheartening since I thought Star Wars 1313 looked like a third party Uncharted.

I hate Disney now. I loved Star Wars and was looking forward to a new movie, but of course some stupid child friendly company has to ruin everything. I am not seeing another Disney film from now one, they have ticked me off.

I might have to get Indy in my d/led catalog soon. I hope the ppl find work soon. I also wanna point out that one other thing LucasArts did in their LucasFilm Games day was distribution of the game Pipe Mania as Pipe Dream for the Nes.

I AM KEEPING THIS PROFILE PICTURE ON FOR AS LONG AS I AM ON THIS WEBSITE

Tribute to Lucas Film and Star Wars -_-

At first I was happy Disney got Lucasfilm and that we'd finally get more Star Wars movies. But now they're just doing one bad decision after another; whoring out the SW brand by making spinoff films in addition to a Sequel Trilogy within the next five years, canceling The Clone Wars, (didn't like it for the longest time, but now its grown on me) now shutting down LucasArts? Show me a reason to still trust you Disney!

@AbeVigoda I know that, I am huge comic collector and do not buy Marvel or support their franchises. I cancelled 28 title's the day the sale to Disney was announced. I made an exception and saw the latest Captain America movie. Cap holds a special place to me.

The LucasArts I loved died years ago, so this is no skin off my nose. They were just Star Wars: The Developer. The last thing LA did that I loved was Monkey Island Special Editions, and those were merely classic games given enhancements.

Many people are outraged, and they have a right to. But for me, LucasArts has been dead since they stopped making adventure games. My only regret is that this will only give people ammo to say "Disney is evil" or "Disney buying LucasFilm will ruin Star Wars." I mean, really? After Jar Jar Binks and the grossly inferior prequels, Disney is going to ruin Star Wars?

I agree completely with MagicEmperor. Disney is making a business decision. If games companies didn't make such decisions, there would be no good games getting made. LucasArts didn't make good enough games any more to warrant keeping a bunch of developers around. This way they will probably get hired in other companies, with better management and vision for making games, which all of you who are hating on Disney now, will end up loving.

I can understand that people say LucasArts is already dead, and it's the people that count, not the company's name.

But brand name is important and should have been important for Disney. Seeing that logo jumping and dancing around in every game was pure joy. I was more happy to buy the remaked Monkey Island 2 than any TellTale on brand name alone. LucasArts was one of my favorite developers. Of course like Sierra, Westwood, Bullfrog etc, sometime they come to an end. But LucasArts was a juggernaut, a definer of videogames. After Sierra, they practically invented adventure games. I loved them and I loved Rebel Assault, Tie Fighter, Dark Forces and so many more.

I hope they don't take down the VC games. Haven't played them yet but I don't see why they would.

All companies, videogames or not, should take a good look at LucasArts and if it has fallen, say to themselves : "there but for the grace of God, goes I", because this fall from grace is substantial.

I hope Disney is changing and dropping DuckTales to VC 3ds and wii / wii u! and Monkey island, full throttle, day of, grim fa you name it handled with pride and caution ... monkey island movie from pixar someone?

Thanks for the list! All downloaded now.
Anyway, i hope the great minds of the company will find good new dev homes and bring the fire they had in their glorious point & click days.
Now the only way to truly celebrate their legacy would be to bring all of their amazing adventure games to the Wii U.

Thanks a bunch Disney you foolish corporate entity. I was looking forward to Star Wars 1313.
Lucas should have sold the Monkey Island rites to Double Fine! How are we going to get a console release of Monkey Island 3 now?

I remember when I read about Disney taking over and thinking: "Oh, Disney have made some popular mobile games in the past. Wouldn't it be cool if they remade Maniac Mansion and optimised it for touch input?"

A man can dream, can't he? Apparently not. Thanks Disney.

And less sarcastic, thank you LucasArts for some of the good games of my childhood. Sorry to see you go and thoughts go out of to any developers who now find themselves without a livelihood.

My jaw literally drop when I read this.

Welp, they just got 10 bucks out of me....I downloaded the Indiana Jones SNES game on my Wii U (Wii Menu). Seems like a really good game, but my gosh it's tough. Got stuck in a burning house in the snow.

"COMMENT REMOVED BY DISNEY"

You can tell how many people just jumped straight to the comment section, and, besides, Lucas themselves have not made a decent game in years.

As far as gaming is concerned Lucas Arts hasn't done anything good in a long time. I'm not suprised it i being shut down.

I'm all-in for an official Lucas Arts Classic Adventure History Pack for Wii U.
Including all-time classics such as Maniac Mansion and Day of the Tentacle, the Monkey Island games, Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, Sam & Max, the two Indiana Jones games (The Last Crusade and Fate of Atlantis), and the more overlooked Loom, Full Throttle, and The Dig.
All these games would be cheap to port because they are extremely easy to port: running on the ScummVM emulator they all worked FLAWLESSLY on Wii already (with pointer controls included)!
But to make it the best / most complete compilation of Lucas Arts work ever, they should try and get in Grim Fandango as well. It would need a bit of extra work, as it wouldn't run on the same engine.

Honestly, somewhere around Hannah Montanomon and other waste I really grew to dislike Disney. And I stopped caring about Lucas Arts around the time they stopped making the greatest (or ANY) adventure games and instead were heading for a Star Wars sellout. I care about good games, that's all. I might download Zombies before it gets removed (always loved the soundtrack, co-op gameplay and Day of the Tentacle cameos) but wasn't that originally a game made by Konami?

I don't mind other developers getting to work on Star Wars. I presume there will be some oversight with the deals so we don't end up with wookies erraticly "dancing".

I mourn the end of LucasArts more for their role in the glory days than recent projects.

I think the only thing I am going to miss is the death of their "Gold Guy" logo, such a fond memory seeing that little guy in the corner of the box art in the early 90's. For the record, Fate of Atlantis was probably my favorite game associated with them.

Star Wars games will continue to live on regardless, so no need to go Chicken Little about this.

Off this means no more Monkey Island games, than this is truly a sad day.

Thanks for pointing out that those VC games might disappear. You should try and get in touch with someone to confirm it.

Now a day later: The VC games may reappear (if they get removed) since Disney holds the rights! And it's just free money for them, wich they undoubtly love!

And by the way: What did Lucasarts do concrete the past few years? The last Monkey island (wich was episodic) was made by Telltale! Same goes for Sam and Max! And while Starwars games sport the Lucasarts logo, they where made by Bioware, Level 5, etc. You may have fond memories of Lucasarts, but they where already gone (or so it seems to me)!

@YellowHare91 --girl look at that body.

Either way, I saw so much potential... they could even have made LucasArts games into Kingdom Hearts worlds! (Imagine the potential that Monkey Island, Sam&Max, or the Tentacle could have gotten!)

I really don't like hearing this. It really shows just how little integrity big companies have these days. Not only do a bunch of people lose their jobs, but they took the license away from the people who knew what they were doing with it. And Star Wars 1313, something that blew my mind, is no more. It's crazy. I wish there was a way that we could stick it to these big companies to show them that we don't approve of what they are doing, but they are huge, and we are small.

@SpaceApe

Your statement is completely wrong. They made some amazing movies, the best of their time. And they have also made some fantastic games like Star Wars Battlefront II

ALL@- I have been a fan of Star Wars ever since I was 5. Disney shutting down Lucas Arts is very emotional for me. I can never forgive Disney for doing this. Disney can never be as great as Lucas Arts was, That's why they bought Lucas Arts and shut them down, Disney don't like game..

I guess this destroys any possibility of a Maniac Mansion remake.

Disney keeps losing more and more of my respect. I wonder how else Disney can ruin Star Wars. Hopefully not with a crappy movie.

I assumed that Disney would enjoy having LucasArts being part of them, since they don't have a terrific track record with video games, themselves.

@Bass_X0 I gotta ask, is that message an alteration to a quote from Demolition Man? It was the first thing that came into my head when I read it. From the part about Taco Bell and all other restaurants.

@Zodiak13 Somehow, I think your opinion will have after Star Wars 7...
'Somehow'