I've got some sad news for you today; it's just been announced that Disney is closing down the video game developing company LucasArts. Instead, they will licence titles out to other developers. Here's the official statement,
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 cold hand of Disney strikes again. First there was the cancelling of Clone Wars and delaying Star Wars Detours, and now this craziness. This is really sad, I've enjoyed all of the Star Wars games LucasArts has developed over the years.
There's still no word on where this leaves Star Wars 1313, but it looks like it's one of the casualties of this merger. According to Kotaku, "Some 150 people were laid off, and both of the studio's current projects—Star Wars: First Assault and Star Wars 1313—were cancelled." That just sucks ass.
It's going to be interesting to see how the future of these Star Wars video games plays out. In the end, letting other developers take a crack at the Star Wars universe might be exciting. At the same time, it really sucks that all these people had to get laid off.