LucasArts Layoffs Include KotOR III Team

[Dreamer128]

I won't shed many tears if LucasArts goes bankrupt. After all, the quality of their games has been poor as of late. (excluding a few notable exceptions) Still, KoTOR is almost the holy grail of gaming. I hope this will work out..

LucasArts undergoing "major restructuring"
Star Wars games publisher confirms laying off staff and moving Episode III development off-site. KOTOR 3 development stalled.

Responding to yesterday's reports that it had laid off staff, LucasArts today said in a statement that it was undergoing "a major restructuring of its development studio." A notice on the company's Web site outlined some of the restructuring's details, including layoffs of 31 staffers and the appointment of Peter Hirschmann as vice president of product development. Hirschmann, a two-year LucasArts vet and former Electronic Arts producer, had been managing the development of Star Wars: Battlefront and Mercenaries.

The restructuring is the first major change to be officially announced by LucasArts since Jim Ward took over as its president. “Since joining LucasArts in early May, I’ve taken a hard, critical look at our business," he said in the statement. "I’ve come to the conclusion that to make LucasArts thrive, and to position ourselves for the long-term future, we need to make some fundamental changes.”

Today, LucasArts began to outline what exactly said changes would entail. Firstly, in-house development will be scaled way back, because "the company will be concentrating on fewer titles," read the statement. While Star Wars: Battlefront and Star Wars Republic Commando remain at LucasArts, the publisher has farmed out development on its as-yet-untitled Episode III game to The Collective. The Southern California studio has developed several titles for LucasArts, including Wrath Unleashed and Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb.

On the project front, an informed industry source said the team attached to the early stages of development on Knights of the Old Republic 3 was let go in yesterday's layoff.

By Curt Feldman (GameSpot)

[Luvian]

I just skimmed your post...

At first I saw thread title as KOTOR 2, so I panicked, but then I saw it's about KOTOR 3...

I wouldn't worry about that, if KOTOR 2 is as good as the first one, it will be such a big success they'll want to milk the frachise some more, and if it suck, then we won't want a 3...

[Ziroc]

I feel the SAME way. They sealed their own doom releasing CRAP.

If they continued releasing great games on par with THE DIG, MONKEY ISLAND and such, they would not be having to restructure.


Sad...

[The Hierophant]

Without Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer writing digitized masterpieces for them, Lucasarts can go into liquidation for all I care. They arn't so deserving of the 'arts' moniker these days. They just churn out rehash after rehash and exploit their Star Wars liscence for all it's worth. I wrote them off as a games producer when they cancelled Sam and Max 2.

[Hivetyrant]

I too agree Luvian, although I like a few of their games, but they just seem to be milking everybit of money they can from the famous Jedi Knight scene.

[Dreamer128]

Originally posted by Hivetyrant: I too agree Luvian, although I like a few of their games, but they just seem to be milking everybit of money they can from the famous Jedi Knight scene.

True enough. Jedi Outcast was a nice came, but Jedi Academy was an obvious attempt to cash in on the succes of the previous JK games. (another band of thugs managed to figure out a way to steal the force - also see: Jedi Knight 1, Jedi Knight 2 and Jedi Outcast)

[Ziroc]

Again, we see that my motto is true:

"Greed is the downfall of all"


I agree as well with when Tim Schafer left, I felt that it wasn't Lucas Arts any longer.

The FIRST warning sign was the release of that first INDIANA JONES: AND THE INFERNAL MACHINE was released, and it was 3D. 3D?!?! God... I keep asking myself WHY EVERY GAMING COMPANY thinks every game HAS to be in 3D--like it's a law or something. I say go with what works. The 4th Monkey Island Game used a GREAT Engine--2D and 3D mix, but felt much like the older games..

My only hope for Adventure games is the sequel to the Longest Journey, which looks to be AWESOME!

SIERRA is also gone... No more Kings Quest. Another fun game- as most of the Sierra games--Space Quest, Police Quest (3 was fun) and so on...

Interplay, Black Isle, Sierra, Looking Glass... on and on and on...

[T-D-C]

Another game that was made by Lucas Arts, Full Throttle.

I loved that game and heard they were making a sequal.

However Lucas Arts again pulled the plug on that.

[Luvian]

Sopmetimes I wonder how the suits owning those gaming companies can be so out of touch with their customers.

From what they give us, they seem to think all we care about is 3d realistic graphics, blur, and flashy special effects. They also seem to think we like our rpgs in turn based.

Don't they realise we don't want that!?! Why are they making 3d real time rpgs with system specs as high as the newest Need for Speed Game?

Lionheart sunk because of the real time, Fallout 3 might have been finished before it had been canceled if the suits didn't want it to have real time, more rpg gamers might have been able to play ToEE if it didn't have high recquirements...

To me it look like they are trying to mix all genre to appeal to everyone. The real time Diablo 2 action, 3d graphics like actions and sport games... I never thought I'd ever say that, but why can't they stick to what's been done and proven sucesfull already?

[Oblivion437]

I'm generally of the opinion that they pretty much ran out of gas with Knights of the Old Republic...

After Jedi Knight, their best title was an outsourced project (Jedi Knight 2, which says something, their best project was a sequel to a sequel) and consequently, I have no particular interest in their titles, especially their awful executions of MMO gaming, where they did something utterly reprehensible: Screwed people out of their money...