Disney Closes LucasArts: Classic Franchises in Limbo

By Justin Dambach, 04/09/2013

Source: Game Informer

Disney recently announced their initiative to shut down LucasArts, videogame division of Disney's all-things-Lucas buyout in October 2012.  Word is almost all LucasArts employees are being laid off, leaving only a skeleton crew to finalize loose ends.

Many people involved in a highly-competitve market lost their jobs, and I wish them the best in landing back on their feet and in comfortable circumstances.  The industry itself has lost a publishing legend in LucasArts, founded in 1982 and establishing numerous IP in addition to capitalizing on popular Star Wars and Indiana Jones licenses.  The Secret of Monkey Island was featured in the Smithsonian's Art of Videogames exhibit in 2012.

Gaming enthusiast outcry against Disney has been strong, although their decision was telegraphed by a very public move from high-profile internal game development during the past year.  It was only this past January that Disney shut down another of their game developers, Junction Point, after poor sales of its Epic Mickey titles.  Going back much further, Disney closed down developer Black Rock Studio when racing titles Pure and Split/Second failed to impress in the marketplace.  Unfortunately, LucasArts never appeared to have much of a chance fitting in with its new owner.

In defense of offended gamers, it is difficult not to be taken aback by the sudden non-existence of a gaming icon.  But I am willing to argue that Disney has made the best possible decision for their company, and if anything I retain more enthusiasm than ever for the fate of LucasArts' classic licenses.  I'll begin with a list of recent LucasArts games.  *Asterisks indicate titles developed internally at LucasArts.

2008
Fracture
Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Jedi Alliance*
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels
Star Wars:The Force Unleashed*

2009
Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings
Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues
Lucidity*
Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron
Star Wars Battlefront: Mobile Squadrons
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes*
Tales of Monkey Island

2010
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II*

2011
Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars
Star Wars: The Old Republic

2012
Angry Birds Star Wars
Kinect Star Wars

My first point: the success of modern LucasArts products created in-house.  There's no class in speaking poorly of the dead, but the above list illustrates that LucasArts most successful (critically and financially) titles have not come from within their walls.  Perhaps the last great LucasArts-developed success was Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, a high-budget title released five years ago; unfortunately, even this bright spot saw the game's development team laid off only days after launch.  The Force Unleashed II was put into creation under a new team  and saw much less favorable sales and critical reception.  In later years LucasArts experienced a messy web of layoffs and staff shuffling that even its bigwigs could not escape.  

Second point:  LucasArts' most lucrative titles were outsourced.   Traveller's Tales produces the enduringly-successful Lego games and Telltale games was trusted to continue the Monkey Island series. Scowl if you must, but Rovio's Angry Birds Star Wars is the most successful game under the brand since we rolled into a new millenium.

Third point: the management of LucasArts, when left to fill its own release slate with new IP, was only able to muster Fracture as a potential franchise.  In case you have forgotten that particular title, I will suggest to you that this potential was not met.  Disney picks winners.  Their big-budget games have failed at retail the past few years, but the likes of Epic Mickey, Pure, and Split/Second were widely-praised games from proven developers.  Their harshness in choosing partners and limiting in-house development leads to better products.

Finally, Disney enjoys putting their older properties to use.  Disney has a massive back catalog of IP, and can certainly be criticized for not utilizing all of it, but they are also known for respecting their wares.  It is an unfortunate truth that we will not see many, if any, big-budget gaming releases from Disney in the near future, but their small plays thus far are intelligent.  Remember that weeks ago Disney announced a new downloadable Ducktales game from developer Wayforward.  I found this to be very savvy: Ducktales has a small but loyal fanbase for both the cartoon and classic NES game, and Wayforward is known to specialize in throwbacks to old school game design.  That is not the kind of alignment to happen accidentally, and displays a favorable willingness on Disney's part to indulge videogame development on a smaller scale.  If an obscure license like Ducktales can thrive in the downloadable market our odds of seeing a new Monkey Island or a new Grim Fandango or a new Full Throttle will raise greatly.  The type of exploration and experimentation Disney has displayed with their Ducktales announcement is the type LucasArts avoided in almost every circumstance.

Cruel as it may be to celebrate the demise of a gaming legend, I am more hopeful for the legacy of LucasArts now than I have following a decade of the company's operations.  Am I right to have faith that Disney's interests in smaller game development will lend itself to honoring the history of LucasArts?  Or do you believe Disney's eyes in this buyout are solely on Star Wars, and the likes of Guybrush Threepwood will lay dormant in a warehouse for fifty years?  Let me know in the comments, readers.