You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
If you’re old enough to have played PC games for more than a decade, LucasArts (originally LucasFilm Games) likely has a permanent place in your heart after a string of legendary adventure and flight combat releases. You’ll unfortunately have to put the company as you knew it squarely in the past — Lucasfilm’s new owner, Disney, is ending internal development at LucasArts. The software house is shifting to a licensing model for Star Wars games, reportedly “minimizing the company’s risk” while expanding the range of games on offer. There’s a chance that in-progress titles like Star Wars 1313 will survive with outside help, according to a spokesperson in touch with GameInformer, but talk of layoffs from Kotaku dampens any chances for direct follow-ups to favorites like Grim Fandango. We won’t mourn too much when personas like Ron Gilbert, Lawrence Holland and Tim Schafer have long since moved on to other companies — still, it’s unquestionably the end of an era for game and movie fans alike.
Via: Joystiq
Source: GameInformer (1), (2)
The Star Wars video game company LucasArts has been closed down and is in the process of being broken apart by Disney. As Disney owns LucasFilm and the rights to all media therein, the video game subsidiary LucasArts is (or was) part of what they purchased. With this breakup of the company, Disney will be moving from an internal development model (with LucasArts) to a licensing model, this allowing companies from across the market their chance at developing video games in the Star Wars universe.
LucasArts created a collection of games over the past couple of decades including such mega-hits as X-Wing vs TIE Fighter and Dark Forces and some relatively lesser-known titles that will effectively fizzle. According to a statement provided by Game Informer, layoffs are imminent, if not already in-effect.
“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.” – Disney
Reports today suggest that every single one of LucasArts remaining 150 employees have been laid off this month. This is the last wave, it would seem, of a series of layoffs that span back several years. According to Ars Technica, LucasArts employees numbered closer to 500 back in the mid-2000s. This also isn’t the beginning of LucasFilm’s LucasArts licensing out the rights to games without in-house development.
• Star Wars: The Old Republic – Bioware
• Star Wars: Battlefront – Pandemic
• Lego Star Wars – Travellers Tales
Though it’s always difficult to report news of layoffs in any of the industries we report on, this information can be seen as a positive force for those interested in the further adventures of the characters inside the Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and several other LucasArts title universe. Though we’ve not heard specifically about anything beyond Star Wars titles at the moment, we’re certainly all for developers from all over the wide world of gaming taking their crack at A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away!
LucasArts shut down by Disney is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Disney acquired Lucasfilm back in October last year. Today it announced that it is pulling the plug on LucasArts, which was the game development arm of Lucasfilm. The studio says that it has decided to shift LucasArts from a development model to a licensing model. This ensures that the risk in brought down to a minimum, while licensing entails a broader portfolio of Star Wars titles from various developers it will be licensed to. What this basically means is that LucasArts will no longer be developing games internally. This move has resulted in an unspecified number of layoffs across the organization.
Disney also confirms that development of Star Wars 1313 is no longer under LucasArts, the future of this title is not certain at this point in time. LucasArts has been responsible for Star Wars titles as well as other video games such as Grim Fandango and The Secret of Monkey Island. Not known right now are the developers to which the Star Wars games will be licensed too. The last game that was released by LucasArts was a Kinect Star Wars title.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: BioShock Infinite’s Columbia Recreated In Minecraft, Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Director’s Cut For Wii U Is The ‘Definitive Version’, 
Earlier this morning, the online gaming community was abuzz with news that Star Wars 1313 has been listed for a release this year on the PS3 platform by PlayStation Germany, and it certainly lifted the spirits of many. Well, we hate to play the role of party pooper, but it is rather unfortunate that LucasArts has stepped in to claim that PlayStation Germany’s Facebook page gave out inaccurate information.
Here is what LucasArts had to say (from a representative, that is) concerning the hype surrounding Star Wars 1313 this morning, “Unfortunately we do not have any announcements to make at this time. At the same time, it is safe to say that this report is not accurate.”
We are, after all, just human, and mistakes do happen from time to time. Back to our normal lives now, at least until the next round of fresh rumors surrounding Star Wars 1313 start to circulate to get our hearts all a-flutter. Hopefully someone, somewhere, will be able to get more information on Star Wars 1313′s status in due time.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Angry Birds Rio Free On iTunes, Temple Run 2 Dashes To The Top Of App Store, 
Word on the street (in particular, online portfolios and CVs) do point towards the possibility of LucasArts coming up with an unannounced title – where hopefully, it will not remain that way for too long. Timothy Longo would be the project’s Creative Director, and this is a role that he stepped into after he left Crystal Dynamics as the Tomb Raider Franchise Director. Since then, he has been hard at work on an “unannounced project” since April a couple of years ago, or so that is what his Linkedin page indicated.
So far, there have been a fair number of speculations on what could be and what isn’t, and Star Wars: First Assault is not likely, and Star Wars 1313 is also not quite it, too. Chances are, it could be a First Person Shooter (FPS) since the Linkedin profile of Edward Kay, someone who has been working at LucasArts since September 2011, did mention “an unannounced first person shooter project for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.” This leaves us with a Star Wars FPS, which isn’t a new idea, but previous iterations have been thoroughly enjoyable.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Dueling Coming To Diablo 3 In Patch 1.0.7, Possible Final Fantasy V And VI Announcements Teased For 17th January, 
This week the upcoming president of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy, has made it clear to employess that she intended them to release 2-3 Star Wars films a year starting in 2015 with Episode VII. After the announcement was made by George Lucas himself that Lucasfilm and the rights to the Star Wars industry had been sold to Disney, it was just as giant a news flash that this meant a sequel to the 6th film in the series Return of the Jedi. Just about the only blast that could possibly have topped such an announcement is this: it’s just the beginning!
Speaking this week with Entertainment Weekly in their cover story surrounding The Future of Star Wars, Kennedy made dreams come true and shattered many mind-grapes at the same time with a 2-3 movie releases a year announcement. The comment was apparently made first inside Lucasfilm not long after Kennedy was announced to be taking over for Lucas once the $4 billion Disney deal was complete.
This has gigantic implications for the Star Wars universe, especially considering what Disney has done with Marvel Comics since they acquired that massive environment several years ago. Since Disney got to work with Marvel, they made it possible for a knock-out combination of films to be released, including Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America, Thor, and The Avengers.
The future of the Star Wars industry has been commented on by everyone from Robert Rodriguez to Jon Favreau, who captured it all very nicely with a simple: “I want so bad for it to be good.” With the Marvel universe expanding at a rather rapid rate in the film industry, chances are that Disney isn’t going to let an opportunity such as the one they’ve got here and now with Star Wars get away from them. Now we’ve just to hope they go with the Thrawn Trilogy like a good, sensible film production group would.
Star Wars films 2-3 times a year starting in 2015 is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Electronic Arts and LucasArts have announced the launch of Free-to-Play for Star Wars: The Old Republic. The option gives gamers access to the complete storylines for all eight classes up to level 50, as well as a host of other features. Free-to-play complements the already-available subscription option, “providing players with maximum flexibility in how they choose to experience” the game.
With the release of Game Update 1.5: HK-51 Activated comes a new Companion character and additional areas for gamers to explore. Players can explore Section X in the Belsavis prison world and take on a mission to get the Assassin Droid HK-51. In addition, players can undertake Operation: Explosive Conflict with Nightmare Mode to earn a new mount and Dread Guard gear set pieces.
We reported back in October about the free-to-play limitations, which only grants free players full access to story content. You will have to either subscribe or shell out Cartel Coins to gain access to Operations and remove the limitation of only being able to participate in three Warzones, Flashpoints, and Space Missions per week, for example. Free players will have limited inventory slots and character creation, among other things.
BioWare Austin’s General Manager Matthew Bromberg offered this statement: “We want to give our players the freedom to enjoy Star Wars: The Old Republic when and how they want. There has never been a better time to start playing with us.” SWTOR is the most expensive game ever developed, with development costs being estimated at $150 million to $200 million.
Star Wars: The Old Republic free-to-play option available now is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Yesterday’s surprising acquisition of Lucasfilm Ltd. and LucasArts by the Walt Disney Company was huge news, but now that the dust has settled, it’s time to find out what the future holds for Disney, as well as the Star Wars franchise dealing with both movies and video games. One big aspect that Disney mentioned, is that they plan on focusing more on mobile and social Star Wars titles rather than console games.
As far as movies go, we already know that Episode VII will arrive sometime in 2015, and we’re actually pretty excited about it. However, what does Disney have on the schedule as far as Star Wars video games go? LucasArts was in the middle of developing Star Wars 1313, and so far, Disney has no plans of canceling it. They say that all systems are still a go.
However, Disney CEO Robert Iger addressed the company’s future plans for game development with regards to the LucasArts acquisition. Iger says that Disney is “likely to focus more on social and mobile than [they] are on console.” However, this doesn’t mean they’re completely giving up on console gaming. Iger says Disney will “most likely” license out Star Wars to other game developers to make console games.
The official reason for which Disney decided to focus more on mobile and social gaming isn’t known, but we think it’s a fairly obvious one. The mobile gaming market is huge and extremely popular, so no doubt will Disney profit by developing a series of Star Wars-themed mobile and social games in the future.
[via Polygon]
Disney will focus on Star Wars mobile and social games is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
In what may be considered as the acquisition of all acquisitions, the Walt Disney Company has bought Lucasfilm Ltd. for just over $4 billion. The production company is responsible for all six Star Wars movies, as well as the Indiana Jones series, The Land Before Time, and American Graffiti.
The deal is a stock and cash transaction, with Lucasfilm founder George Lucas receiving around half of the $4.05 billion in cash, plus approximately 40 million stock shares. Lucas says that “it’s now time for [him] to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers.” Lucas always believed that the Star Wars name would live on well past his death, so Lucas “thought it was important to set up the transition during [his] lifetime.”
The deal also includes Industrial Light & Magic, Skywalker Sound, and LucasArts, meaning that all the Star Wars video games are also now owned by Disney. Kathleen Kennedy, Co-Chairman of Lucasfilm, will take over as President of the new Lucasfilm division and will report to Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn. George Lucas himself will stay on as creative consultant for the new Star Wars films, with Kennedy serving as executive producer.
It’s obviously unknown what the transaction will mean for the future of Lucasfilm and its many movies that it produced, but going from being completely owned by just one person (George Lucas) to now being owned by a huge corporation will surely spark some changes in the company, and possibly even some changes to upcoming films.
Disney acquires Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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