http://www.examiner.com/article/disney-closes-lucasarts-cancels-star-wars-1313-videoTech site Kotaku reported today that Disney has closed down Lucasarts and laid off all of its employees. Lucasarts is the gaming division of Lucasfilm. Two video games that were near release, “Star Wars 1313” and “Star Wars: First Assault”, have been cancelled altogether as a result. George Lucas sold Lucasfilm and all of its related businesses to Disney for over $4 billion last fall.
Lucasarts had signaled this outcome back in September when the company froze hiring and stopped promoting upcoming releases. The company once was a leader in innovative games, but in recent times has not had much success with in-house projects.
Disney plans to continue using the Lucasarts name in the licensing of “Star Wars”-related games.
"Star Wars 1313" has been heavily promoted for a couple years now by Lucasarts. The game was expected to be a big hit and feature a brand new main character. The story would have taken the player through the dark criminal underground of Coruscant.
Kotaku noted that both “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic” and “Star Wars: Battlefront” were licensed games developed by outside studios. These were critically acclaimed at the time of their release and went on to be best-sellers. Lucasarts in the same time span released “Kinect Star Wars,” which was heavily promoted and hated by critics.