Since Walt Disney purchased LucasFilm and all of its properties late last year, the main focus has been on the new Star Wars trilogy with J.J. Abrams. The acquisition is now reaching the video game world at LucasArts, where it was announced this week that the company will no longer be a game developer but merely just a licenser.

LucasArts has been a big influencer in the video game industry. Great games have come out of the publisher, such as Indiana Jones’ Greatest Adventures, Star Wars Battlefront, Star Wars: Dark Forces, and Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire. But most recently, the publisher hasn’t been producing quality titles.

The decision to stop game development is most likely due to the lack of interest in what the publisher was selling. Star Wars Battlefront III went no where and subscribers have been apparently declining over at Star Wars: The Old Repbulic.

Here is the official statement from Disney execs regarding their recent decision:

“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.”

It’s unfortunate that Disney had to shut down operations and force layoffs onto their employees, it’s not like the company was releasing major flops. Despite the highly praised presentation at E3 last year, the fate of Star Wars: 1313 is still unknown. Game Informer caught up with a representative at LucasArts regarding the matter:

“It is worth noting that we are looking for proven external partners who can help us provide video games to our fans. We still believe in the video game industry, we still will provide Star Wars games, we’re just looking at different models rather than internal production… They’re evaluating everything. There’s always a possibility that it [Star Wars 1313] can still come out via licensing.”

Other incomplete games such as Star Wars: First Assault lies in the wake of this announcement and we’ll have to see whether or not it gets finished in the near future.

The good news is that this could leave a lot of open potential for other third party studios to create a whole slew of new Star Wars games. Could you imagine a Arkham City like game created by Rocksteady on Coruscant with lightsabers and force powers? Maybe we’ll get a whole new podracing game like Need for Speed or Gran Turismo.

Source: Game Informer Article 1 & Article 2