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Topic:
LucasArts watch. Probably full of bad news.
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Janz_Walker
Registered:
Sep '00
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Date Posted:
9/8/04 12:12am
Subject:
RE: LucasArts watch. Probably full of bad news.
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Hmmm have you validated that Return of the Sith was outsourced? Mary Franklin and her Star Wars presentation at Dragon*Con this weekend mentioned nothing about that. Everything was presented as if LucasArts itself was still working on the project.
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jp-30
Registered:
Dec '00
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Date Posted:
9/8/04 2:25am
Subject:
RE: LucasArts watch. Probably full of bad news.
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> Hmmm have you validated that Return of the Sith was outsourced?
Yep. It's gone to "The Collective" to continue production with. But no doubt there are still plenty of people at LucasArts involved with the game in overall design, sound, marketing roles etc.
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jp-30
Registered:
Dec '00
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Date Posted:
2/24/05 8:04pm
Subject:
RE: LucasArts watch. Probably full of bad news.
- Date Edited:
2/24/05 8:18pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
jp-30
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From a post on the Monkey Island forums;
Hey guys. I just received my March issue of Game Informer Magazine with an interesting article: An Interview with Jim Ward - President, LucasArts/ Vice Pres. , Marketing & Distributing, Lucasfilm LTD.
Read into this as you will:
Q: LucasArts used to be known for making really unique original properties like Day of the Tentacle, then fell back primarily on Star Wars products exclusively. Are original games going to be a focus for the company?
A: We have three main goals. One is to restimulate the Star Wars IP with high quality games. Secondly, we're going to reinvigorate the Indiana Jones IP, which has basically been stagnant for years. There's no reason that Indiana Jones can't be a James Bond and have a year-in, year-out great representation of that brand. And take advantage of the fact that, in the next couple of years, there will be a new Indiana Jones movie. The third leg of this is definetely new IP. There's a heritage built into the DNA of LucasArts, and that's creativity and innovation. We need to move beyond the IP that we have. We certainly lost that. We lost that as the console console marketplace came into being; it was very strong on the PC platform. Once the company missed the adaptation of the console platforms, we've been in catch-up mode ever since. But that's going to change.
To be honest it's always been the biggest thrill to play with new characters in new settings. Secret of MI, Grim Fandango, The Dig, Full Throttle, Sam & Max Hit The Road. And (sort-of) Day of the Tentacle, which bore little resemblance to Maniac Mansion.
So if the MI series is over (as we've all suspected for years), I don't really care so long as LucasArts can make fun, interesting, well made games with their own new Intellectual Property again.
Yes, I know it won't be point-and-click adventures any time soon (or ever), but I don't really see this Jim Ward news as anything shocking or worthy of getting upset or annoyed about.
And more Indiana Jones, eh. Well, that's good if they can keep the quality high. I'm still plugging for my Indy Jones RPG style adventure using a KOTOR type engine.
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jp-30
Registered:
Dec '00
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Date Posted:
6/6 12:09am
Subject:
RE: LucasArts watch. Probably full of bad news.
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New Prez gets Old LucasArts' broom out
As is tradition at LucasArts, the new President Darrell Rodriguez has seen fit to turn over the company staff.
Industry sites are reporting mass layoffs. From Fragland;
Fragland posted:
We've heard from multiple sources today that LucasArts has laid off approximately 50-100 of its employees, including a handful of higher profile names like VP of Product Development Peter Hirschmann.
While LucasArts public relations did not get back to us today, several former LucasArts staffers did, with one telling us that 75-100 employees were laid off from the company, including the producer of LEGO Indiana Jones and LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Shawn Storc.
According to another source, up to 80% of staff has been laid off in departments such as Production Services, which includes QA and Compliance, with jobs planned to be outsourced overseas. Cuts were also said to be made in development, with art and programming staffers being laid off
It's like déjà vu all over again.
Indiana Jones 2007... 2008... 2015... 2020?
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SoloCommand
Title: Games Manager
& Chim Love Manager
Registered:
Jun '01
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Date Posted:
6/6 4:13am
Subject:
RE: LucasArts watch. Probably full of bad news.
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Aside from the obvious 'cuts in production services', I can see them outsourcing all of their development from now on =\
All they need to do now is cancel a title which everyone has been anticipating for years, or do a hostile takeover on Telltale, cancel all future episodes of Sam and Max and force them to develop new expansion packs for Galaxies... or something.
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FlareStorm
Registered:
Nov '00
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Date Posted:
6/6 4:17am
Subject:
RE: LucasArts watch. Probably full of bad news.
- Date Edited:
6/6 4:18am (1 edits total)
Edited By:
FlareStorm
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Star Wars Entertainment*
*an EA Games company **
** a Sony Online Entertainment division
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I_AM_GEEK
Registered:
Oct '04
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Date Posted:
6/6 1:19pm
Subject:
RE: LucasArts watch. Probably full of bad news.
- Date Edited:
6/6 1:24pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
I_AM_GEEK
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kotakuare being contacted by now former LA staff and one let out a few details about upcoming games
- KOTOR 3 (They say it's an MMO: most likely a joint project between Lucasarts and BioWare)
- Battlefront 3 (which we've already heard about)
- "The Official Indiana Jones" game (probably this one)
- "another LEGO game based on the Indy universe"
- "a lightsaber game for the wii (sorry, no lightsaber peripherals)"
Two internally-developed games apparently far enough along to be unaffected by the sackings are The Force Unleashed (which they say has already "passed approval with SCEA and is ready to ship") and Fracture, which they say is described by team members as "an absolute piece of garbage". 
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AlrikFassbauer
Registered:
Apr '03
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Date Posted:
6/7 4:23pm
Subject:
RE: LucasArts watch. Probably full of bad news.
- Date Edited:
6/7 4:26pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
AlrikFassbauer
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The company has been totally flatlined ... I mean mainstreamed ... into a company that sees games merely and only as a means to gain profits.
Purely economical point of view.
Cash Cow.
The bookkeepers have won.
They'vce taken over.
With the focus so much and so exclusively on "how are we gonna raise money most effectively ?" the Soul of LucasArts is totally gone.
What we now here is like Borg - an empty, soulless hull of ... something that wants profits. Money. Business.
*knock, knock* "Anybody home there ?"
"No, everybody's gone now. The book keepers are the only ones left."
The sad thing is that this happans far too often now. Aggressive economy guys have taken over, and they're more than determined in their belief system that anything art can be handled purely business - like.
There's nothing more than money in there. No fun - or at least just so much fun as it generates money and profits.
"It's a trap !"
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SionsBrother
Registered:
Nov '06
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Date Posted:
6/7 7:53pm
Subject:
RE: LucasArts watch. Probably full of bad news.
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LucasArts makes me sick. Kotor 3 would cure it though.
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jp-30
Registered:
Dec '00
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Date Posted:
6/8 6:42pm
Subject:
RE: LucasArts watch. Probably full of bad news.
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According to this report on Shacknews, the STFU team will be let go after production wraps and all works-in-progress outsourced.
Shacknews posted:
Following word of routine terminations at develolper LucasArts, a reliable source has informed Shacknews that the company plans to cease internal development and fire roughly 100 more employees after the completion of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.
LucasArts is known to have at least one other title, an Indiana Jones game, in development. Shacknews was told that, following the team's termination, all other partially-completed internal projects will be outsourced, a move that fits with earlier rumblings.
Why not just let LucasLicensing take over and shut (what's left of) the whole ******* place down?
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vong333
Registered:
Oct '03
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Date Posted:
6/8 7:09pm
Subject:
RE: LucasArts watch. Probably full of bad news.
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What can you expect? The game that we really need to get is KOTOR 3 and have that story finished. Instead, we get a game that is full of crappy force powers, and the all exclusive GL inspired, worked on, story of a secret apprentice that Vader trains. Boy that really sounds so exciting.  I'm not thrilled with this, then we get a Clone Wars video game exclusive to the Wii and the DS system. Well, I happen to be one of those unfortunate souls that cannot find a Wii, even if I wanted to pay double for it. The priorities of the company are all wrong.
Instead of getting more star wars movies (that would make sense) we get an animated series on a war that was fake to begin with. It's starting to have more importance than the Galactic Civil War at the rate this is going. Then we are going to get a live action series with of course GL involved, and I believe that its going to be like the Indy Shows. I'm not excited about that. So the fact that they are laying people off is no surpirse to me. What they need to do, is get their priorties right and release the stuff that needs to be released.
I feel that Dark Horse is the only company, and they deal with comic books, that have it right.
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SionsBrother
Registered:
Nov '06
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Date Posted:
6/8 9:02pm
Subject:
RE: LucasArts watch. Probably full of bad news.
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I agree with the Dark Horse thing. LucasArts seems to repay their employees pretty poorly, they make the very anticipated Force Unleashed and then get laid off for it. Oh well, that's business.
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"I did it all for the Wookiees" - Jolee Bindo
I do not think logically or outside the box
"Time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment because
they'll never come again." - Jean-Luc Picard
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FlareStorm
Registered:
Nov '00
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Date Posted:
6/8 9:29pm
Subject:
RE: LucasArts watch. Probably full of bad news.
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This doesn't inspire a lot of if confidence in the quality of STFU
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jp-30
Registered:
Dec '00
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Date Posted:
6/8 10:09pm
Subject:
RE: LucasArts watch. Probably full of bad news.
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Thanks to Kotaku for the quotes.
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jp-30
Registered:
Dec '00
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Date Posted:
6/9 4:16pm
Subject:
RE: LucasArts watch. Probably full of bad news.
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Things looking much less bad than reported by Kotaku.
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