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Lucasfilm Games

January 09, 2023

Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game licensor that is part of Lucasfilm.[2] It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as part of a larger 1990 reorganization of the Lucasfilm divisions, the video game development division was grouped and rebranded as part of LucasArts. LucasArts became known for its line of adventure games based on its SCUMM engine in the 1990s, including Maniac Mansion, the Monkey Island series, and several Indiana Jones titles. A number of influential game developers were alumni of LucasArts from this period, including Brian Moriarty, Tim Schafer, Ron Gilbert, and Dave Grossman. Later, as Lucasfilm regained control over its licensing over the Star Wars franchise, LucasArts produced numerous action-based Star Wars titles in the late 1990s and early 2000s, while dropping adventure game development due to waning interest in the genre.

Lucasfilm Games
FormerlyLucasArts Entertainment Company, LLC (1990–2021)
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryVideo games
FoundedMay 1, 1982; 40 years ago (1982-05-01)
FounderGeorge Lucas
HeadquartersLetterman Digital Arts Center[needs update],
San Francisco, California
,
US
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Douglas Reilly (vice president, games)
Number of employees
10 (2013)
ParentLucasfilm
Websitelucasfilm.com/what-we-do/games/
Footnotes / references
[1]

Lucasfilm was wholly acquired by The Walt Disney Company in December 2012, and by April 2013, Disney had announced the shuttering of LucasArts in all but name, keeping the division around to handle licensing of Lucasfilm properties to third-party developers, primarily Electronic Arts, and having any in-house development transferred to Disney Interactive Studios. Disney has since 2021 revitalized the Lucasfilm Games brand as the licenser of all Lucasfilm-related properties.

History

Early history

In 1979 George Lucas wanted to explore other areas of entertainment and created the Lucasfilm Computer Division in 1979, which included a department for computer games (the Games Group) and another for graphics. The graphics department was spun off into its own corporation in 1982, ultimately becoming Pixar.[3]

The Lucasfilm Games Group originally cooperated with Atari, Inc., which helped fund the video game group's founding,[4] to produce video games. Though the group had spun out of Lucasfilm, the video game development license for Lucasfilm's Star Wars was held by Atari at the time, forcing the group to start with original concepts; Ron Gilbert, one of the group's first employees, believed that if the Lucasfilm Games Group had the rights for Star Wars from the start, they would have never branched into any new intellectual property.[5]

The first products from the Games Group were unique action Ballblazer and Rescue on Fractalus!, developed in 1984[6] for the Atari 5200 console and the Atari 8-bit computers. Beta versions of both games were leaked to pirate bulletin boards exactly one week after Atari had received unprotected copies for a marketing review, and were in wide circulation over a year before the original release date. Planned to be released in the 3rd quarter of 1984 under the Atari/Lucasfilm label,[7][8][9][10][11] the games were delayed when Warner Communications sold the assets of the consumer division of Atari, Inc. to Jack Tramiel in July of that year, and were ultimately picked up by publisher Epyx and released for multiple home computers in mid-1985.[12][13][14] Lucasfilm's next two games were Koronis Rift and The Eidolon. Their first games were only developed by Lucasfilm, and a publisher would distribute the games. Atari published their games for Atari systems, Activision and Epyx would do their computer publishing. Maniac Mansion was the first game to be published and developed by Lucasfilm Games.[15]

The early charter of Lucasfilm Games was to make experimental, innovative, and technologically advanced video games.[16] Habitat, an early online role-playing game and one of the first to support a graphical front-end, was one such title.[5] It was only released as a beta test in 1986 by Quantum Link, an online service for the Commodore 64. Quantum Link could not provide the bandwidth at the time to support the game, so the full Habitat was never released outside of the beta test. However, Lucasfilm Games recouped the cost of development by releasing a sized-down version called Club Caribe in 1988. Lucasfilm later licensed the software to Fujitsu, who released it in Japan as Fujitsu Habitat in 1990. Fujitsu later licensed Habitat for world-wide distribution, and released an updated version called WorldsAway in 1995.[17] The latest iteration of Habitat is still called WorldsAway, which can be found at MetroWorlds.[18][19]

Initially, the Games Group worked from Lucas' Skywalker Ranch near Nicasio, California. In 1990, in a reorganization of the Lucas companies, the Games Division of Lucasfilm became part of the newly created LucasArts Entertainment Company, which also comprised Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound.[20] Later ILM and Skywalker Sound were consolidated in Lucas Digital Ltd. and LucasArts became the official name of the former Games Division. During this, the division had moved out of Skywalker Ranch to near-by offices in San Rafael, California.[5]

Also in 1990 LucasArts started to publish The Adventurer, their own gaming magazine where one could read about their upcoming games and interviews with the developers. The final issue was published in 1996. In the same year, Lucas Learning was created as a subsidiary of LucasArts, providing educational software for classrooms.[21]

iMUSE

Main article: iMUSE

iMUSE (Interactive MUsic Streaming Engine) is an interactive music system used in a number of LucasArts video games. It synchronizes music with the visual action in the game, and transitions from one musical theme to another. iMUSE was developed in the early 1990s by composers Michael Land and Peter McConnell while working at LucasArts.[22][23][24][25][26] The iMUSE system is patented by LucasArts,[27] and was added to the SCUMM game engine in 1991. The first game to use iMUSE was Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge[22] and it has been used in all LucasArts adventure games since. It has also been used for some non-adventure LucasArts titles, including Star Wars: X-Wing (DOS version), Star Wars: TIE Fighter (DOS version), and Star Wars: Dark Forces.

Action side-scrolling games

Lucasfilm Games also released several side-scrollers during the Lucasarts era, focusing primarily on run and gun gameplay. A trilogy of games under the name of Super Star Wars for the SNES, with each game based on each of the three films from the Star Wars Original Trilogy: Super Star Wars (1992), Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1993) and Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1994). An Indiana Jones game based on the first three films of the franchise titled Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures (1994)[28] was developed alongside Factor 5, the first of many joint collaborations between the two studios.[29]

They also released some games not based on their existing IPs. Zombies Ate My Neighbors (1993) and its sequel Ghoul Patrol (1994) were overhead run and gun side-scrollers inspired by classic 1950's Horror B-Movies. A spiritual successor called Herc's Adventures was released in 1997 and was inspired by Greek Mythology. Metal Warriors (1995), a side-scroller inspired by mecha anime, and Big Sky Trooper were also developed using the same engine as Zombies Ate My Neighbors.[30] Though these games sold poorly, they later garnered a cult following and are now considered to be Cult Classics from the 16-Bit era.[31]

Adventure games

Main article: LucasArts adventure games

The first adventure game developed by Lucasfilm Games was Labyrinth in 1986, based on the Lucasfilm movie of the same name. The 1987 title Maniac Mansion introduced SCUMM, the scripting language behind most of the company's later adventure offerings. The adventures released in the following years, such as Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders in 1988, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure in 1989, and the 1990 titles Loom and The Secret of Monkey Island helped Lucasfilm Games build a reputation as one of the leading developers in the genre. The original five adventure games created with SCUMM were released in a compilation titled LucasArts Classic Adventures in 1992.[32]

LucasArts was often referred to as one of the two big names in the field, competing with Sierra On-line as a developer of high quality adventures. The first half of the 1990s was the heyday for the company's adventure fame, with classic titles such as Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge in 1991, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis in 1992, Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max: Hit the Road in 1993, and the 1995 titles Full Throttle and The Dig.

In the latter half of the decade, the popularity of adventure games faded and the costs associated with game development increased as high-resolution art and C.D.-quality audio became standard fare. The PC market wanted titles that would show off expensive new graphics cards to best effect, a change replicated in the home console market as the 3D capabilities of the PlayStation, Sega Saturn and Nintendo 64 dictated the nature of the majority of games produced for those platforms. The adventure genre failed to find popularity with the masses of new gamers.

Despite their declining popularity, LucasArts still continued to release adventure titles. In 1997, The Curse of Monkey Island, the last LucasArts adventure game to retain traditional two-dimensional graphics and point-and-click interface, was released. This was followed by Grim Fandango in 1998, LucasArts' first attempt to convert a 2D adventure to a 3D environment. The highly stylised visuals, outstanding soundtrack,[33][34][35] superb voice acting and sophisticated writing earned Grim Fandango many plaudits, including GameSpot's Game of the Year award.[36] Escape from Monkey Island (2000), the fourth installment in the Monkey Island series, featured the same control scheme as Grim Fandango, and was generally well received. It is the last original adventure game the company has released.

Two sequels to existing franchises, Full Throttle: Hell on Wheels and Sam & Max: Freelance Police, were announced to be in development but these projects were cancelled, in 2003 and 2004 respectively, before the games were finished. When the rights to the Sam & Max franchise expired in 2005, the creator of Sam & Max, Steve Purcell, regained ownership. He then licensed Sam & Max to Telltale Games to be developed into an episodic game. Telltale Games is made up primarily of former LucasArts employees who had worked on the Sam & Max sequel and were let go after the project was canceled.[37]

LucasArts halted adventure game development for the next five years, focusing instead on their Star Wars games. They remained silent and did not rerelease their old games on digital distribution platforms, as other studios were doing at the time. However, in 2002, the company pledged that at least 50% of its releases would have nothing to do with Star Wars.[38] It was not until 2009 that they returned to the genre. On June 1, 2009, LucasArts announced both The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition, a high-definition remake of the original game with revised graphics, music and voice work, and Tales of Monkey Island, a new episodic installment in the Monkey Island series that was developed by Telltale Games.

Then, on July 6, 2009, they announced that they would be rereleasing a number of their classic games, including Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and LOOM, on Steam. The rereleases were, for the first time, native versions built for Microsoft Windows. This was the first time in many years that the studio had offered any support for its classic adventure titles.

The second game in the Monkey Island series also received a high-definition remake, entitled Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge Special Edition in 2010. Both Monkey Island special edition games were released in a compilation, Monkey Island Special Edition Collection, exclusively in Europe in 2011.

The release of the unofficial SCUMM virtual machine, ScummVM, has led to something of a resurgence for LucasArts adventure games among present-day gamers. Using ScummVM, legacy adventure titles can easily be run on modern computers and even more unusual platforms such as video game consoles, mobile phones and PDAs.

Simulation games

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Lucasfilm Games developed a series of military vehicle simulation games, the first of which were the naval simulations PHM Pegasus in 1986 and Strike Fleet in 1987.[39] These two titles were published by Electronic Arts for a variety of computer platforms, including PC, Commodore 64 and Apple II.

In 1988, Battlehawks 1942 launched a trilogy of World War II air combat simulations, giving the player a chance to fly as an American or Japanese pilot in the Pacific Theater. Battlehawks 1942 was followed by Their Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain in 1989, recreating the battle between the Luftwaffe and RAF for Britain's air supremacy. The trilogy ended with Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe in 1991, in which the player could choose to fly on either the American or German side. The trilogy was lauded for its historical accuracy and detailed supplementary material—Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, for instance, was accompanied by a 224-page historical manual. The World War II trilogy was released with cover art by illustrator Marc Ericksen, in a compilation titled Air Combat Classics in 1994.[40]

The World War II trilogy was created by a team led by Lawrence Holland, a game designer who later founded Totally Games. Totally Games would continue to develop games almost exclusively to LucasArts for a decade, with the most noted outcome of the symbiosis being the X-Wing series. They were also responsible for LucasArts' 2003 return to the aerial battles of World War II with Secret Weapons Over Normandy, a title released on PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC

In 1996, LucasArts released Afterlife, a simulator in which players build their own Heaven and Hell, with several jokes and puns (such as a prison in Hell called San Quentin Tarantino).

First Star Wars games

Even though LucasArts had created games based on other Lucasfilm properties before (Labyrinth, Indiana Jones), they did not use the Star Wars license until the early 1990s, as the Star Wars license had been held by Broderbund until 1992 when they reverted back to Lucasfilm.[41][42] The first in-house development was the space combat simulator X-Wing, developed by Larry Holland's independent team, which went on to spawn a successful series.

The CD-ROM-only Star Wars game Rebel Assault became one of the biggest successes of the company and was considered a killer app for CD-ROM drives in the early 1990s.

First-person shooters

After the unprecedented success of id Software's Doom, the PC gaming market shifted towards production of three-dimensional first person shooters. LucasArts contributed to this trend with the 1995 release of Star Wars: Dark Forces, a first person shooter that successfully transplanted the Doom formula to a Star Wars setting. The Dark Forces Strategy guide claims that development was well underway before Doom was released and that the game was pushed back once Doom hit shelves so that it could be polished. The game was well received and spawned a new franchise: the Jedi Knight games. This began with the sequel to Dark Forces, Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II released in 1997; this game reflected the changing face of PC gaming, being one of the first games to appreciably benefit when used in conjunction with a dedicated 3D graphics card like 3dfx's Voodoo range. The game received an expansion pack, Mysteries of the Sith, in 1998 and a full sequel in 2002 with Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. 2003's Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy can be seen as a spin-off from the series, but was less well received by reviewers, who complained that the franchise was becoming formulaic.

Apart from Star Wars-themed 3D shooters, LucasArts also created the western-themed game Outlaws in 1997 and Armed and Dangerous (in collaboration with Planet Moon Studios) in 2003.

In the new millennium

In 2000, Simon Jeffery became the LucasArts president. He was president of LucasArts until 2003 and some successful Star Wars games released during his management like Star Wars Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast, Star Wars Rogue Squadron 2, Knights of the Old Republic, Star Wars Jedi Academy and Star Wars Galaxies. Development of some other successful Star Wars Games began during his management, like Star Wars Republic Commando and Star Wars Battlefront.

In 2002, LucasArts recognized that the over-reliance on Star Wars was reducing the quality of its output, and announced that future releases would be at least 50% non-Star Wars-related.[43] However, many[vague] of the original titles were either unsuccessful or even cancelled before release, and since then LucasArts again had mainly Star Wars titles in production.

Also in 2002, LucasArts released a compilation CD filled with music from their past games. The album is titled The Best of LucasArts Original Soundtracks and features music from the Monkey Island series, Grim Fandango, Outlaws, and The Dig.

2003 saw the fruitful collaboration of LucasArts and BioWare on the well reviewed role-playing game, Knights of the Old Republic. Combining modern 3D graphics with high-quality storytelling and a sophisticated role-playing game system, this game reinvigorated the Star Wars franchise. Its 2004 sequel Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords continued in the same vein, but LucasArts was criticized for forcing the developer Obsidian Entertainment to release the sequel unfinished,[44] resulting in a significant amount of cut content, a disappointing ending and numerous bugs. 2003 also saw the release of Gladius, a gladiator Tactical RPG that was positively received but sold poorly and was even rated as one of the "best Xbox games most people never played" by Official Xbox Magazine.[45]

In 2003, LucasArts and the Star Wars franchise also branched out in a new direction—the world of the MMORPG, with the creation of Star Wars Galaxies. After a successful launch, the first expansion, Jump to Lightspeed, was released in 2004. The new expansion featured the addition of real-time space combat. This was continued in Rage of the Wookiees, an additional expansion which added an additional planet for users to explore. Also, a new expansion, Trials of Obi-Wan was released on November 1, 2005 consisting of several new missions focusing on the Episode 3 planet, Mustafar. While Star Wars Galaxies still retained a devoted following, it also alienated many players.[citation needed] Star Wars Galaxies chose to ignore the timeline established in the original films, during which the game is set, and also allowed players to play as Jedi characters. The game also underwent several major redesigns, which were received with mixed reactions by players.[citation needed]

Restructuring under Jim Ward

In April 2004, Jim Ward, V.P. of marketing, online and global distributions at Lucasfilm, was appointed president of LucasArts.[46] Ward performed a top-to-bottom audit of LucasArts infrastructure, describing the company's state as "quite a mess."[47] In 2003, LucasArts had reportedly grossed just over $100,000,000 according to N.P.D., primarily from its Star Wars titles — significantly less than the grosses from the year's top single titles such as Halo.[46] Ward produced a five-year investment plan to refit the company.[48] Previous Star Wars games had been produced by external developers such as Raven Software, BioWare and Obsidian; Ward now prioritized making LucasArts' internal game development work effectively and adapt to the evolving game industry. Star Wars: Battlefront, Star Wars: Republic Commando, and Star Wars: Episode III survived cuts that closed down other in-development games and reduced staff from about 450 to 190 employees.[47]

Ward also canceled Star Wars Rogue Squadron Trilogy which was 50% completed and it was going to be released on the Xbox in 2004.[49]

Factor 5 was going to develop a Rogue Squadron game titled Rogue Squadron: X-Wing vs Tie Fighter for the Xbox 360 but it was canceled by LucasArts.[49]

After Factor 5's exclusivity with Sony ended they decided to release Rogue Squadron Trilogy for the Wii, but it was eventually cancelled as well.[49]

In 2004, LucasArts released Star Wars: Battlefront, based on the same formula as the popular Battlefield series of games. It ended up becoming the best-selling Star Wars game of all time to that point, aided by a marketing tie-in with the original trilogy D.V.D. release.[50] Its sequel, Star Wars: Battlefront II, was released on November 1, 2005 and featured new locales such as Episode III planets Mustafar, Mygeeto, etc., in addition to space combat, playable Jedi, and new special units like Bothan spies and Imperial officers. In this same year, the second "Knights of the Old Republic" game was in production. LucasArts told Obsidian Entertainment that the project needed to be finished by that year's holiday season. Obsidian was forced to cut huge amounts of content from the game, resulting in a rushed, unfinished Knights of the Old Republic II.

In March 2005, LucasArts published Lego Star Wars: The Video Game, the first game in the popular Lego video game franchise by Traveller's Tales. It was based on the Star Wars prequel trilogy.[51] In May 2005, LucasArts released Revenge of the Sith, a third person action game based on the film. Also in 2005, LucasArts released Star Wars: Republic Commando, and one of their few non-Star Wars games, Mercenaries, developed by Pandemic Studios.

On February 16, 2006, LucasArts released Star Wars: Empire at War, a real-time strategy game developed by Petroglyph. September 12, 2006 saw the release of Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, the sequel to the popular Lego Star Wars: The Video Game. Lego Star Wars II, once again developed by Traveller's Tales and published by LucasArts, follows the same basic format as the first game, but, as the name indicates, covers the original Star Wars trilogy.

A game titled Traxion was announced. Traxion was a rhythm game which was under development for the PlayStation Portable by British developer Kuju Entertainment, scheduled to be released in Q4 2006 by LucasArts, but was instead cancelled in January 2007. The game was to feature a number of minigames, and would support imported songs from the player's own mp3 library as well as the game's bundled collection.

In May 2007, LucasArts announced Fracture and stated that "new intellectual properties serve a vital role to the growth of LucasArts". Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction was labelled the number one new IP in 2005 and Thrillville the number one new children's IP in 2006.[52] Fracture was released on October 7, 2008 to average reviews.[53] Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction was released on January 11, 2005 to critical and commercial success which led to a sequel, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames. Thrillville was released on November 21, 2006, and Thrillville: Off the Rails was released on October 16, 2007.

On September 16, 2008, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was released to mixed reviews,[54] though it quickly became the fastest-selling Star Wars game of all time.[55]

The rapid scaling down of internal projects at LucasArts was also reflected in its handling of games developed by external developers. During the tenure of Ward, Free Radical was contracted to produce Star Wars: Battlefront III, which had been in production for 2 years. Free Radical co-founder Steve Ellis described how working with LucasArts evolved from being "the best relationship we'd ever had with a publisher"[56] to withholding money for 6 months and abusing the independent developer's position to withhold the full project cancellation fee—this was a major event which contributed towards Free Radical entering administration.[56][57]

Last years as part of an independent Lucasfilm

Ward left the company in early February 2008, for personal reasons. He was replaced by Howard Roffman as interim president. Darrell Rodriguez, who came from Electronic Arts, took Roffman's place in April 2008.[58] About a month prior to release of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, LucasArts scaled down the internal development studio.[59] The aforementioned game received a mediocre score from some media outlets such as IGN, GameSpot and GameTrailers.[60][61][62] After release, minor adjustment in staffing resulted in even more layoffs.[63]

The successor to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, in the form of the MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic, was announced on October 21, 2008, at an invitation-only press event.[64] developed by BioWare.[65] It was released in December 2011.

They also published Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Republic Heroes in 2009 for all current systems.[66] The game is a tie-in to The Clone Wars television series and was released on October 6, 2009, receiving generally negative reviews.[67]

During television network G4's coverage of the 2006 E3 Convention, a LucasArts executive was asked about the return of popular franchises such as Monkey Island. The executive responded that the company was currently focusing on new franchises, and that LucasArts may return to the "classic franchises" in 2015, though it was unclear as to whether the date was put forwards as an actual projection, or hyperbole.[68] This turned out to be hyperbole, as LucasArts and Telltale Games announced new adventure games in a joint press release in 2009. The games announced were Tales of Monkey Island, which was to be developed by Telltale, and a LucasArts-developed enhanced remake of the 1990 title The Secret of Monkey Island, with the intent of bringing the old game to a new audience.[69] According to LucasArts, this announcement was "just the start of LucasArts’ new mission to revitalize its deep portfolio of beloved gaming franchises". Following the success of this, LucasArts released the sequel, Monkey Island 2 – Special Edition in the summer of 2010.[69]

The company began experiencing turnovers in layoffs in 2010. Rodriguez left in May after just two years on the job. A Lucasfilm board of Directors and a game industry veteran, Jerry Bowerman, filled in during the transition.[70][71] Rodriguez was ultimately replaced in June by Paul Meegan, formerly of Gears of War developer Epic Games.

In July 2010, Haden Blackman, who served as creative director on the original Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, LucasArts' most successful internally produced title of recent years, and the sequel, unexpectedly left. However, the company scored a surprise coup in August 2010 when Clint Hocking, a high-profile game director from Ubisoft, announced that he would be joining LucasArts. His tenure at LucasArts was short lived however, as Hocking left LucasArts in June 2012 before the game he was working on was released.[72] In September 2010, a third of the employees at LucasArts were laid off.[73]

In March 2011, LucasArts published a sequel to the popular Lego Star Wars series, Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars, based on the Clone Wars animated series, once again developed by Traveller's Tales. Sony Online Entertainment announced in June 2011 that Star Wars Galaxies would be shutting down at the end of 2011.[74] Its services were terminated on December 15, 2011.[75]

Another canceled title of Lucasarts was a Darth Maul game which was going to be developed by the same company which made the Wii version of The Force Unleashed II.[76]

On April 26, 2011, LucasArts announced that it had acquired a license from Epic Games to develop a number of future titles using the Unreal Engine 3 for a number of platforms.[77] Star Wars 1313, a proposed action-adventure about Boba Fett navigating Coruscant's subterranean underworld,[78] was confirmed to use the Unreal Engine 3.[a] However, the game was cancelled as a result of the closure of the development arm of LucasArts.[80]

In April 2012, LucasArts published Kinect Star Wars, developed by Terminal Reality, for the Xbox 360. It was poorly reviewed by critics, receiving an aggregated score of 53.32% on GameRankings[81] and 55/100 on Metacritic.[82]

In August 2012, Meegan, who replaced Rodriguez as president in 2010, also left his position at LucasArts after just two years on the job. Kevin Parker and Gio Corsi were named to co-lead the studio until the studio would choose a permanent president, with the former as interim head of business operations and the latter as interim head of studio production.[83]

The last game released through LucasArts as a subsidiary of an independent Lucasfilm was Angry Birds Star Wars, a game that gave the Angry Birds characters costumes and abilities based on the original Star Wars trilogy. It was released on November 8, 2012, before the Disney acquisition of Lucasfilm was finalized.[84] The game was developed and published by Rovio Entertainment, and licensed by LucasArts.[85]

Acquisition by Disney

The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm and its subsidiaries including LucasArts by December 21, 2012, following regulatory approval in a deal for $4.05 billion. At the time, there were no plans for any downsizing of Lucasfilm divisions, and a LucasArts representative said that "for the time being, all projects are business as usual".[86][87][88] In the months that followed, LucasArts was believed to be working on three untitled games: an open-world RPG,[89] an FPS, and an aerial combat game.[90][91] This included refocusing work away from Star Wars games already in development such as Star Wars 1313 and First Assault to put more focus on Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens.[92]

Lucasfilm announced on April 3, 2013, that it was shuttering its video game development practice, laying off most of the LucasArts staff. Any further game development would be handled by Disney Interactive Studios or licensed to third-party developers.[93] A skeleton staff of fewer than ten employees remained at LucasArts to function as a video game licensor.[1][94][95][93] Disney indicated that the new business model would "[minimize] the company's risk while achieving a broad portfolio of quality Star Wars games."[96] Around 150 staff members lost their jobs as a result of the closure.[97] The layoffs at LucasArts also resulted in layoffs at fellow visual effects subsidiary Industrial Light & Magic; as many of LucasArts' employees also worked for ILM, the company was left overstaffed.[98] Electronic Arts became one of the major third-party publishers for Star Wars games through an exclusive multi-year license, while Disney Interactive Studios would handle development for the casual gaming market of "mobile, social, tablet and online game categories".[99]

Lucasfilm announced on January 11, 2021 that it was reestablishing the Lucasfilm Games brand for all future gaming titles from Lucasfilm, though it would remain solely as a licensor of Lucasfilm properties.[100] Later that week, it was announced that MachineGames was developing a game based upon the Indiana Jones franchise with Todd Howard serving as an executive producer and Bethesda publishing the game, and that Massive Entertainment was developing an open world Star Wars game with Julian Gerighty serving as creative director and Ubisoft publishing the game. It was also revealed that EA was still in development on several games based upon the Star Wars franchise.[101][102] In September 2021, it was announced that a remake of Knights of the Old Republic was in development. The game is being developed by Aspyr for Windows and PlayStation 5, for which it will serve as a timed console-exclusive.[103] In December 2021, Star Wars Eclipse was announced at The Game Awards 2021; it is an action-adventure game in the early stages of development by Quantic Dream. The game will feature multiple playable characters with branching narratives. It is set in the Star Wars universe and is part of the High Republic multimedia project, which places the events of the game 200 years before the original Star Wars trilogy.[104][105] In January 2022, it was announced that Respawn Entertainment would be developing multiple Star Wars games, including a Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order sequel, entitled Jedi: Survivor, alongside FPS and Strategy video games.[106] In April 2022, it was announced that Lucasfilm Games would be co-publishing Return to Monkey Island alongside Devolver Digital, a sequel to LeChuck's Revenge with series creator Ron Gilbert returning to develop the game with his company Terrible Toybox.[107] That same month, it was announced that Skydance New Media would be collaberating with Lucasfilm Games to make a game based in the Star Wars universe, with Amy Hennig leading the project.[108]

 
The original "Gold Guy" LucasArts logo (1992–2005)
 
The simplified and modernized “Gold Guy” LucasArts logo (2005–2013)

The original Lucasfilm Games logo was based upon the existing Lucasfilm movie logo, with a number of variations on it being used. This logo was later brought back when the Lucasfilm Games branding was revived in 2021. The long-lived LucasArts logo, affectionately known as the "Gold Guy", was introduced in 1990 and first used within Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge (the first game shipped under the LucasArts name). The logo consisted of a crude gold-colored figure inspired from a similar petroglyph, standing on a purple letter "L" inscribed with the company name. The figure had its hands up in the air, as if a sun were rising from behind him. It was also said to resemble an eye, with the rays of the sun as eyelashes. The logo was revised in late 2005, losing the letter "L" pedestal and introducing a more rounded version of the gold-colored figure.[5] The last game to feature the original "Gold Guy" was Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, while the new logo was first seen in Star Wars: Battlefront II. In the games, the figure sometimes does an action like throw a lightsaber or cast Force Lightning. In 1998, LucasArts approached Finnish game developer Remedy Entertainment, citing that their logo was copied from the top portion of the LucasArts logo, and threatened legal action.[109] Remedy was by that time already in the process of redesigning their logo, so they complied by taking their old logo offline from their website, and introducing their new logo a little later.

Legacy

Ex-LucasArts developers have founded numerous San Francisco game development studios such as Double Fine Productions (2000), Telltale Games (2004), MunkyFun (2008), Dynamighty (2011), SoMa Play (2013), and Fifth Journey (2015) playing a significant role in the continued development of computer games in the Bay Area.

At the 2014 Electronic Entertainment Expo, Sony Computer Entertainment announced Grim Fandango Remastered, developed by Double Fine Productions as a console exclusive for PlayStation platforms.[110] It was released in 2015 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, Android, and iOS.[111][112] During Sony's new PlayStation Experience convention in 2014, another remaster by Double Fine, Day of the Tentacle Remastered, was announced.[113] It was released in March 2016 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux.[113][114] At the 2015 PlayStation Experience, another remastered game by Double Fine was announced, Full Throttle Remastered. It was released in April 2017 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux.[115]

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ In September 2013, Lucasfilm chief technology strategy officer Kim Libreri demonstrated a video of motion capture being processed in real time by the Star Wars 1313 engine and its assets.[79]

Citations

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External links

January 09, 2023
lucasfilm, games, known, lucasarts, between, 1990, 2021, american, video, game, licensor, that, part, lucasfilm, founded, 1982, george, lucas, video, game, development, group, alongside, film, company, part, larger, 1990, reorganization, lucasfilm, divisions, . Lucasfilm Games known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021 is an American video game licensor that is part of Lucasfilm 2 It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company as part of a larger 1990 reorganization of the Lucasfilm divisions the video game development division was grouped and rebranded as part of LucasArts LucasArts became known for its line of adventure games based on its SCUMM engine in the 1990s including Maniac Mansion the Monkey Island series and several Indiana Jones titles A number of influential game developers were alumni of LucasArts from this period including Brian Moriarty Tim Schafer Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman Later as Lucasfilm regained control over its licensing over the Star Wars franchise LucasArts produced numerous action based Star Wars titles in the late 1990s and early 2000s while dropping adventure game development due to waning interest in the genre Lucasfilm GamesFormerlyLucasArts Entertainment Company LLC 1990 2021 TypeSubsidiaryIndustryVideo gamesFoundedMay 1 1982 40 years ago 1982 05 01 FounderGeorge LucasHeadquartersLetterman Digital Arts Center needs update San Francisco California USArea servedWorldwideKey peopleDouglas Reilly vice president games Number of employees10 2013 ParentLucasfilmWebsitelucasfilm com what we do games Footnotes references 1 Lucasfilm was wholly acquired by The Walt Disney Company in December 2012 and by April 2013 Disney had announced the shuttering of LucasArts in all but name keeping the division around to handle licensing of Lucasfilm properties to third party developers primarily Electronic Arts and having any in house development transferred to Disney Interactive Studios Disney has since 2021 revitalized the Lucasfilm Games brand as the licenser of all Lucasfilm related properties Contents 1 History 1 1 Early history 1 2 iMUSE 1 3 Action side scrolling games 1 4 Adventure games 1 5 Simulation games 1 6 First Star Wars games 1 7 First person shooters 1 8 In the new millennium 1 9 Restructuring under Jim Ward 1 10 Last years as part of an independent Lucasfilm 1 11 Acquisition by Disney 2 Logo 3 Legacy 4 See also 5 References 5 1 Sources 6 External linksHistory EditEarly history Edit In 1979 George Lucas wanted to explore other areas of entertainment and created the Lucasfilm Computer Division in 1979 which included a department for computer games the Games Group and another for graphics The graphics department was spun off into its own corporation in 1982 ultimately becoming Pixar 3 The Lucasfilm Games Group originally cooperated with Atari Inc which helped fund the video game group s founding 4 to produce video games Though the group had spun out of Lucasfilm the video game development license for Lucasfilm s Star Wars was held by Atari at the time forcing the group to start with original concepts Ron Gilbert one of the group s first employees believed that if the Lucasfilm Games Group had the rights for Star Wars from the start they would have never branched into any new intellectual property 5 The first products from the Games Group were unique action Ballblazer and Rescue on Fractalus developed in 1984 6 for the Atari 5200 console and the Atari 8 bit computers Beta versions of both games were leaked to pirate bulletin boards exactly one week after Atari had received unprotected copies for a marketing review and were in wide circulation over a year before the original release date Planned to be released in the 3rd quarter of 1984 under the Atari Lucasfilm label 7 8 9 10 11 the games were delayed when Warner Communications sold the assets of the consumer division of Atari Inc to Jack Tramiel in July of that year and were ultimately picked up by publisher Epyx and released for multiple home computers in mid 1985 12 13 14 Lucasfilm s next two games were Koronis Rift and The Eidolon Their first games were only developed by Lucasfilm and a publisher would distribute the games Atari published their games for Atari systems Activision and Epyx would do their computer publishing Maniac Mansion was the first game to be published and developed by Lucasfilm Games 15 The early charter of Lucasfilm Games was to make experimental innovative and technologically advanced video games 16 Habitat an early online role playing game and one of the first to support a graphical front end was one such title 5 It was only released as a beta test in 1986 by Quantum Link an online service for the Commodore 64 Quantum Link could not provide the bandwidth at the time to support the game so the full Habitat was never released outside of the beta test However Lucasfilm Games recouped the cost of development by releasing a sized down version called Club Caribe in 1988 Lucasfilm later licensed the software to Fujitsu who released it in Japan as Fujitsu Habitat in 1990 Fujitsu later licensed Habitat for world wide distribution and released an updated version called WorldsAway in 1995 17 The latest iteration of Habitat is still called WorldsAway which can be found at MetroWorlds 18 19 Initially the Games Group worked from Lucas Skywalker Ranch near Nicasio California In 1990 in a reorganization of the Lucas companies the Games Division of Lucasfilm became part of the newly created LucasArts Entertainment Company which also comprised Industrial Light amp Magic and Skywalker Sound 20 Later ILM and Skywalker Sound were consolidated in Lucas Digital Ltd and LucasArts became the official name of the former Games Division During this the division had moved out of Skywalker Ranch to near by offices in San Rafael California 5 Also in 1990 LucasArts started to publish The Adventurer their own gaming magazine where one could read about their upcoming games and interviews with the developers The final issue was published in 1996 In the same year Lucas Learning was created as a subsidiary of LucasArts providing educational software for classrooms 21 iMUSE Edit Main article iMUSE iMUSE Interactive MUsic Streaming Engine is an interactive music system used in a number of LucasArts video games It synchronizes music with the visual action in the game and transitions from one musical theme to another iMUSE was developed in the early 1990s by composers Michael Land and Peter McConnell while working at LucasArts 22 23 24 25 26 The iMUSE system is patented by LucasArts 27 and was added to the SCUMM game engine in 1991 The first game to use iMUSE was Monkey Island 2 LeChuck s Revenge 22 and it has been used in all LucasArts adventure games since It has also been used for some non adventure LucasArts titles including Star Wars X Wing DOS version Star Wars TIE Fighter DOS version and Star Wars Dark Forces Action side scrolling games Edit Lucasfilm Games also released several side scrollers during the Lucasarts era focusing primarily on run and gun gameplay A trilogy of games under the name of Super Star Wars for the SNES with each game based on each of the three films from the Star Wars Original Trilogy Super Star Wars 1992 Super Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back 1993 and Super Star Wars Return of the Jedi 1994 An Indiana Jones game based on the first three films of the franchise titled Indiana Jones Greatest Adventures 1994 28 was developed alongside Factor 5 the first of many joint collaborations between the two studios 29 They also released some games not based on their existing IPs Zombies Ate My Neighbors 1993 and its sequel Ghoul Patrol 1994 were overhead run and gun side scrollers inspired by classic 1950 s Horror B Movies A spiritual successor called Herc s Adventures was released in 1997 and was inspired by Greek Mythology Metal Warriors 1995 a side scroller inspired by mecha anime and Big Sky Trooper were also developed using the same engine as Zombies Ate My Neighbors 30 Though these games sold poorly they later garnered a cult following and are now considered to be Cult Classics from the 16 Bit era 31 Adventure games Edit Main article LucasArts adventure games The first adventure game developed by Lucasfilm Games was Labyrinth in 1986 based on the Lucasfilm movie of the same name The 1987 title Maniac Mansion introduced SCUMM the scripting language behind most of the company s later adventure offerings The adventures released in the following years such as Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders in 1988 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade The Graphic Adventure in 1989 and the 1990 titles Loom and The Secret of Monkey Island helped Lucasfilm Games build a reputation as one of the leading developers in the genre The original five adventure games created with SCUMM were released in a compilation titled LucasArts Classic Adventures in 1992 32 LucasArts was often referred to as one of the two big names in the field competing with Sierra On line as a developer of high quality adventures The first half of the 1990s was the heyday for the company s adventure fame with classic titles such as Monkey Island 2 LeChuck s Revenge in 1991 Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis in 1992 Maniac Mansion Day of the Tentacle and Sam amp Max Hit the Road in 1993 and the 1995 titles Full Throttle and The Dig In the latter half of the decade the popularity of adventure games faded and the costs associated with game development increased as high resolution art and C D quality audio became standard fare The PC market wanted titles that would show off expensive new graphics cards to best effect a change replicated in the home console market as the 3D capabilities of the PlayStation Sega Saturn and Nintendo 64 dictated the nature of the majority of games produced for those platforms The adventure genre failed to find popularity with the masses of new gamers Despite their declining popularity LucasArts still continued to release adventure titles In 1997 The Curse of Monkey Island the last LucasArts adventure game to retain traditional two dimensional graphics and point and click interface was released This was followed by Grim Fandango in 1998 LucasArts first attempt to convert a 2D adventure to a 3D environment The highly stylised visuals outstanding soundtrack 33 34 35 superb voice acting and sophisticated writing earned Grim Fandango many plaudits including GameSpot s Game of the Year award 36 Escape from Monkey Island 2000 the fourth installment in the Monkey Island series featured the same control scheme as Grim Fandango and was generally well received It is the last original adventure game the company has released Two sequels to existing franchises Full Throttle Hell on Wheels and Sam amp Max Freelance Police were announced to be in development but these projects were cancelled in 2003 and 2004 respectively before the games were finished When the rights to the Sam amp Max franchise expired in 2005 the creator of Sam amp Max Steve Purcell regained ownership He then licensed Sam amp Max to Telltale Games to be developed into an episodic game Telltale Games is made up primarily of former LucasArts employees who had worked on the Sam amp Max sequel and were let go after the project was canceled 37 LucasArts halted adventure game development for the next five years focusing instead on their Star Wars games They remained silent and did not rerelease their old games on digital distribution platforms as other studios were doing at the time However in 2002 the company pledged that at least 50 of its releases would have nothing to do with Star Wars 38 It was not until 2009 that they returned to the genre On June 1 2009 LucasArts announced both The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition a high definition remake of the original game with revised graphics music and voice work and Tales of Monkey Island a new episodic installment in the Monkey Island series that was developed by Telltale Games Then on July 6 2009 they announced that they would be rereleasing a number of their classic games including Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and LOOM on Steam The rereleases were for the first time native versions built for Microsoft Windows This was the first time in many years that the studio had offered any support for its classic adventure titles The second game in the Monkey Island series also received a high definition remake entitled Monkey Island 2 LeChuck s Revenge Special Edition in 2010 Both Monkey Island special edition games were released in a compilation Monkey Island Special Edition Collection exclusively in Europe in 2011 The release of the unofficial SCUMM virtual machine ScummVM has led to something of a resurgence for LucasArts adventure games among present day gamers Using ScummVM legacy adventure titles can easily be run on modern computers and even more unusual platforms such as video game consoles mobile phones and PDAs Simulation games Edit In the late 1980s and early 1990s Lucasfilm Games developed a series of military vehicle simulation games the first of which were the naval simulations PHM Pegasus in 1986 and Strike Fleet in 1987 39 These two titles were published by Electronic Arts for a variety of computer platforms including PC Commodore 64 and Apple II In 1988 Battlehawks 1942 launched a trilogy of World War II air combat simulations giving the player a chance to fly as an American or Japanese pilot in the Pacific Theater Battlehawks 1942 was followed by Their Finest Hour The Battle of Britain in 1989 recreating the battle between the Luftwaffe and RAF for Britain s air supremacy The trilogy ended with Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe in 1991 in which the player could choose to fly on either the American or German side The trilogy was lauded for its historical accuracy and detailed supplementary material Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe for instance was accompanied by a 224 page historical manual The World War II trilogy was released with cover art by illustrator Marc Ericksen in a compilation titled Air Combat Classics in 1994 40 The World War II trilogy was created by a team led by Lawrence Holland a game designer who later founded Totally Games Totally Games would continue to develop games almost exclusively to LucasArts for a decade with the most noted outcome of the symbiosis being the X Wing series They were also responsible for LucasArts 2003 return to the aerial battles of World War II with Secret Weapons Over Normandy a title released on PlayStation 2 Xbox and PCIn 1996 LucasArts released Afterlife a simulator in which players build their own Heaven and Hell with several jokes and puns such as a prison in Hell called San Quentin Tarantino First Star Wars games Edit Even though LucasArts had created games based on other Lucasfilm properties before Labyrinth Indiana Jones they did not use the Star Wars license until the early 1990s as the Star Wars license had been held by Broderbund until 1992 when they reverted back to Lucasfilm 41 42 The first in house development was the space combat simulator X Wing developed by Larry Holland s independent team which went on to spawn a successful series The CD ROM only Star Wars game Rebel Assault became one of the biggest successes of the company and was considered a killer app for CD ROM drives in the early 1990s First person shooters Edit After the unprecedented success of id Software s Doom the PC gaming market shifted towards production of three dimensional first person shooters LucasArts contributed to this trend with the 1995 release of Star Wars Dark Forces a first person shooter that successfully transplanted the Doom formula to a Star Wars setting The Dark Forces Strategy guide claims that development was well underway before Doom was released and that the game was pushed back once Doom hit shelves so that it could be polished The game was well received and spawned a new franchise the Jedi Knight games This began with the sequel to Dark Forces Jedi Knight Dark Forces II released in 1997 this game reflected the changing face of PC gaming being one of the first games to appreciably benefit when used in conjunction with a dedicated 3D graphics card like 3dfx s Voodoo range The game received an expansion pack Mysteries of the Sith in 1998 and a full sequel in 2002 with Star Wars Jedi Knight II Jedi Outcast 2003 s Star Wars Jedi Knight Jedi Academy can be seen as a spin off from the series but was less well received by reviewers who complained that the franchise was becoming formulaic Apart from Star Wars themed 3D shooters LucasArts also created the western themed game Outlaws in 1997 and Armed and Dangerous in collaboration with Planet Moon Studios in 2003 In the new millennium Edit In 2000 Simon Jeffery became the LucasArts president He was president of LucasArts until 2003 and some successful Star Wars games released during his management like Star Wars Jedi Knight 2 Jedi Outcast Star Wars Rogue Squadron 2 Knights of the Old Republic Star Wars Jedi Academy and Star Wars Galaxies Development of some other successful Star Wars Games began during his management like Star Wars Republic Commando and Star Wars Battlefront In 2002 LucasArts recognized that the over reliance on Star Wars was reducing the quality of its output and announced that future releases would be at least 50 non Star Wars related 43 However many vague of the original titles were either unsuccessful or even cancelled before release and since then LucasArts again had mainly Star Wars titles in production Also in 2002 LucasArts released a compilation CD filled with music from their past games The album is titled The Best of LucasArts Original Soundtracks and features music from the Monkey Island series Grim Fandango Outlaws and The Dig 2003 saw the fruitful collaboration of LucasArts and BioWare on the well reviewed role playing game Knights of the Old Republic Combining modern 3D graphics with high quality storytelling and a sophisticated role playing game system this game reinvigorated the Star Wars franchise Its 2004 sequel Knights of the Old Republic II The Sith Lords continued in the same vein but LucasArts was criticized for forcing the developer Obsidian Entertainment to release the sequel unfinished 44 resulting in a significant amount of cut content a disappointing ending and numerous bugs 2003 also saw the release of Gladius a gladiator Tactical RPG that was positively received but sold poorly and was even rated as one of the best Xbox games most people never played by Official Xbox Magazine 45 In 2003 LucasArts and the Star Wars franchise also branched out in a new direction the world of the MMORPG with the creation of Star Wars Galaxies After a successful launch the first expansion Jump to Lightspeed was released in 2004 The new expansion featured the addition of real time space combat This was continued in Rage of the Wookiees an additional expansion which added an additional planet for users to explore Also a new expansion Trials of Obi Wan was released on November 1 2005 consisting of several new missions focusing on the Episode 3 planet Mustafar While Star Wars Galaxies still retained a devoted following it also alienated many players citation needed Star Wars Galaxies chose to ignore the timeline established in the original films during which the game is set and also allowed players to play as Jedi characters The game also underwent several major redesigns which were received with mixed reactions by players citation needed Restructuring under Jim Ward Edit In April 2004 Jim Ward V P of marketing online and global distributions at Lucasfilm was appointed president of LucasArts 46 Ward performed a top to bottom audit of LucasArts infrastructure describing the company s state as quite a mess 47 In 2003 LucasArts had reportedly grossed just over 100 000 000 according to N P D primarily from its Star Wars titles significantly less than the grosses from the year s top single titles such as Halo 46 Ward produced a five year investment plan to refit the company 48 Previous Star Wars games had been produced by external developers such as Raven Software BioWare and Obsidian Ward now prioritized making LucasArts internal game development work effectively and adapt to the evolving game industry Star Wars Battlefront Star Wars Republic Commando and Star Wars Episode III survived cuts that closed down other in development games and reduced staff from about 450 to 190 employees 47 Ward also canceled Star Wars Rogue Squadron Trilogy which was 50 completed and it was going to be released on the Xbox in 2004 49 Factor 5 was going to develop a Rogue Squadron game titled Rogue Squadron X Wing vs Tie Fighter for the Xbox 360 but it was canceled by LucasArts 49 After Factor 5 s exclusivity with Sony ended they decided to release Rogue Squadron Trilogy for the Wii but it was eventually cancelled as well 49 In 2004 LucasArts released Star Wars Battlefront based on the same formula as the popular Battlefield series of games It ended up becoming the best selling Star Wars game of all time to that point aided by a marketing tie in with the original trilogy D V D release 50 Its sequel Star Wars Battlefront II was released on November 1 2005 and featured new locales such as Episode III planets Mustafar Mygeeto etc in addition to space combat playable Jedi and new special units like Bothan spies and Imperial officers In this same year the second Knights of the Old Republic game was in production LucasArts told Obsidian Entertainment that the project needed to be finished by that year s holiday season Obsidian was forced to cut huge amounts of content from the game resulting in a rushed unfinished Knights of the Old Republic II In March 2005 LucasArts published Lego Star Wars The Video Game the first game in the popular Lego video game franchise by Traveller s Tales It was based on the Star Wars prequel trilogy 51 In May 2005 LucasArts released Revenge of the Sith a third person action game based on the film Also in 2005 LucasArts released Star Wars Republic Commando and one of their few non Star Wars games Mercenaries developed by Pandemic Studios On February 16 2006 LucasArts released Star Wars Empire at War a real time strategy game developed by Petroglyph September 12 2006 saw the release of Lego Star Wars II The Original Trilogy the sequel to the popular Lego Star Wars The Video Game Lego Star Wars II once again developed by Traveller s Tales and published by LucasArts follows the same basic format as the first game but as the name indicates covers the original Star Wars trilogy A game titled Traxion was announced Traxion was a rhythm game which was under development for the PlayStation Portable by British developer Kuju Entertainment scheduled to be released in Q4 2006 by LucasArts but was instead cancelled in January 2007 The game was to feature a number of minigames and would support imported songs from the player s own mp3 library as well as the game s bundled collection In May 2007 LucasArts announced Fracture and stated that new intellectual properties serve a vital role to the growth of LucasArts Mercenaries Playground of Destruction was labelled the number one new IP in 2005 and Thrillville the number one new children s IP in 2006 52 Fracture was released on October 7 2008 to average reviews 53 Mercenaries Playground of Destruction was released on January 11 2005 to critical and commercial success which led to a sequel Mercenaries 2 World in Flames Thrillville was released on November 21 2006 and Thrillville Off the Rails was released on October 16 2007 On September 16 2008 Star Wars The Force Unleashed was released to mixed reviews 54 though it quickly became the fastest selling Star Wars game of all time 55 The rapid scaling down of internal projects at LucasArts was also reflected in its handling of games developed by external developers During the tenure of Ward Free Radical was contracted to produce Star Wars Battlefront III which had been in production for 2 years Free Radical co founder Steve Ellis described how working with LucasArts evolved from being the best relationship we d ever had with a publisher 56 to withholding money for 6 months and abusing the independent developer s position to withhold the full project cancellation fee this was a major event which contributed towards Free Radical entering administration 56 57 Last years as part of an independent Lucasfilm Edit Ward left the company in early February 2008 for personal reasons He was replaced by Howard Roffman as interim president Darrell Rodriguez who came from Electronic Arts took Roffman s place in April 2008 58 About a month prior to release of Star Wars The Force Unleashed II LucasArts scaled down the internal development studio 59 The aforementioned game received a mediocre score from some media outlets such as IGN GameSpot and GameTrailers 60 61 62 After release minor adjustment in staffing resulted in even more layoffs 63 The successor to Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II The Sith Lords in the form of the MMORPG Star Wars The Old Republic was announced on October 21 2008 at an invitation only press event 64 developed by BioWare 65 It was released in December 2011 They also published Star Wars The Clone Wars Republic Heroes in 2009 for all current systems 66 The game is a tie in to The Clone Wars television series and was released on October 6 2009 receiving generally negative reviews 67 During television network G4 s coverage of the 2006 E3 Convention a LucasArts executive was asked about the return of popular franchises such as Monkey Island The executive responded that the company was currently focusing on new franchises and that LucasArts may return to the classic franchises in 2015 though it was unclear as to whether the date was put forwards as an actual projection or hyperbole 68 This turned out to be hyperbole as LucasArts and Telltale Games announced new adventure games in a joint press release in 2009 The games announced were Tales of Monkey Island which was to be developed by Telltale and a LucasArts developed enhanced remake of the 1990 title The Secret of Monkey Island with the intent of bringing the old game to a new audience 69 According to LucasArts this announcement was just the start of LucasArts new mission to revitalize its deep portfolio of beloved gaming franchises Following the success of this LucasArts released the sequel Monkey Island 2 Special Edition in the summer of 2010 69 The company began experiencing turnovers in layoffs in 2010 Rodriguez left in May after just two years on the job A Lucasfilm board of Directors and a game industry veteran Jerry Bowerman filled in during the transition 70 71 Rodriguez was ultimately replaced in June by Paul Meegan formerly of Gears of War developer Epic Games In July 2010 Haden Blackman who served as creative director on the original Star Wars The Force Unleashed LucasArts most successful internally produced title of recent years and the sequel unexpectedly left However the company scored a surprise coup in August 2010 when Clint Hocking a high profile game director from Ubisoft announced that he would be joining LucasArts His tenure at LucasArts was short lived however as Hocking left LucasArts in June 2012 before the game he was working on was released 72 In September 2010 a third of the employees at LucasArts were laid off 73 In March 2011 LucasArts published a sequel to the popular Lego Star Wars series Lego Star Wars III The Clone Wars based on the Clone Wars animated series once again developed by Traveller s Tales Sony Online Entertainment announced in June 2011 that Star Wars Galaxies would be shutting down at the end of 2011 74 Its services were terminated on December 15 2011 75 Another canceled title of Lucasarts was a Darth Maul game which was going to be developed by the same company which made the Wii version of The Force Unleashed II 76 On April 26 2011 LucasArts announced that it had acquired a license from Epic Games to develop a number of future titles using the Unreal Engine 3 for a number of platforms 77 Star Wars 1313 a proposed action adventure about Boba Fett navigating Coruscant s subterranean underworld 78 was confirmed to use the Unreal Engine 3 a However the game was cancelled as a result of the closure of the development arm of LucasArts 80 In April 2012 LucasArts published Kinect Star Wars developed by Terminal Reality for the Xbox 360 It was poorly reviewed by critics receiving an aggregated score of 53 32 on GameRankings 81 and 55 100 on Metacritic 82 In August 2012 Meegan who replaced Rodriguez as president in 2010 also left his position at LucasArts after just two years on the job Kevin Parker and Gio Corsi were named to co lead the studio until the studio would choose a permanent president with the former as interim head of business operations and the latter as interim head of studio production 83 The last game released through LucasArts as a subsidiary of an independent Lucasfilm was Angry Birds Star Wars a game that gave the Angry Birds characters costumes and abilities based on the original Star Wars trilogy It was released on November 8 2012 before the Disney acquisition of Lucasfilm was finalized 84 The game was developed and published by Rovio Entertainment and licensed by LucasArts 85 Acquisition by Disney Edit The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm and its subsidiaries including LucasArts by December 21 2012 following regulatory approval in a deal for 4 05 billion At the time there were no plans for any downsizing of Lucasfilm divisions and a LucasArts representative said that for the time being all projects are business as usual 86 87 88 In the months that followed LucasArts was believed to be working on three untitled games an open world RPG 89 an FPS and an aerial combat game 90 91 This included refocusing work away from Star Wars games already in development such as Star Wars 1313 and First Assault to put more focus on Star Wars Episode VII The Force Awakens 92 Lucasfilm announced on April 3 2013 that it was shuttering its video game development practice laying off most of the LucasArts staff Any further game development would be handled by Disney Interactive Studios or licensed to third party developers 93 A skeleton staff of fewer than ten employees remained at LucasArts to function as a video game licensor 1 94 95 93 Disney indicated that the new business model would minimize the company s risk while achieving a broad portfolio of quality Star Wars games 96 Around 150 staff members lost their jobs as a result of the closure 97 The layoffs at LucasArts also resulted in layoffs at fellow visual effects subsidiary Industrial Light amp Magic as many of LucasArts employees also worked for ILM the company was left overstaffed 98 Electronic Arts became one of the major third party publishers for Star Wars games through an exclusive multi year license while Disney Interactive Studios would handle development for the casual gaming market of mobile social tablet and online game categories 99 Lucasfilm announced on January 11 2021 that it was reestablishing the Lucasfilm Games brand for all future gaming titles from Lucasfilm though it would remain solely as a licensor of Lucasfilm properties 100 Later that week it was announced that MachineGames was developing a game based upon the Indiana Jones franchise with Todd Howard serving as an executive producer and Bethesda publishing the game and that Massive Entertainment was developing an open world Star Wars game with Julian Gerighty serving as creative director and Ubisoft publishing the game It was also revealed that EA was still in development on several games based upon the Star Wars franchise 101 102 In September 2021 it was announced that a remake of Knights of the Old Republic was in development The game is being developed by Aspyr for Windows and PlayStation 5 for which it will serve as a timed console exclusive 103 In December 2021 Star Wars Eclipse was announced at The Game Awards 2021 it is an action adventure game in the early stages of development by Quantic Dream The game will feature multiple playable characters with branching narratives It is set in the Star Wars universe and is part of the High Republic multimedia project which places the events of the game 200 years before the original Star Wars trilogy 104 105 In January 2022 it was announced that Respawn Entertainment would be developing multiple Star Wars games including a Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order sequel entitled Jedi Survivor alongside FPS and Strategy video games 106 In April 2022 it was announced that Lucasfilm Games would be co publishing Return to Monkey Island alongside Devolver Digital a sequel to LeChuck s Revenge with series creator Ron Gilbert returning to develop the game with his company Terrible Toybox 107 That same month it was announced that Skydance New Media would be collaberating with Lucasfilm Games to make a game based in the Star Wars universe with Amy Hennig leading the project 108 Logo Edit The original Gold Guy LucasArts logo 1992 2005 The simplified and modernized Gold Guy LucasArts logo 2005 2013 The original Lucasfilm Games logo was based upon the existing Lucasfilm movie logo with a number of variations on it being used This logo was later brought back when the Lucasfilm Games branding was revived in 2021 The long lived LucasArts logo affectionately known as the Gold Guy was introduced in 1990 and first used within Monkey Island 2 LeChuck s Revenge the first game shipped under the LucasArts name The logo consisted of a crude gold colored figure inspired from a similar petroglyph standing on a purple letter L inscribed with the company name The figure had its hands up in the air as if a sun were rising from behind him It was also said to resemble an eye with the rays of the sun as eyelashes The logo was revised in late 2005 losing the letter L pedestal and introducing a more rounded version of the gold colored figure 5 The last game to feature the original Gold Guy was Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith while the new logo was first seen in Star Wars Battlefront II In the games the figure sometimes does an action like throw a lightsaber or cast Force Lightning In 1998 LucasArts approached Finnish game developer Remedy Entertainment citing that their logo was copied from the top portion of the LucasArts logo and threatened legal action 109 Remedy was by that time already in the process of redesigning their logo so they complied by taking their old logo offline from their website and introducing their new logo a little later Legacy EditEx LucasArts developers have founded numerous San Francisco game development studios such as Double Fine Productions 2000 Telltale Games 2004 MunkyFun 2008 Dynamighty 2011 SoMa Play 2013 and Fifth Journey 2015 playing a significant role in the continued development of computer games in the Bay Area At the 2014 Electronic Entertainment Expo Sony Computer Entertainment announced Grim Fandango Remastered developed by Double Fine Productions as a console exclusive for PlayStation platforms 110 It was released in 2015 for PlayStation 4 PlayStation Vita Microsoft Windows OS X Linux Android and iOS 111 112 During Sony s new PlayStation Experience convention in 2014 another remaster by Double Fine Day of the Tentacle Remastered was announced 113 It was released in March 2016 for PlayStation 4 PlayStation Vita Microsoft Windows OS X and Linux 113 114 At the 2015 PlayStation Experience another remastered game by Double Fine was announced Full Throttle Remastered It was released in April 2017 for PlayStation 4 PlayStation Vita Microsoft Windows OS X and Linux 115 See also EditList of LucasArts games LucasArts adventure games LucasArts Archives Humongous EntertainmentReferences EditFootnotes In September 2013 Lucasfilm chief technology strategy officer Kim Libreri demonstrated a video of motion capture being processed in real time by the Star Wars 1313 engine and its assets 79 Citations a b Disney to Shut LucasArts Videogame Unit The Wall Street Journal April 3 2013 Archived from the 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