LucasArts is dead, long live LucasArts.
My friends, today we witness the end of an era. LucasArts, the game studio famous for arguably pioneering the point-and-click adventure game genre and swallowed up by Disney in last year's acquisition, has laid off all 150 of its staff, according to Geoff Keighley and other sources close to the development studio.
This also, sadly, means that the highly-anticipated upcoming titles Star Wars 1313 and Star Wars: First Assault are very unlikely to see the light of day again.
LucasArts' layoffs follow September's hiring freeze, a move that many predicted would lead to the present situation. It's always a shame to see a once-proud studio like this fall – with titles in their pedigree like Jedi Knight, Republic Commando, The Secret of Monkey Island, Star Wars Battlefront, and the cult classic Grim Fandango, they will be missed by gamers across the world.
At this point in time, it's unknown what will happen to the intellectual properties at Disney.