 | |
| Formerly | LucasArts Entertainment Company, LLC (1990–2021) |
|---|---|
| Company type | Subsidiary |
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | May 1, 1982; 43 years ago (1982-05-01) |
| Founder | George Lucas |
| Headquarters | , US |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Douglas Reilly (vice president, games) |
Number of employees | 10 (2013) |
| Parent | Lucasfilm |
| Website | lucasfilm.com/what-we-do/games/ |
| Footnotes / references [1] | |
Lucasfilm Games (known asLucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video gamelicensor, formervideo game developer andpublisher, and a subsidiary ofLucasfilm.[2] It was founded in May 1982 byGeorge 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 forits line of adventure games based on itsSCUMM engine in the 1990s, includingManiac Mansion, theMonkey Island series, and severalIndiana Jones titles. A number of influential game developers were alumni of LucasArts from this period, includingBrian Moriarty,Tim Schafer,Ron Gilbert, andDave Grossman. Later, as Lucasfilm regained control over its licensing over theStar Wars franchise, LucasArts produced numerousaction-basedStar Wars titles in the late 1990s and early 2000s, while dropping adventure game development due to waning interest in the genre.
Lucasfilm was wholly acquired byThe 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, primarilyElectronic Arts (EA), and having any in-house development transferred toDisney Interactive Studios. Disney has, since 2021, revitalized the Lucasfilm Games brand as the licenser of all Lucasfilm-related properties.
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 1986, ultimately becomingPixar.[3]
The Lucasfilm Games Group originally cooperated withAtari, 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'sStar 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 forStar Wars from the start, they would have never branched into any new intellectual property.[5]
The first products from the Games Group wereBallblazer andRescue on Fractalus!, developed in 1984[6] for theAtari 5200 console andAtari 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 whenWarner Communications sold the assets of the consumer division of Atari, Inc. toJack Tramiel in July of that year, and were ultimately picked up by publisherEpyx[12] and released by May 1985.[13] Lucasfilm's next two games wereKoronis Rift andThe 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.[14]
The early charter of Lucasfilm Games was to make experimental, innovative, and technologically advanced video games.[15]Habitat, an earlyonline role-playing game and one of the first to support a graphical front-end, was one such title.[5] It was only released as abeta test in 1986 byQuantum Link, an online service for theCommodore 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 calledClub Caribe in 1988. Lucasfilm later licensed the software toFujitsu, who released it in Japan asFujitsu Habitat in 1990. Fujitsu later licensed Habitat for world-wide distribution, and released an updated version calledWorldsAway in 1995.[16] The latest iteration of Habitat is still calledWorldsAway, which can be found at MetroWorlds.[17][18]
Initially, the Games Group worked from Lucas'Skywalker Ranch nearNicasio, 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 comprisedIndustrial Light & Magic andSkywalker Sound.[19] 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 inSan Rafael, California.[5]
Also in 1990, LucasArts started to publishThe 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, providingeducational software for classrooms.[20]
iMUSE (Interactive MUsic Streaming Engine) is aninteractive music system used in a number of LucasArtsvideo 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 composersMichael Land andPeter McConnell while working at LucasArts.[21][22][23][24][25] The iMUSE system ispatented by LucasArts,[26] and was added to theSCUMM game engine in 1991. The first game to use iMUSE wasMonkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge[21] and it has been used in allLucasArts adventure games since. It has also been used for some non-adventure LucasArts titles, includingStar Wars: X-Wing (DOS version),Star Wars: TIE Fighter (DOS version), andStar Wars: Dark Forces.
Lucasfilm Games also released several side-scrollers during theLucasarts era, focusing primarily onrun and gun gameplay. A trilogy of games under the name ofSuper Star Wars for theSNES, with each game based on each of the three films from theStar Wars original trilogy:Super Star Wars (1992),Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1993) andSuper Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1994). AnIndiana Jones game based on the first three films of the franchise titledIndiana Jones' Greatest Adventures (1994)[27] was developed alongsideFactor 5, the first of many joint collaborations between the two studios.[28]
They also released some games not based on their existing IPs.Zombies Ate My Neighbors (1993) and its sequelGhoul Patrol (1994) were overhead run and gun side-scrollers inspired by classic 1950s HorrorB-movies. A spiritual successor calledHerc's Adventures was released in 1997 and was inspired byGreek mythology.Metal Warriors (1995), a side-scroller inspired by mecha anime, andBig Sky Trooper were also developed using the same engine asZombies Ate My Neighbors.[29] Though these games sold poorly, they later garnered acult following and are now considered to be Cult Classics from the 16-Bit era.[30]
The first adventure game developed by Lucasfilm Games wasLabyrinth in 1986, based on the Lucasfilm movie of the same name. The 1987 titleManiac Mansion introducedSCUMM, the scripting language behind most of the company's later adventure offerings. The adventures released in the following years, such asZak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders in 1988,Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure in 1989, and the 1990 titlesLoom andThe 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 titledLucasArts Classic Adventures in 1992.[31]
LucasArts was often referred to as one of the two big names in the field, competing withSierra 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 asMonkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge in 1991,Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis in 1992,Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle andSam & Max Hit the Road in 1993, and the 1995 titlesFull Throttle andThe 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 newgraphics cards to best effect, a change replicated in the home console market as the 3D capabilities of thePlayStation,Sega Saturn andNintendo 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 andpoint-and-click interface, was released. This was followed byGrim Fandango in 1998, LucasArts' first attempt to convert a 2D adventure to a 3D environment. The highly stylised visuals,outstanding soundtrack,[32][33][34] superb voice acting and sophisticated writing earned Grim Fandango many plaudits, including GameSpot's Game of the Year award.[35]Escape from Monkey Island (2000), the fourth installment in theMonkey 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 andSam & 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 theSam & Max franchise expired in 2005, the creator of Sam & Max,Steve Purcell, regained ownership. He then licensed Sam & Max toTelltale Games to be developed into anepisodic game. Telltale Games was made up primarily of former LucasArts employees who had worked on the Sam & Max sequel and were let go after the project was canceled.[36]
LucasArts halted adventure game development for the next five years, focusing instead on theirStar Wars games. They remained silent and did not rerelease their old games ondigital 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 withStar Wars.[37] It was not until 2009 that they returned to the genre. On June 1, 2009, LucasArts announced bothThe Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition, a high-definitionremake of the original game with revised graphics, music and voice work, andTales of Monkey Island, a newepisodic installment in theMonkey Island series that was developed byTelltale Games.
Then, on July 6, 2009, they announced that they would be rereleasing a number of their classic games, includingIndiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis andLOOM, onSteam. The rereleases were, for the first time, native versions built forMicrosoft 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 theMonkey Island series also received a high-definition remake, entitledMonkey 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 SCUMMvirtual 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 andPDAs.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Lucasfilm Games developed a series of militaryvehicle simulation games, the first of which were the naval simulationsPHM Pegasus in 1986 andStrike Fleet in 1987.[38] These two titles were published byElectronic Arts for a variety of computer platforms, includingIBM PC compatibles,Commodore 64 andApple II.
In 1988,Battlehawks 1942 launched a trilogy ofWorld War II air combat simulations, giving the player a chance to fly as an American or Japanese pilot in thePacific Theater. Battlehawks 1942 was followed byTheir Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain in 1989, recreating the battle between theLuftwaffe andRAF for Britain's air supremacy. The trilogy ended withSecret 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 titledAir Combat Classics in 1994.[39]
The World War II trilogy was created by a team led byLawrence 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 beingthe X-Wing series. They were also responsible for LucasArts' 2003 return to the aerial battles of World War II withSecret Weapons Over Normandy, a title released onPlayStation 2,Xbox and PC
In 1996, LucasArts releasedAfterlife, asimulator in which players build their ownHeaven andHell, with several jokes and puns (such as a prison in Hell calledSan QuentinTarantino).
Even though LucasArts had created games based on other Lucasfilm properties before (Labyrinth,Indiana Jones), they did not use theStar Wars license until the early 1990s, as it had been held byBroderbund before reverting to Lucasfilm in 1992.[40][41] The first in-house development was the space combat simulatorX-Wing, developed by Larry Holland's independent team, which went on to spawn asuccessful series.
The CD-ROM-onlyStar Wars gameRebel Assault became one of the biggest successes of the company and was considered akiller app for CD-ROM drives in the early 1990s.
After the unprecedented success ofid Software'sDoom, the PC gaming market shifted towards production of three-dimensionalfirst person shooters. LucasArts contributed to this trend with the 1995 release ofStar 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: theJedi Knight games. This began with the sequel toDark 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 3Dgraphics card like3dfx's Voodoo range. The game received anexpansion pack,Mysteries of the Sith, in 1998 and a full sequel in 2002 withStar Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. 2003'sStar 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 fromStar Wars-themed 3D shooters, LucasArts also created the western-themed gameOutlaws in 1997 andArmed and Dangerous (in collaboration withPlanet Moon Studios) in 2003.
In 2000, Simon Jeffery became the LucasArts president. He was president of LucasArts until 2003 and some successfulStar Wars games released during his management likeStar Wars Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast,Star Wars Rogue Squadron 2,Knights of the Old Republic,Star Wars Jedi Academy andStar Wars Galaxies. Development of some other successfulStar Wars Games began during his management, likeStar Wars Republic Commando andStar Wars Battlefront.
In April 2000, LucasArts signed a two-year international distribution deal withActivision for over 45 territories across the world including the United Kingdom.[42] The company previously signed a two-year deal with Activision for distribution in select European territories in April 1998.[43] The deal was extended in May 2003[44] and renewed again in March 2009.[45]
In 2002, LucasArts recognized that the over-reliance onStar Wars was reducing the quality of its output, and announced that future releases would be at least 50% non-Star Wars-related.[46] However, many[vague] of the original titles were either unsuccessful or even cancelled before release, and since then LucasArts again had mainlyStar Wars titles in production.
Also in 2002, LucasArts released a compilation CD filled with music from their past games. The album is titledThe Best of LucasArts Original Soundtracks and features music from theMonkey Island series,Grim Fandango,Outlaws, andThe Dig.
2003 saw the fruitful collaboration of LucasArts andBioWare on the well reviewedrole-playing game,Knights of the Old Republic. Combining modern 3D graphics with high-quality storytelling and a sophisticatedrole-playing game system, this game reinvigorated theStar Wars franchise. Its 2004 sequelKnights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords continued in the same vein, but LucasArts was criticized for forcing the developerObsidian Entertainment to release the sequel unfinished,[47] resulting in a significant amount of cut content, a disappointing ending and numerous bugs. 2003 also saw the release ofGladius, 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" byOfficial Xbox Magazine.[48]
In 2003, LucasArts and theStar Wars franchise also branched out in a new direction—the world of theMMORPG, with the creation ofStar 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 inRage 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. WhileStar 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]
In April 2004, Jim Ward, V.P. of marketing, online and global distributions at Lucasfilm, was appointed president of LucasArts.[49] Ward performed a top-to-bottom audit of LucasArts infrastructure, describing the company's state as "quite a mess."[50] In 2003, LucasArts had reportedly grossed just over $100,000,000 according toN.P.D., primarily from itsStar Wars titles — significantly less than the grosses from the year's top single titles such asHalo.[49] Ward produced a five-year investment plan to refit the company.[51] PreviousStar Wars games had been produced by external developers such asRaven 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, andStar Wars: Episode III survived cuts that closed down other in-development games and reduced staff from about 450 to 190 employees.[50]
Ward also canceledStar Wars Rogue Squadron Trilogy which was 50% completed and it was going to be released on the Xbox in 2004.[52]
Factor 5 was going to develop aRogue Squadron game titledRogue Squadron: X-Wing vs Tie Fighter for the Xbox 360 but it was canceled by LucasArts.[52]
After Factor 5's exclusivity with Sony ended they decided to releaseRogue Squadron Trilogy for the Wii, but it was eventually cancelled as well.[52]
In 2004, LucasArts releasedStar Wars: Battlefront, based on the same formula as the popularBattlefield series of games. It ended up becoming the best-sellingStar Wars game of all time to that point, aided by a marketing tie-in with theoriginal trilogy D.V.D. release.[53] 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 toldObsidian 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 publishedLego Star Wars: The Video Game, the first game in the popular Lego video game franchise byTraveller's Tales. It was based on theStar Wars prequel trilogy.[54] In May 2005, LucasArts releasedRevenge of the Sith, a third person action game based on the film. Also in 2005, LucasArts releasedStar Wars: Republic Commando, and one of their few non-Star Wars games,Mercenaries, developed byPandemic Studios.
On February 16, 2006, LucasArts releasedStar Wars: Empire at War, areal-time strategy game developed byPetroglyph. September 12, 2006, saw the release ofLego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, the sequel to the popularLego 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 originalStar Wars trilogy.
A game titledTraxion was announced.Traxion was arhythm game which was under development for thePlayStation Portable by British developerKuju Entertainment, scheduled to be released inQ4 2006 by LucasArts, but was instead cancelled in January 2007. The game was to feature a number ofminigames, and would support imported songs from the player's ownmp3 library as well as the game's bundled collection.
In May 2007, LucasArts announcedFracture 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 andThrillville the number one new children's IP in 2006.[55] Fracture was released on October 7, 2008, to average reviews.[56]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, andThrillville: Off the Rails was released on October 16, 2007.
On September 16, 2008,Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was released to mixed reviews,[57] though it quickly became the fastest-sellingStar Wars game of all time.[58]
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 produceStar 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"[59] 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.[59][60]
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.[61] About a month prior to release ofStar Wars: The Force Unleashed II, LucasArts scaled down the internal development studio.[62] The aforementioned game received a mediocre score from some media outlets such asIGN,GameSpot andGameTrailers.[63][64][65] After release, minor adjustment in staffing resulted in even more layoffs.[66]
The successor toStar Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, in the form of theMMORPGStar Wars: The Old Republic, was announced on October 21, 2008, at an invitation-only press event.[67] developed byBioWare.[68] It was released in December 2011.
They also publishedStar Wars: The Clone Wars – Republic Heroes in 2009 for all current systems.[69] The game is a tie-in toThe Clone Warstelevision series and was released on October 6, 2009, receiving generally negative reviews.[70]
During television networkG4's coverage of the 2006E3 Convention, a LucasArts executive was asked about the return of popular franchises such asMonkey 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.[71] This turned out to be hyperbole, as LucasArts andTelltale Games announced new adventure games in a joint press release in 2009. The games announced wereTales of Monkey Island, which was to be developed by Telltale, and a LucasArts-developedenhanced remake of the 1990 titleThe Secret of Monkey Island, with the intent of bringing the old game to a new audience.[72] 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.[72]
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.[73][74] 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 originalStar 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 whenClint 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.[75] In September 2010, a third of the employees at LucasArts were laid off.[76]
In March 2011, LucasArts published a sequel to the popular Lego Star Wars series,Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars, based on theClone 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.[77] Its services were terminated on December 15, 2011.[78]
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.[79]
On April 26, 2011, LucasArts announced that it had acquired a license fromEpic Games to develop a number of future titles using theUnreal Engine 3 for a number of platforms.[80]Star Wars 1313, a proposedaction-adventure aboutBoba Fett navigatingCoruscant's subterranean underworld,[81] 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.[83]
In April 2012, LucasArts publishedKinect Star Wars, developed byTerminal Reality, for theXbox 360. It was poorly reviewed by critics, receiving an aggregated score of 53.32% onGameRankings[84] and 55/100 onMetacritic.[85]
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.[86]
The last game released through LucasArts as a subsidiary of an independent Lucasfilm wasAngry Birds Star Wars, a game that gave theAngry Birds characters costumes and abilities based on the originalStar Wars trilogy. It was released on November 8, 2012, before the Disney acquisition of Lucasfilm was finalized.[87] The game was developed and published byRovio Entertainment, and licensed by LucasArts.[88]
The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm and its subsidiaries, including LucasArts, on 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".[89][90][91] In the months that followed, LucasArts was believed to be working on three untitled games: an open-world RPG,[92] an FPS, and an aerial combat game.[93][94] This included cancellingStar Wars games already in development such asStar Wars 1313,First Assault andStar Wars: The Force Unleashed III to put more focus onStar Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens.[95]
On April 3, 2013, Lucasfilm announced that it was shuttering its video game development practice and laying off most of the LucasArts staff. Any further game development would be handled byDisney Interactive Studios or licensed to third-party developers.[96] A skeleton staff of fewer than ten employees remained at LucasArts to function as a video game licensor.[1][97][98][96] Disney indicated that the new business model would "[minimize] the company's risk while achieving a broad portfolio of qualityStar Wars games."[99] Around 150 staff members lost their jobs as a result of the closure.[100] The layoffs at LucasArts also resulted in layoffs at fellow visual effects subsidiaryIndustrial Light & Magic; as many of LucasArts' employees also worked for ILM, the company was left overstaffed.[101]Electronic Arts became one of the major third-party publishers forStar 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".[102]
On January 11, 2021, Lucasfilm announced 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.[103] Later that week, it was announced thatMachineGames was developing a game based upon theIndiana Jones franchise withTodd Howard serving as an executive producer andBethesda publishing the game, and thatMassive Entertainment was developing anopen worldStar Wars game with Julian Gerighty serving as creative director andUbisoft publishing the game. It was also revealed that EA was still in development on several games based upon theStar Wars franchise.[104][105] In September 2021, it was announced that aremake ofKnights of the Old Republic was in development. The game is being developed byAspyr for Windows andPlayStation 5, for which it will serve as a timedconsole-exclusive.[106] In December 2021,Star Wars Eclipse was announced atThe Game Awards 2021; it is anaction-adventure game in the early stages of development byQuantic Dream. The game will feature multiple playable characters with branching narratives. It is set in theStar Wars universe and is part of theHigh Republicmultimedia project, which places the events of the game 200 years before the originalStar Wars trilogy.[107][108] In January 2022, it was announced thatRespawn Entertainment would be developing multiple Star Wars games, including aStar Wars Jedi: Fallen Order sequel, entitledStar Wars Jedi: Survivor, alongsideFPS andStrategy video games.[109] In April 2022, it was announced that Lucasfilm Games would be co-publishingReturn to Monkey Island alongsideDevolver Digital, a sequel toLeChuck's Revenge with series creatorRon Gilbert returning to develop the game with his companyTerrible Toybox.[110] That same month, it was announced thatSkydance New Media would be collaborating with Lucasfilm Games to make a game based in theStar Wars universe, withAmy Hennig leading the project.[111] In June 2023, it was revealed that theIndiana Jones game from MachineGames andBethesda Softworks would release forWindows andXbox Series X/S as a console-exclusive. In August 2024, the new open-world action-adventure gameStar Wars Outlaws was released in cooperation withMassive Entertainment andUbisoft.
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 withinMonkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (the first game shipped under the LucasArts name). The logo consisted of a crude gold-colored figure inspired by anAncestral Puebloanpetroglyph, 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" wasStar Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, while the new logo was first seen inStar Wars: Battlefront II. In the games, the figure sometimes does an action like throw alightsaber or castForce Lightning.In 1998, LucasArts approached Finnish game developerRemedy Entertainment, citing that their logo was copied from the top portion of the LucasArts logo, and threatened legal action.[112] 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.
The LucasArts Archives are a series ofCD-ROMpersonal computer game re-releases and compilations from publisherLucasArts.
Later games published under theLucasArts Archives brand were budget-priced reissues of individual games, except forMonkey Island Archives, which was a compilation ofThe Secret of Monkey Island,Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, andThe Curse of Monkey Island, released withThe Curse of Monkey Island's box art.
Many of the games that were released in these Archive collections are not directly compatible with modern operating systems, but can still be played using theScummVM software.The LucasArts Macintosh Archives Vol. I was the top-selling Macintosh game for March, April, and May 1997, selling over 15,000 units over those three months.[118]
Ex-LucasArts developers have founded numerous San Francisco game development studios such asDouble 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 2014Electronic Entertainment Expo,Sony Computer Entertainment announcedGrim Fandango Remastered, developed byDouble Fine Productions as a console exclusive forPlayStation platforms.[119] It was released in 2015 forPlayStation 4,PlayStation Vita,Microsoft Windows,OS X,Linux,Android, andiOS.[120][121] DuringSony's newPlayStation Experience convention in 2014, another remaster by Double Fine,Day of the Tentacle Remastered, was announced.[122] It was released in March 2016 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux.[122][123] 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.[124]
Footnotes
Citations
Frustrated with the state of music in games at the time, two composers at LucasArts Peter MccConnell and Michal Land created one of the first adaptive music systems, called iMuse. iMuse (Interactive MUsic Streaming Engine) let composers insert branch and loop markers into a sequence that would allow the music to change based on the decisions of the player. The iMuse engine was one of the first significant contributions to interactive music for video games. Its importance in shaping many of the techniques that you see in video games today cannot be overemphasized. (...)
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
