Will LucasArts go the way of Black Rock Studio?
The Walt Disney Disney Company has made another huge acquisition, following up their purchase of Marvel in 2009 with Star Wars and Indiana Jones film production company Lucasfilm. Included in the deal is Lucasfilm subsidiaryLucasArts, the game development studio behind The Curse of Monkey Island, Sam and Max, and dozens of Star Wars games. What this means for the future of LucasArts is unknown, but hopefully it doesn't turn into a Black Rock Studio scenario.
LucasArts is currently neck deep in the development of Star Wars 1313, the sexy, gritty, Unreal Engine 3 project revealed during E3 this year. Considering how involved Lucasfilm is in the development of the project, on top ofLucasArts recent leadership changes, just how the acquisition will affect the studio is up the air. Hopefully there are no dramatic consequences, but a comment from the studio could go a long way.
What Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm means for the greater Star Wars franchise and films (Star Wars 7 promised in 2015) is a discussion better left for the comments. In terms of gaming, however, the possibilities are very exciting. What will Disney want to do with all of those classic adventure games? Will they encourage the resurrection of fan-favorite Star Wars franchises? Or will LucasArts carry on relatively independently?
I think this could be a cool thing.
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