RIP LucasArts

[SleepKiller]

Well the Jedi Knight community will now be over the moon considering with the closure LucasArts Raven Software just went released the source code to both games they developed. Shame Pandemic has long since been closed.

RIP LucasArts, some of the games they published will always hold a special place in my collection.

it seems it publisher hunting season as of late. First THQ, now LucasArts. Come on Electronic Arts if all the good publishers are dying how about you? Go on die, do it. Do it. I would love to see them fall.

Yes I hate EA. Not just because they closed Pandemic.

[Kit Fisto]

Does this potentially mean all previous LucasArts games' Online Support will be stopped? (SWBFII, RC etc.)

[tirpider]

I am sad about this.

LucasArts was one of the very few companies I actually liked the idea of.   I liked their products.  I liked that they were tied to everything Star Wars...  The were "the source" of fantastic entertainment.  Star Wars, Day of the Tentical, Indianna Jones, Grim Fandango, Sam & Max.  The idea that some of the folks whose hands were in on production of the things I like most have been layed off so their company could be turned into an impotent branding office makes me ill.

Perhaps disney can find folks with the desirable skillsets and qualifications to meet their goals, but everything that comes out now with the Star Wars name on it is a branded, knock-off in my eyes.  I fully expect them to plaster R2-D2's all over everything they can and charge enormous prices for it all.   Not 1 more dime from me.

It feels like a betrayal.  Like hearing an old punk band's music in a TV advertisment.  Yeah, yeah.. time moves on, and companies have a bottom line.. whatever.   Please feel free to step on another piece of the world I find to be beautiful in your money hunt.  I'll just be over here sulking and playing with my business attorney action figures.  They won't care, they just expect us to buy into the dull gray world they sell.  All this does is further harden my hatred of marketers and everything business related.

and..

Come on Electronic Arts if all the good publishers are dying how about you? Go on die, do it. Do it. I would love to see them fall.

Me too... me too.

[Unit 33]

From kotaku (that glorious source of non bias information)

Disney aren't the bad guys here. Once you've squeezed out your requisite levels of nostalgia over the company's demise - and given Lucasarts' illustrious back catalogue, that's going to take some time - move on from thinking about what Lucasarts were and think about what they are. Well. Were more recently.

Lucas Arts as a video game developer - and publisher - had become a joke. A sad punchline. Here we have a company that was solely responsible for the Star Wars license. It also had Indiana Jones on the shelf. Not to mention a wealth of other revered and, no doubt, profitable self-made properties just lying around.

If any other major publisher with its own development staff had that kind of IP in its pockets, it would have changed the name of the company to Money Printing Inc. Lucasarts, though, through successive handovers from bad management to worse management, seemed content to do...well, nothing with it. And the few things they did do didn't work.

Internal development had dried up. Attempts to develop new IP failed, and were abandoned. Letting other people develop Star Wars games, at one time a seemingly smart move on the heels of games like Knights of the Old Republic, culminated in the disaster that was/is The Old Republic.


More Footage & Screenshots From Canned Star Wars: Battlefront III Surfaces
It was over three years ago that we got our first look at the Star Wars Battlefront game that never ... Read...
The less we say about Battlefront 3 the better.

They couldn't even manage to do the easy stuff. Every other publisher on Earth has mined their back catalogues for re-release on Steam, Good Old Games and new platforms like the iPhone. Lucasarts tried, sputtered for a bit, then gave up. I should be able to buy Full Throttle on Steam. I can't.

When you realise this dawdling and mismanagement has led to an exodus of staff, and see the sorry state the once-great studio was in, the decision by Disney is not a crime. It's a mercy. 2013's Lucasarts wasn't the same place behind games like Monkey Island and Tie Fighter. It was the place behind Star Wars Kinect.

Which leads us to the silver lining: Lucasarts can't waste their own properties anymore. Say what you will about Disney and its attempts to monopolise popular culture, but it's doing so because it wants to - and knows very well how to - make money.

It won't do this by sitting on projects and not releasing Star Wars games. It will make money by farming out its properties - Star Wars, Indiana Jones and whatever else it thinks will work - to the highest bidder. EA, Activision, Ubisoft, Take-Two, whoever.

Sure, that mightn't be the greatest thing. We'll no doubt see shameless cash-ins. Ill-advised remakes. But if Disney opens the vaults - and judging by the outpouring of nostalgia and emotion following today's decision it will, since the market is there - there could be good games as well. Maybe even some great games.

[Ltin]

Need i remind you all a representivie from disney said that the projects are not cancelled, just waiting to be outsourced.

[Dark_Phantom]

Well the Jedi Knight community will now be over the moon considering with the closure LucasArts Raven Software just went released the source code to both games they developed. Shame Pandemic has long since been closed.

I wish some SWBF developer would read this and go "Hey, these poor guys want the source code, they can have it."  I don't really see anyone who would have much of a problem with it after Raven let JK community have it and Lucasarts and Pandemic (both practically dead) won't have anything to say.

This is just a dream though... odds are heavily favored against us.

On the bright side, for you JK modders (not me, Academy just sits on the shelf, the old DF2 is used more often (by the way, they still have a following even though the game is from 1996)), this is gold.  Just browsing through the JA files make me salivate for the super slim chance we get source code for BF.

[Led]

Yes, I went ahead a grabbed the source code.

Help us Psych0Fred, you are our only hope

[Helios]

Yes, I went ahead a grabbed the source code.

Help us Psych0Fred, you are our only hope

Couldnt agree more

[Phobos]

I wish some SWBF developer would read this and go "Hey, these poor guys want the source code, they can have it."  I don't really see anyone who would have much of a problem with it after Raven let JK community have it and Lucasarts and Pandemic (both practically dead) won't have anything to say.

Release of SWBF1 exe source code would be the most significant tool(s) ever for us modders to work with. It would be fantastic to be able to remove the AddOn limit for v1.2, fix endgame hang, add even more server hosting options, add a chat visibility toggler, add 6 or more units per team, and so much more. The new possibilities would take years to fully explore.

Please Fred if you are reading this, PLEASE consider releasing the source. Even if the source wasn't released for another 10 years, it would certainly be worth having. We could probably figure out how to bypass gamespy servers and create a new master server entirely for the game, without having to mess with virtual LAN adapter software any more.

Another question since LucasArts no longer exist how does this affect the EULA for SWBF?

[SleepKiller]

He doesn't have the source code. If we're lucky Teancum on his quest to get the Racers Revenge source code and the SWBFII one brings back the SWBF1 one as well.

[Dark_Phantom]

In theory we could make a whole new game if we wanted to with the source code.  Anything goes.  Jedi Academy/Outcast people are already talking about ports, major enhancements, fan sequels, etc. 
Which is why most developers don't release it.

[RepComm]

Another question since LucasArts no longer exist how does this affect the EULA for SWBF?

Lol, how many of us have asked a question along these lines so far? xD
As soon as it's legal, everyone pounces on the first chance and cutting and filing away at that exe file

[Phobos]

Lol, how many of us have asked a question along these lines so far? xD
As soon as it's legal, everyone pounces on the first chance and cutting and filing away at that exe file

Is that some kind of answer? Btw I didn't read every post in this thread and don't intend to.

[Led]

Is that some kind of answer? Btw I didn't read every post in this thread and don't intend to.

I don't know what that was.  But I have no problems with anyone discussing making exe changes, or how to make them. 

It might still be better if we don't distribute it here until we learn more.

[Phobos]

I don't know what that was.  But I have no problems with anyone discussing making exe changes, or how to make them. 

It might still be better if we don't distribute it here until we learn more.

Ok that sounds reasonable.