Disney seems to be reopening Lucasfilm Games (or not?)

Cal Jeffrey

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The big picture: Disney appears to be bringing back the Lucasfilm Games label. The brand formerly owned by George Lucas was abandoned in the early 1990s. Recent job postings from Disney's career board would seem to indicate the studio may be making a comeback.

Amendment (03/25/19): With no official context or word from Disney about its recent Lucasfilm Games job listing, several publications, including this one were left to speculate as to the reasons for the hiring. Fortunately, a Lucasfilm representative reached out to TechSpot for some clarification on the matter.

Disney is completely committed to licensing its properties to "best-in-class" video game producers. The rep reiterated that Bob Iger's previous comments about Disney's relationship with EA was accurate. Everything is fine between the two companies, and EA will continue handling the Star Wars branded video games through its commitment. The job listings for the Lucasfilm Games team show the team is expanding, but their commitment to third-party development has not shifted.

There are currently six pages worth of listings for Lucasfilm Games on the Disney jobs board. It appears it is looking for a full staff from producers on down. Positions indicate it will be releasing games on various platforms including VR, PC, consoles, and mobile. There are no hints on what titles the studio might have planned, but it is fair to assume it will consist of projects that fall under the Lucasfilm IP, maybe even Star Wars titles.

The revival's timing is interesting considering Star Wars games are currently being produced exclusively by EA. The games producer has seemingly struggled with the franchise from the beginning. So Disney may be building the infrastructure of Lucasfilm Games to take over SW game development once the contract ends. While that is speculation, it is not that far-fetched.

Since penning the 10-year deal with Disney back in 2013, EA has only produced two Star Wars titles --- Battlefront 1 and 2 --- the second of which, while commercially successful, was rejected by fans for its pay-to-win mechanics and overly grindy progression system. A third title, which was supposed to be an open-world Star Wars game, has been repeatedly shuffled around various EA studios and subsequently canceled. Respawn's "Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order" is due out this year, but we'll have to see if that one can redeem the franchise.

Speculation aside, Disney CEO Bob Iger recently said that the relationship between the two companies is "good." However, having a good working relationship does not necessarily mean that The Mouse will want to continue it after the contract expires. In fact, Disney has recently been pulling back all its Marvel movie IPs to bring their productions to its own studios. It seems likely that it might be preparing to do the same for Star Wars properties.

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So they wasted all of their talent and experience in BOTH of their game development houses only to try and rebuild it later on?

Sounds like disney alright. Of course I think the ship has long sailed, at least on star wars, and gamed like monkey island are much more niche products. Not sure what their plan is going to be.
 
Lucasfilm Games wasn't shuttered in the 90s, it was renamed to LucasArts Entertainment Company, wasn't it? And LucasArts was shut down by Disney in 2013.

Yes, this article is very wrong. LucasArts was putting out games up until Disney bought them a few years ago.
 
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