Disney has shut down LucasArts, the in-house videogame studio it acquired as part of its Lucasfilm purchase (see "Disney Acquires Lucasfilm!"), moving to a licensing model. "We’ve decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company’s risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games," the Disney statement read.
The shut-down includes the layoffs of around 200 people, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The shut-down ends production on Star Wars: 1313 and First Assault, the two Star Wars games in development at LucasArts, unless a licensee wants to build on the work done on the games.
Disney has largely shut down all of its in-house videogame development except for Disney Infinity, launching this fall (see "Disney Launching Collectible Game Figures"). Disney subsidiary Marvel, of course, has been very successful licensing its properties to multiple videogame companies for different platforms and concepts.
The videogame business over-all is soft, suffering a 9% decline in 2012 (see "Videogames Drop in 2012").
