LucasArts Closure Fallout

It’s only been a day since Disney shut down LucasArts but already so much news surrounding it has occurred. So let’s get into what happened.

Raven is sad to hear about the closing of LucasArts today, we respected them and enjoyed working with them over the years. We wish them best for all the talented people who were let go and hope they find good work in studios in the industry.

In wake of all this Raven has decided to “give into” fan demands of releasing the source codes for Jedi Outcast and its sequel Jedi Academy.

We loved and appreciated the experience of getting to make Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy for LucasArts. As a gift to the persistently loyal fanbase for our Jedi games and in memory of LucasArts, we are releasing the source code for both games for people to enjoy and play with.

You can go check out the source codes for both games here and here. Be on the lookout for crazy mods from the community in the future.

It’s also been revealed that Star Wars 1313 was going to be a story about Boba Fett. Shortly after their E3 announcement, LucasArts decided to refocus the storyline to be about the famous series’ bounty hunter. In the concept art Boba appears to be standing next to a character that looks like Bossk, a lizard-like bounty hunter who Fett had apparently captured. Even though the game was officially cancelled yesterday, it’s been in trouble for awhile.

They ended up with movie tech that wouldn’t fit in a game, and game tech that wouldn’t fit in a movie, 1313 was always in danger of not being made.

Lastly, perhaps the most well-known LucasArts developer, whose works include: Grim Fandango, Full Throttle, as well as providing valuable input on numerous projects, Tim Schafer had this to say:

Even though part of me felt this was coming, I’m still, somehow, shocked. I never thought that Lucas would actually shut down. I feel badly for all the talented people there. LucasArts was my first job in the industry. And sad to see all that history go away. And all that concept art. I’m going to be dumpster diving behind their offices for a while to see if I can find any old Full Throttle concept art.

Ron Gilbert best known for his work on Maniac Mansion and the first 2 Monkey Islands, also commented on the whole situation over at his personal blog.