LucasArts Layoffs Spark Many Rumors, Including KOTOR 3

It seems that LucasArts has laid off somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 employees, sparking all sorts of interesting leaks and rumors. Chief among the rumors seems to be another carrot in the chase for the LucasArts/Bioware MMO project, which according to one employee, will take the shape of KOTOR 3. "Most interesting, however, is the information they provide on how the layoffs leave the company severely short-staffed as they approach a packed development schedule, one which it appears may be increasingly outsourced. Some of the titles they report LucasArts apparently have in this stacked pipeline, whether as publisher or developer, include: KOTOR 3, Battlefront 3, 'The Official Indiana Jones' game, another LEGO based game based on the Indy universe, and 'a lightsaber game for the Wii.'"

make a new version of Xwing vs Tie Fighter

[Anonymous Coward]

Amen

They need to make an up to date version of Xwing vs Tie Fighter... Imagine a 20 ship scrum going on with shinny new graphics...

LucasArts just hasn't been the same...

[Anonymous Coward]

LucasArts just hasn't been the same since the late 90's. Deciding to solely exploit the Star Wars franchise instead of the incredible IP they had built up over the last decade was probably the worst decision they could have made.

Now, we're all a little tired of the endless Star Wars games (and not even the great ones, like Tie Fighter!), and they're laying off staff and outsourcing to continue producing the same Star Wars crud.

Not a good sign for LucasArts' future if you ask me.

Shocked to not to see Monkey Island 5...

[stardude82]

Or Grim Fandango 2 on the list. Sigh...

Re:Wii, lightsabre game?

[gstoddart]

And you can sell a light sabre "handle" for the wii-mote to fit in.

Already exists. Don't know what games it's for.

As to the weight of the light saber -- have we established it would have no weight? Certainly, any of the scenes in which a light saber flies around, the physics seem modeled to indicate weight.

Not that, in the grand scheme of things, the weight of a light saber is a meaningful discussion. But, you know. It's Friday. :-P

Cheers

Re:Wii, lightsabre game?

[Jacer]

Several of the books describe it not as a beam of light, but as a plasma circuit that extends one meter and curves 180 degrees back to the base, which is why the tip is round. While not much that would give it some mass. As an aside, it would also be 5000c, hot enough that holding the handle would be a sure fire way to get some serious burnination.

Re:Fuck George Lucas

[plasmacutter]

i'm surprised and delighted to see this concise summation of my opinion given this information.

1 - the guy is not only beating dead horse franchises to powder, but he's going necro too, dragging them up from decades ago for a second round, this time using light sabers to beat the leftover powder into vapor.

2 - he's laying off experienced, skilled american labor who have demonstrated their loyalty for god knows how many years of work to replace them with offshore labor. He doesn't even bother to invent a pretext like "there just aren't enough talented americans". It's like watching your spouse make mad, horny love to whoever theyre cheating with on your dinner table in front of your 5 year old children.

3 - not only is he doing this, but he's adding insult to injury to both his remaining american staff and his customers by cutting this staff from dev and QA, meaning more pissed customers putting dents in the devs' reputations when it was the head honcho himself who overworked, understaffed, and partially repopulated his departments with trainees who in all likelihood barely meet minimum qualifications.

so yeah.. the conclusion.. (explative deleted) george lucas... it's absolutely brilliant. it boils down 3 paragraphs into a 3 word post title.

Re:make a new version of Xwing vs Tie Fighter

[mako1138]

There's a TIE Fighter Total Conversion [gaylenol.com] that combines TIE Fighter with the XWA engine. I haven't tried it, because I still haven't finished XWA!

That site also has ship model upgrades, it seems.

Re:LucasArts just hasn't been the same...

[servognome]

I think the key problem was once the adventure game genre dried up, Lucas arts couldn't reinvent themselves and ended up with just the Star Wars franchise to exploit.

Re:Fuck George Lucas

[servognome]

Just to play devil's advocate... There are plenty of countries that can do just about everything we can, for slave wages. Why not just outsource all of our jobs?

Because in many cases it doesn't make business sense. Almost half the time outsourcing fails [bizjournals.com]. And with oil prices rising the ROI for labor cost is becoming negative [google.com]. For the most part, outsourcing is the worker's boogeyman, something that is blown out of proportion.

would certainly be more profitable for the wealthy

Outsourcing is also beneficial for anybody who is a consumer. A successful "buy American" campaign would curb outsourcing, of course those things never work because outsourcing benefits more people than it hurts. Outsourcing (and automation) may negatively impact employment in a specific industry, but the cost reduction for goods and services results in a net benefit for the economy overall.

Whats the point of employing people? What is our responsibility to our communities?

Jobs don't exist to employ people, they exist to meet the needs of people. Would you like somebody coming up to your door and demand you pay them to landscape your yard?
What is the responsibility of the consumer? It is they who hold the ultimate power over corporations. For some reason they are willing to pay $600 for a $10 purse because of a name, why wouldn't they pay extra for a product made domestically.