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2010 LucasArts Layoffs Redux

Char Ell

By Char Ell
in Ahto Spaceport Cantina

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Char Ell Newbie

Char Ell

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Gamasutra - LucasArts Lays Off Up To 50 Employees In Staffing 'Adjustment'

San Francisco-based LucasArts today confirmed it has laid off a number of employees as part of what it is calling a "minor adjustment in staffing to help us better address the needs of the business."

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"We remain committed to our internal studio – and to fostering relationships with trusted external partners – in order to deliver quality games that amaze and inspire fans," the company told Gamasutra in a statement.

Is it just me or does news of more layoffs at LucasArts dishearten others as well? LucasArts already went through one round of layoffs this year. To me it seems like LucasArts is really struggling to find some vision, some direction and continues to flail about like a fish out of water. :( I'm sure there are those who will say LucasArts has been like this for some time now but whether you think that or not I have to say 2010 definitely hasn't been one of LucasArts' better years out of the past 10.

 

P.S. I really have grown to detest the PR speak used in so many press releases today. Phrases like "minor adjustment in staffing" ring hollow.

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Lynk Former Newbie

Lynk Former

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@ Redeemed Jedi: Firing most of your staff and not bothering to hire new people isn't going to really help them make more quality games... it just means they'll end up making crappier games that take a longer time to make which means we'll get fewer games in the long run...

 

 

 

 

*looks around* So aside from TOR, what other Star Wars games do we have to look forward to? Anyone know?

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mimartin Newbie

mimartin

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*looks around* So aside from TOR, what other Star Wars games do we have to look forward to? Anyone know?
I'm taking a wait and see attitude, but I wanting to see more about this Kinect Star Wars game that is suppose to come out in 2011. You know the one I read about on your site. :xp:
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Mav Newbie

Mav

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I'm taking a wait and see attitude, but I wanting to see more about this Kinect Star Wars game that is suppose to come out in 2011. You know the one I read about on your site. :xp:
lol, did you see the E3 demo of that game? The dude that was "being the controller" was actually behind the video feed, a.k.a. it was probably staged, and even then it looked like ****.
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Char Ell Newbie

Char Ell

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Is the "one Star Wars game per year" rule still in effect?
IIRC it was two Star Wars games per year back when Jim Ward was running the show at LucasArts but that was two presidents ago. I haven't read anything from Paul Meegan so I've no clue what his goals are where SW games are concerned. Of course it may be rather difficult to produce a steady stream of games when there is seemingly a fairly high rate of turnover at the executive and staff levels of the developer/publisher.

 

But is hiring new people necessary? Those that received layoffs could have possibly been unnecessary staff members.
I don't think there is anyone outside of LucasArts who can accurately answer this question. I would be surprised if those who were just given the pink slip by LucasArts felt their jobs were unnecessary.

 

*looks around* So aside from TOR, what other Star Wars games do we have to look forward to? Anyone know?
LEGO Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars? :smirk2:

Other than SWTOR and the Star Wars Kinect game, which I understand is not actually being developed by LucasArts, I know of no other SW games in the development pipeline.

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mimartin Newbie

mimartin

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Also notice how retarded the game itself is, the stormtroopers shoot like pansies and stroll over to hug the Jedi. What the hell are those blasters for?
Not the game, but the demo did look stupid. However, the demo was only to show what they could do wtih Kinect, not the game itself. Hopefully.:xp:
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DarthParametric Newbie

DarthParametric

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Kind of funny given that they said a few years back they wanted to stop getting outside studios to develop titles based on their IP and instead do it all in-house. I guess they have mostly given up that idea now. To be honest, that's probably the best thing that could happen. Surely it couldn't result in anything much worse than the sort of mass market crap LA have churned out themselves in recent years.

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Jeff Newbie

Jeff

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I would hardly call 50 employees a minor adjustment for a company like LucasArts that I get the impression is not huge at all anymore. Plus weren't their layoffs in September close to 70-80 people? Either way, pretty confusing and disheartening.

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Prime Newbie

Prime

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*looks around* So aside from TOR, what other Star Wars games do we have to look forward to? Anyone know?
A new Jedi Knight and X-Wing? I mean, they have to make those sometime, it's a no-brainer.

 

 

 

 

Right?

 

I would hardly call 50 employees a minor adjustment for a company like LucasArts that I get the impression is not huge at all anymore. Plus weren't their layoffs in September close to 70-80 people? Either way, pretty confusing and disheartening.
Might just be a sign of the economic times, unfortunately...
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DarthParametric Newbie

DarthParametric

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I think it's more likely a sign of LA's incompetence. Surely Star Wars should be one of, if not the, most lucrative game franchises? EA presumably thinks so, given that they have purportedly sunk 100 million into developing TOR. And there are other IPs they own as well, Indy being the most obvious. Seems to me that LA would be highly profitable if they just did things right.

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Lynk Former Newbie

Lynk Former

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Actually, this is depressingly what happened to Rare back in the day and why they SUCK as a developer now and don't release any games any more. Rare(Ware), USED to be an awesome developer studio that released multiple games at a time that were all top quality titles with great ideas and originality attached to them.

 

Now all they do is release a game once every few years and work on background stuff like the Xbox Live Avatar's... which is a pretty crappy job for a company that came up with Battletoads, Banjo-Kazooie, Killer Instinct, Donkey Kong Country and a ****tonne of other awesome games.

 

*depressed* :( And do you know why they suck now? They fired all of the people who were responsible for making all of those awesome games or pissed them off so much that they quit. This is ultimately the reason why Nintendo sold them to Microsoft... Rare ended up gutting itself and became useless.

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Darth Avlectus Newbie

Darth Avlectus

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So that's what happened to them. (BTW where can I see this info?)

Always was a fan of Rare's games. Time Lord, WWF wrestlemania challenge, DK country and DK land, Perfect Dark, James Bond.

 

I think it's more likely a sign of LA's incompetence. *brevity* Seems to me that LA would be highly profitable if they just did things right.

 

Too true. Though I could easily say the same for companies like Capcom, and recently Nintendo, err Team Ninja. Guess I'm wrong as new ideas are always on the till, but perhaps the norm of late is that production in general is in a rut everywhere.

 

"There is no such thing as new ideas, only new ways in which to present them." (Or so says my old video production teacher, which I only half agree with.)

 

You would think LucasArts would have figured out what is in demand by the gamers out there by now. :rolleyes:

 

Hint: Kotor III anyone?

 

If we keep chucking stones, will we send the message before we break their windows? :dev9:

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Char Ell Newbie

Char Ell

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I would hardly call 50 employees a minor adjustment for a company like LucasArts that I get the impression is not huge at all anymore. Plus weren't their layoffs in September close to 70-80 people? Either way, pretty confusing and disheartening.
I don't know about the actual number of people laid off. In the past I've found it pretty much impossible to verify how many LucasArts people got sacked so I've stopped trying. What I'm concerned about is that another round of layoffs, whether 10 people or 50 people, have occurred so soon after the last round, which as you mention was in September. I think if I worked at LucasArts after two rounds of layoffs in 3 months I would be very concerned about my future employment at LEC. If a lot of the remaining employees feel this way then productivity is likely to suffer making prospects of LucasArts righting the ship seem dim. I want to be the optimist and say LucasArts can turn this thing around but I can't help but feel such sentiment falls in the realm of fantasy at the present time.
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Jae Onasi Newbie

Jae Onasi

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Hmm--after all these layoffs, do you think LA is just going to close its studio and outsource?

 

Let's face it, TFU2 stunk. I refuse to pay $60 for a game that only has 3 hours of gameplay and 4 levels. If this is the kind of product they're going to produce, they're going to fail miserably, and need to outsource.

 

The other option is to commit to producing top-notch games, but that costs money in terms of commitments to personnel. It looks to me like LA doesn't want to make that financial investment.

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