SourceCode: LucasArts Gone Forever?

Welcome back to another edition of SourceCode! This week we will be all about LucasArts. Like many of you, I was pretty depressed when I heard the news that Disney closed down LucasArts. So what I thought I would do is go back to those great games that I enjoyed from LucasArts, and let you in on a little theory of mine that might lessen the blow of the bad news.

It's 1996, I am 7 years old, and in love with Star Wars like any other 7 year old of the day. My brother and I had saved up all of our birthday, chore, and Christmas money to buy the original Sony PlayStation. I loved games ever since I had the ability to comprehend what they were. So when I saw a game called Star Wars: Dark Forces in the store, one day, for my brand new Sony PlayStation, you better believe I bought it. I popped that disc in and it was awesome! It was the first time, outside the arcades, that I was able to be so close to the Star Wars universe, and LucasArts was responsible for this remarkable thing. Being 7, of course, I never realized the significance of that game until much later in life. Dark Forces spawned a series of games that took on the name Star Wars: Jedi Knight. It followed a man named Kyle Katarn who starts out as a Rebel Alliance spy, but through a series of events ends up a Jedi Master.

Playing those games, along with their later game series Battlefront and Knights of the Old Republic, was some of the most fun I have ever had while gaming, and with Star Wars in general. But what am I saying? LucasArts was responsible for other games and they had nothing to do with Star Wars. Though I personally have never played most of them (I was a tad young and bit stupid, so forgive me), LucasArts put titles such as Loom, Grim Fandango, and The Secret of Monkey Island. These games, plus their extensive Star Wars library of games, all earned LucasArts respect in the gaming world and rightly so.

However that's all over, and LucasArts as we knew it has shut it's doors. The developer has had its ups and downs, especially as of late, but I think we can all agree that their latest project, which has since been neither confirmed nor denied as canceled, Star Wars: 1313 had great potential for revitalizing the company. While it hasn't been confirmed or denied, I personally think Disney would be crazy not to take a chance on Star Wars: 1313. I mean hell, it has Star Wars in the name and you know people buy up that shit especially, if you put in some nice toys in with the special edition.

I have no doubt that 1313 will be pushed out of the pipelines sooner or later but what about LucasArts in the mean time? Well, for now it is strictly a licensing company, but I don't think they will stay that way. Here is what my special theory is: As the release of the new Star Wars trilogy grows nearer and nearer with its first movie, I don't think Disney will be able to find enough studios, what with the world going Star Wars crazy again, to license out as many games as they would like to. Thus, as the demand rises, Disney might be forced to reopen LucasArts as a game development studio once again.

So I guess you could say, we had our fun and although LucasArts isn't really dead, I will still miss the idea of some true sequels of many games I enjoyed and loved over the years. I think we haven't seen LucasArts' (as a developer) last hurrah and I bet before long we might see some new life being breathed into the old gal, and we will see its wings spread and fly once more.

Thanks for joining me once again for another SourceCode input, I really enjoyed doing this one as well as last weeks and I sure hope you guys enjoyed reading them. See you all next week!

And hurry new Star Wars trilogy, you are our only hope!