LucasArts - Shuts Down

They made good simulators and adventures games but both genres died in the late 90s.
Dunno about you, but in my case the adventures genre didn't die.
It's not as popular as shooters for braindead nor you'll see an adventure getting a GOTY recognition anywhere, but it still exists. I can't see any adventure kickstarted project that failed and the site similar to rpgwatch that covers adventures is still alive and kicking (adventuregamers.com).
Luckily for me and other fans of the adventure genre, many great (storydriven/nongrinder) RPGs have at least one adventurelike puzzle to solve.

On the topic, goodbye Manny, goodbye Guybrush, goodbye Ben. Cya again when someone with a brain buys the license.
 
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While this may seem sad, it hardly means a whole lot to be honest. They were already outsourcing IPs like Monkey Island to TellTale and similar. There's no reason TellTale can't make more games based on former LucasArts IPs given the fact that they're a bunch of ex-LucasArts developers.
 
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One of my favorite games (if not my favorite… but that's a tough battle with Europa Universalis 3 and Crusader Kings 2) was made by them for the old consoles… Gladius. It didn't sell that well and LucasArts never made a sequel. Hopefully this means some other company will acquire the rights for very cheap and make a sequel of their own.

No kidding. Gladius was the game my brother and I played the most on the XBox. Totally underrated XCom style turn based strategy game. Glad to know there were others who saw its brilliance.
 
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Apparently Raven Software GPL'd Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy. Probably better news than what could realistically have come from LucasArts.
 
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Time for Star Wars IP to die too. Has been done to death already. It's not programmers or artists that the game industry lacks, but the ability to come up with fresh new ideas for immersive worlds.
 
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Time for Star Wars IP to die too. Has been done to death already. It's not programmers or artists that the game industry lacks, but the ability to come up with fresh new ideas for immersive worlds.

Well I respect your opinion, but I wouldn't mind more Star Wars. It's the same for fantasy rpg's. I have no problem at all playing them.
 
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In the end, they merely relied on the shooter genre,
thus effectively ignoring their strengths they once had : Great Storytelling, for example.

Storytelling - an Lost Art in Gaming. Shooters don't need storytelling as much as adventure games once did.
 
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I feel sorry for the folks that lost their jobs. Except for the some of the more experienced staff, I don't think it will be easy for these people to find new jobs in this industry...
 
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Dunno about you, but in my case the adventures genre didn't die.
It's not as popular as shooters for braindead nor you'll see an adventure getting a GOTY recognition anywhere, but it still exists. I can't see any adventure kickstarted project that failed and the site similar to rpgwatch that covers adventures is still alive and kicking (adventuregamers.com).
Luckily for me and other fans of the adventure genre, many great (storydriven/nongrinder) RPGs have at least one adventurelike puzzle to solve.

On the topic, goodbye Manny, goodbye Guybrush, goodbye Ben. Cya again when someone with a brain buys the license.

If people stop buying games, then the genre will start to die. Thats what happened to adventure games. Grim Fandango was good adventure but it didnt sell so lucasarts had to give up. They never made sequel for full throttle.

Grim Fandango sales were poor despite the positive reception given to the game.[61] Initial estimates suggested that the game sold well during the 1998 holiday season.[62] However, the game only sold about 95,000 copies up through 2003 in North America, excluding online sales, based on data provided by PC Data (now owned by NPD Group).

While LucasArts proceeded to produce Escape from Monkey Island in 2000, they canceled development of sequels to Sam & Max Hit the Road[70] and Full Throttle[71] stating that "After careful evaluation of current market place realities and underlying economic considerations, we've decided that this was not the appropriate time to launch a graphic adventure on the PC."

Subsequently, the studio dismissed many of the people involved with their adventure games,[72][73] some of whom went on to set up Telltale Games, creating an episodic series of Sam & Max games.[74] In 2006, LucasArts stated they do not plan on returning to adventure games until the "next decade".[75]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grim_Fandango

Space sims saw similar fate. Freespace 2 was considered excellent but still people didnt buy it so the only option was to abandon the genre.
On September 30th, 1999, the greatest space combat simulation ever released, Freespace 2, hit store shelves…and inadvertently killed the mainstream space sim genre forever. For some reason, the game only sold roughly 27,000 copies in its first six months, a very disappointing figure given the success of its predecessor, Descent: Freespace.

There are many theories as to why Freespace 2 sold so poorly. During the heyday of space simulations, the joystick was a very common gaming accessory, but it was slowly losing favor to the mouse and keyboard thanks to games like Quake and Unreal Tournament and could have caused a waning interest in the genre. The increasing “consolification” of gaming, and the shortening attention span of gamers along with it, meant that fewer players had the desire to go through the training and learn the controls of modern space simulations, which also could have been a contributing factor.

http://www.spacegamejunkie.com/oped/the-day-the-space-sim-died/

In the past few years things have of course started to look better for adventure games. Infact last year adventure game was the best game of the year. Im off course talking about walking dead. So they died but revival has started. Atleast for adventure games.

I still dont see something to replace x-wing/tie fighter-series but kickstart has made new wing commander/ privateer possible so Im slightly positive with that genre. In the last ten years space sims fans have mostly forced to replay the old games from 90s. I dont even remember when the last good space sim was made.

Just like the one article above I think it was the 3d graphics accelators of late 90s and the rise of fps games that killed genres like adventures and sims atleast momenterily.

EDIT:

So after grim fandango lucasarts people went to tell tales and last year they made adventure game that was the best game of the year and now people are saying lucasarts is dead? Only in name.

http://www.telltalegames.com/
 
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Raven software just released the source code for JK outcast and JK academy. Intresting to see what fans will do with it :)

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/04/in...-releases-the-source-code-for-jedi-knight-ii/

In the end, they merely relied on the shooter genre,
thus effectively ignoring their strengths they once had : Great Storytelling, for example.

Storytelling - an Lost Art in Gaming. Shooters don't need storytelling as much as adventure games once did.

Didn't you like dark forces/Jedi knight series? Imo those games had nice stories. They also published kotors.

And outlaws is one of the finest western games (or atleast it was back then, now its quite outdated visually:)). The music still brings many memories though http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhoM0nph_fE
 
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