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June 27th, 2008 @ 07:59
This Joystiq report confirms that the Star War: The Force Unleashed team has been closed down by LucasArts now the project’s been completed. From the story:
We spoke with one now ex-member of the team, who told us that the layoffs came just as work on the game was wrapping up. Our source, who wished not to be named, is one of several long-time members of the LucasArts talent pool let go, many of which had worked on titles including X-Wing, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango.
Mass lay-offs were partially confirmed at LucasArts earlier this month. More through the link.
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June 27th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Confidence in game dropping even further.
Terrible news for the teams, though. Bad LucasArts. Get to your beds!
June 27th, 2008 at 9:02 am
I sense a disturbance in the Force (Unleashed)…
Never a good idea to buy a game that’s had the team destroyed as soon as it’s “finished”.
June 27th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Well…I still have it pegged as a game that may be worth playing, only for as long as novelty remains in its “force” aspect. I’m just not convinced that that is a strong enough concept to build a game around (which, tbf, looks to be exactly what they’re up to.) It’s increasingly becoming apparent to me, that we really don’t know much about the game, beyond this goofy-looking Half Life 2 (etc.) borrowed mechanic.
This news is bad for the team who worked on it, though, no doubt. It’s no BAD game, in my eyes, just an uninspiring one. I hope it’ll do better than Enter the Matrix, in terms of expanding on existing canon, for those stalwart fans of the franchise.
June 27th, 2008 at 9:37 am
I was looking forward to this game but why would they lay off a load of staff if the game was amazing?
June 27th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Hope the people involved get new jobs soon at companies that will appreciate them.
June 27th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Sounds like another AITD. When’s this game realeased?
June 27th, 2008 at 10:27 am
September.
June 27th, 2008 at 11:26 am
It’ll probably end up being a good game, but LA sure as fuck don’t deserve the cash for it if this rumour turns out to be true. They’ve just saved themselves from having to pay a substantial bonus cheque to the dev team - I wonder who’ll get to keep that money now?
June 27th, 2008 at 11:27 am
I reckon it’ll be good. Apparently this was the one they refused to let go until it was obviously releasable.
June 27th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Staff regularly get laid off after a game is done. Staff often choose to leave too. I’d bet a whole lot of money that every gamer who reads this site has played games where the team have been sacked shortly/immediately afterwards - it’s just rarely publicised.
It also doesn’t necessary equate to the quality of the product. In much the same way that the price, amount of time in development, time of release or platform the game is running on has no direct relationship with whether a game is good or not.
Bonuses would, I’m pretty certain, be honoured but, I’m pretty certain, never have been set up around the basis of being at the same firm after the game was finished. Milestone bonuses, completion bonuses yes. Other bonuses like any dependent on a metacritic score or sales figure would, I’m just as certain, be impossible to attribute to individual team members so would never have been set up in the first place.
This industry is a business. Ethics and morals are nice for idealistic folk on videogame forums, but they don’t fit into how business works in general. They’re not compatible.