According to Kotaku, Lucas Arts has announced lay offs of 150 employees and has of right now Star Wars: First Assault and Star Wars 1313 have been cancelled.
Rumors were brought up that Lucas Arts put Star Wars 1313 on hold for the development of the new Star Wars trilogy. Lucas Arts announced the lay offs as the company tries to transition from internal development to licensing games.
However Game Informer reports that Star Wars 1313 might still come out via licensing.
No word is out there about whether this would affect the chances of a Star Wars: Battlefront 3 game in the future.
Recently there was leaked information on a video game called Star Wars: First Assault in the past weeks. Star Wars First Assault is downloadable shooter that was meant to be released on the Xbox Live Arcade, which is powered by Unreal Engine.
Rumors suggest that First Assault will be a predecessor of Battlefront 3.
If released, First Assault will be pit two teams of stormtroopers and rebel soldiers where they will do battle in the worlds of Bespin and Tatooine.
However there is an air of uncertainty surrounding Disney and there acquisition of Lucas Arts. So there is no clear answers on when First Assault or Star Wars 1313 will be released at all.
We don’t know Disney’s hidden agenda on what it is going to do with the long storied tradition of Star Wars games and properties that had a huge impacts in the gaming industry in the recent years.
Since there September acquisition from Disney, Lucas Films froze all hiring and game annoucements. That means the people who are working on First Assault don’t know whether it will be released or not, Star Wars 1313 is in the same situation.
Even the Cartoon Network show Clone Wars has been cancelled due to these recent predicaments.
As of right now, it is the waiting game for Lucas Arts as they wait to see what Lucas Films and Disney’s executives on what they want to do with the current games in development and future games.
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