Adventure Gamers - Forums

The most important part about this, for me, is the idea that Disney will allow the creation of a new Indiana Jones game.  Lucasarts all but ignored Indiana Jones—I don’t see Disney being that stupid, to completely ignore the merchandising possibilities of one of the most iconic film franchises in history.  Indiana Jones has already been incorporated into a number of Disney theme parks—I’d be really surprised if they didn’t try to capitalize on the opportunity to license out the IP and make some cash on its extensive video game potential.

Stay tuned for Indiana Jones prequel reboot called Henry?

I have my glossy History of LucasArts coffee table book. That’s all I need to remember the old studio. Considering that they’ve been subjecting us to nothing but a string of disappointments for as long as I can remember now, it seems fitting to finally put the old dog out of its misery.

What is slightly frustrating though is that the only way someone could get their hands on that LucasArts IP was to go ahead and buy the whole of LucasFilm. Disney clearly have no interest in it right now, whereas in years past there were people and companies who could have made something decent with those properties had they the chance.

I really want those original paintings that Steve Purcell did of the Monkey Island box art, which were hanging in the LucasArts studios. Whoever clears out the offices had better keep them safe. I don’t want that stuff ending up in a dumpster like at the end of Sierra.

Jatsie - 03 April 2013 11:52 PM

What is slightly frustrating though is that the only way someone could get their hands on that LucasArts IP was to go ahead and buy the whole of LucasFilm. Disney clearly have no interest in it right now, whereas in years past there were people and companies who could have made something decent with those properties had they the chance.

“It was a “jump to conclusions” mat. You see, it would be this mat that you would put on the floor and it would have different conclusions written on it that you could jump to!”

Seriously though, what in the world makes you think that Disney is just going to sit on the Lucas IPs??  That’s what Lucasarts did, and it was a fucking terrible business decision.  Disney is a well-run business that knows a market when it sees it.  Mark my words, we will see, at the very least, new Indy games from this, and probably a few classic franchise revivals.  This is GOOD NEWS.

This article pretty much sums it up:

http://kotaku.com/lucasarts-closing-down-could-be-a-good-thing-from-a-ce-468833930

We still have Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert continuing to make new games, so I am not too sad about this.

thejobloshow - 04 April 2013 02:11 AM

Wait a minute…

What if…

Disney… teams up with Activision…

A Sierra/LucasArts crossover where you visit the worlds of all the great Sierra and LucasArts adventures…

And we can call it WHO FRAMED GRIM FANDANGO?

ALL MY DISNEY DOLLARS.

Wow, that is the greatest thing I’ve ever heard. It could be like a Kingdom Hearts of adventure gaming. You are a genius.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this were the same as the GK rights (though that one has apparently finally changed), in regards to the adventure game IPs. Disney is the type of company that only cares about the big money, and AGs are probably too small for them so they’d rather especially not sell, but probably not even reasonably license them either. If they even realize what they have (this was the same with the GK rights - the rights had just been “buried in the cellar” and nothing could happen).

I mean, I’m no expert, but that’s just my gut feeling about this situation (and Disney, from everything I’ve heard).

But, hopefully I’m wrong. We’ll see I guess. And even if I’m right, I guess it doesn’t change that much from the status quo.

Quest1 - 04 April 2013 01:08 AM

We still have Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert continuing to make new games, so I am not too sad about this.

But I do feel badly for the 100+ people who lost their jobs, of course! :-(

Well - I guess we’ll see.  It appears they want to turn the business into a licensing firm; so we’ll see what kind of games might come out now.

Guess we’re just waiting with baited breath for a while.

Bt

Lambonius - 04 April 2013 12:00 AM

Seriously though, what in the world makes you think that Disney is just going to sit on the Lucas IPs??  That’s what Lucasarts did, and it was a fucking terrible business decision.  Disney is a well-run business that knows a market when it sees it.  Mark my words, we will see, at the very least, new Indy games from this, and probably a few classic franchise revivals.  This is GOOD NEWS.

Seeing as you’ve decided to completely miss my point so that you could simply repeat yourself again, let me break it down for you.

- LucasArts had IP which it decided for years it wanted to do nothing with.
- There were passionate people working for gaming companies who would have loved to have done something with that IP.
- LucasArts steadfastly refused to sell off any of their IP so that others could make use of it.
- Finally the LucasArts IP did get sold off, but it was only through a far larger deal with Disney.
- Disney is not a gaming company, the people at Disney do not have a long history of making games hands-on and being passionate about the medium.

What is frustrating is that so many years were wasted while LucasArts sat on the IP and missed the chance to exploit it, whilst also refusing to sell it to people who could make good use of it. Now that it has finally been sold it hasn’t gone into the hands of those people, but instead a less-than-ideal candidate whose focus isn’t gaming.

My frustration is with the lengths it took to pry that IP from the hands of LucasArts, when the fact is that a better deal for gamers could have been sought long ago.

Maybe Disney will decide to licence out the IP finally, but that had absolutely nothing to do with what I was saying, and I really have no interest in indulging in idle speculation. I maintain a “wait and see” attitude, and am content to remain hopeful that something positive could finally come from this after the mistakes of the past.

@Jatsie: Disney doesn’t have a long history of making games? What rock have you been living under? Maybe Disney doesn’t have many internal studios (currently 3), but their licenses have been turned into games for ages. Some of the best NES and SNES games are based on Disney franchises, and even today a lot of Disney branded games are coming out, although a lot of them are poor movie tie-ins.

So even if Disney doesn’t develop much in-house, they do license out a ton of their properties, as it’s basically free money for them. Like say Capcom, who is paying for the new Duck Tales game by Way Forward. Some of those profits goes back to Disney, so it’s a win/win for them.

If we’re lucky maybe Disney will treat some of the adventure IP’s the same way (like you mention, they might license them out), and we’ll for sure be seeing them doing that with the Star Wars IP, naturally. All in all this is at the very least better than having LucasArts just sit on the IP’s, where more or less nothing would be happening besides from perhaps Monkey Island, and even that was unlikely after Telltale was done with it.