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[TD]Coffeeshop Chit Chat - Disney flops and Govt lies !
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Lay-offs in S’pore after Disney
closes LucasArts
BYEUGENE NEUBRONNER- 05 APRIL
View all 0 comments
Tweet 23
SINGAPORE — The local games industry
will lose one of its most well-known
names, after Disney announced that it
was shutting down LucasArts — part of
Lucasfilm Singapore which opened here in
2004 to great fanfare — with 150 lay-offs
worldwide expected.
Lucasfilm declined to say how many
staff here were affected, but TODAY
understands from an employee, who did
not want to be named, that the move
would affect about “50 to 70” staff in
Singapore.
Lucasfilm has two other divisions here,
ILM Singapore and Lucasfilm Animation
Singapore. They will move into their
Sandcrawler premises at one-north later
this year.
The news comes after Disney bought
out Lucasfilm last October for US$4.05
billion (S$5.01 billion). Disney, which has
its own game studio Disney Interactive, is
currently in the midst of a cost-cutting
review.
LucasArts had its heyday in the 1980s
and 1990s when it published such titles
as Star Wars: X-wing vs Tie Fighter and
Full Throttle. The Singapore studio last
worked on Star Wars: The Force
Unleashed 2 in 2010.
However, a string of flops in recent
years have left the studio with not much
to show.
Lucasfilm Communications Manager
Rasa Buckley said in an statement
yesterday that after evaluating the
studio’s position in the games market, it
decided to shift from “internal
development to a licensing model”.
She confirmed that in-house
development of titles, such as the highly
anticipated Star Wars title 1313, have
been stopped, and development rights
may be transferred to external parties.
One ex-employee who was laid off
yesterday said he was saddened and
surprised by the closure, which was
announced to staff at a meeting
yesterday morning — after the news had
already broke.
The ex-employee, who spoke on
condition of anonymity due to non-
disclosure agreements, said the studio
was almost finished with a game, and
some staff were preparing for a break.
*** When Lucasfilm opened its studio here,
its first and only outside the United
States, it was touted as the “beginning of
a whole new industry”, as then-Second
Trade and Industry Minister Vivian
Balakrishnan put it. ***
It also spun off specialty schools
offering digital arts and animation
programmes.
Industry players said the closure should
not be seen as a sign of doom despite
similar problems elsewhere. Game giant
THQ closed in January and Electronic Arts
had to shelve unpopular titles last year
after dismal sales.
**Media Development Authority’s
Assistant Chief Executive Officer Yeo
Chun Cheng said the local games industry
“continues to remain strong, shifting its
focus towards development of mobile,
social and online games”. **
He noted how companies such as gumi
Asia and Konami Singapore are still
recruiting here. Mobile developer
LambdaMu Games, for example, recently
saw success with its mobile game Pixel
People.
Economic Development Board (EDB)
Executive Director for
Infocommunications and Media Jayson
Goh said the EDB would “work closely” to
place affected staff.
Also, Lucasfilm would continue its
animation and visual effects-related
activities here and the EDB “remains
optimistic” about the growth of the
interactive and digital media industry
here, he said.
Mr Ian Tan, Marketing Manager for
Interactive Entertainment Business at
Microsoft Singapore, who grew up playing
games from LucasArts, said he was
shocked at the news, but noted that it
was not the end.
“Game studios may close but the talent
remains within the industry — either by
developers opening their own studios or
joining others … So the industry as a
whole retains itself,” he said.
However, an industry source, who
declined to be named, said the console
games industry has been in trouble for
the past few years, as consumers moved
to more casual titles on mobile phones
instead and game makers shift to a more
cautious outlook of pumping out surefire
hits instead.
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[TD]Coffeeshop Chit Chat - Disney flops and Govt lies !
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[TD="class: msgFname, width: 68%"] rodliao (sgbuster) <NOBR></NOBR>
[/TD]
[TD="class: msgDate, width: 30%, align: right"]Apr-5 4:34 pm
[/TD]
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Lay-offs in S’pore after Disney
closes LucasArts
BYEUGENE NEUBRONNER- 05 APRIL
View all 0 comments
Tweet 23
SINGAPORE — The local games industry
will lose one of its most well-known
names, after Disney announced that it
was shutting down LucasArts — part of
Lucasfilm Singapore which opened here in
2004 to great fanfare — with 150 lay-offs
worldwide expected.
Lucasfilm declined to say how many
staff here were affected, but TODAY
understands from an employee, who did
not want to be named, that the move
would affect about “50 to 70” staff in
Singapore.
Lucasfilm has two other divisions here,
ILM Singapore and Lucasfilm Animation
Singapore. They will move into their
Sandcrawler premises at one-north later
this year.
The news comes after Disney bought
out Lucasfilm last October for US$4.05
billion (S$5.01 billion). Disney, which has
its own game studio Disney Interactive, is
currently in the midst of a cost-cutting
review.
LucasArts had its heyday in the 1980s
and 1990s when it published such titles
as Star Wars: X-wing vs Tie Fighter and
Full Throttle. The Singapore studio last
worked on Star Wars: The Force
Unleashed 2 in 2010.
However, a string of flops in recent
years have left the studio with not much
to show.
Lucasfilm Communications Manager
Rasa Buckley said in an statement
yesterday that after evaluating the
studio’s position in the games market, it
decided to shift from “internal
development to a licensing model”.
She confirmed that in-house
development of titles, such as the highly
anticipated Star Wars title 1313, have
been stopped, and development rights
may be transferred to external parties.
One ex-employee who was laid off
yesterday said he was saddened and
surprised by the closure, which was
announced to staff at a meeting
yesterday morning — after the news had
already broke.
The ex-employee, who spoke on
condition of anonymity due to non-
disclosure agreements, said the studio
was almost finished with a game, and
some staff were preparing for a break.
*** When Lucasfilm opened its studio here,
its first and only outside the United
States, it was touted as the “beginning of
a whole new industry”, as then-Second
Trade and Industry Minister Vivian
Balakrishnan put it. ***
It also spun off specialty schools
offering digital arts and animation
programmes.
Industry players said the closure should
not be seen as a sign of doom despite
similar problems elsewhere. Game giant
THQ closed in January and Electronic Arts
had to shelve unpopular titles last year
after dismal sales.
**Media Development Authority’s
Assistant Chief Executive Officer Yeo
Chun Cheng said the local games industry
“continues to remain strong, shifting its
focus towards development of mobile,
social and online games”. **
He noted how companies such as gumi
Asia and Konami Singapore are still
recruiting here. Mobile developer
LambdaMu Games, for example, recently
saw success with its mobile game Pixel
People.
Economic Development Board (EDB)
Executive Director for
Infocommunications and Media Jayson
Goh said the EDB would “work closely” to
place affected staff.
Also, Lucasfilm would continue its
animation and visual effects-related
activities here and the EDB “remains
optimistic” about the growth of the
interactive and digital media industry
here, he said.
Mr Ian Tan, Marketing Manager for
Interactive Entertainment Business at
Microsoft Singapore, who grew up playing
games from LucasArts, said he was
shocked at the news, but noted that it
was not the end.
“Game studios may close but the talent
remains within the industry — either by
developers opening their own studios or
joining others … So the industry as a
whole retains itself,” he said.
However, an industry source, who
declined to be named, said the console
games industry has been in trouble for
the past few years, as consumers moved
to more casual titles on mobile phones
instead and game makers shift to a more
cautious outlook of pumping out surefire
hits instead.
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