Walt Disney to shut down game studio LucasArts, resulting in layoffs in both San Francisco and Singapore.

SINGAPORE: Walt Disney has decided to shut down game studio LucasArts, which it inherited from the acquisition of George Lucas' film company in 2012, resulting in layoffs in both San Francisco and Singapore.

The number of layoffs in Singapore is unknown, but the company's Singapore spokesperson Ms Rasa Buckley said that it is "much less" than the 150 layoffs affecting its San Francisco office.



She added that the company decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development model to a licensing model after evaluating its position in the games market.

"We are incredibly proud of our team and are doing everything we possibly can to help them with out-placement opportunities," Ms Buckley said. She added that LucasFilm Singapore's feature animation and visual effects productions are not affected.

The company is scheduled to move into its new facility, the 'Sandcrawler', in Fusionopolis later in the year.

Media outlets have reported that Disney is several months into an internal cost-cutting review, and the decision to shut down LucasArts came as a result of the developer and publisher struggling in recent years to produce a hit in an industry increasingly dominated by action-oriented games.

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