Just wondering if anyone else is concerned about the current and disturbing direction Disney is steering the Star Wars Universe. I myself am quickly losing faith that the Universe I have loved and followed for so many years will remain for much longer. The 1st announcement that had me concerned was the simultaneous canceling of the Clone Wars series and the upcoming Star Wars Detours project. While not a huge fan of the Clone Wars I was anxiously awaiting the release of Seth Greens Detours project. Next came the announcement of the dismantling of Lucasarts! While Diney intends to create more games under the Lucasarts title they now own, the company is dead with 250 employees laid off. The upcoming 1313 game is now dead in the water with no hope of ever seeing the light of day. All Disney has done since they acquired the franchise is pull all licensing they do not has control of. I worry the Fantasy Flight licensing is next on the chopping block. With no wave 3 being discussed anywhere and the postponing of the RPG who's to say we will see much more from Fantasy Flight in the future of Star Wars. I hope I am incorrect and just over worried about something I have loved for so long changing so drasticly so quickly. I really feel Disney is becoming the Empire forcing its influence over the entire Star Wars Universe. If that is the case then I say let the Rebellion begin!!

It would not be the first game an owning companing did not renew their license in favor of going it alone. It is a consideration of course but I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

I am also worried a little.

I was initially happy about Disney's ackquisition of Star Wars because I did not much like what Lucas was doing since the prequel trilogy. But so far, everything Disney had done was bad in my opinion. Now, can they just kill the licensing agreement with FFG? No, probably not. Disney has to abide by all Lucas' previous commitments and this includes FFG's Star Wars licence. However, there is the very real possibility that they won't renew it after it expires; so, the question is: for how long did FFG buy the Star Wars licence? Once we start approaching the end of that agreement, that is when we need to start worrying about X-wing and the Star Wars LCG.

No matter what they do, it's hard to imagine that their final output (be it games, films, or whatever) is aimed at putting off the fans the Star Wars universe has acquired. Yeah, all that doesn't sound too nicely, but I'll just try to sit back and see what's coming our way.

I think most of the moves by Disney are pretty understandable. With new movies in the pipe they want to move the focus from the prequel era back to the original trilogy and what came after, which makes the Clone Wars cancelation understandable (as much as I'll miss it). Detours would have been fun to see, but again with the new stuff coming out I can certainly see why they wouldn't want the newest material relating to the original trilogy to be a Seth Green parody (though again, I would have liked to see it). I don't think there's any part of these decisions that points to evil or destructiveness.

LucasArts closing down is unfortunate, but not unexpected. 1313 was looking promising, but Force Unleased was getting rave previews at this point before it released, and people savaged it. LucasArts hasn't been firing on all cylinders for a long time. Closing them sucks - I actually know a few people who worked there - but it's also understandable. Disney got everything Lucas had, which included a struggling game studio well outside the sort of thing they normally do. It's a move that, again, makes good sense for them no matter how much it might suck.

As for the actual, specific issue relating to us… <shrug> It wouldn't be the first time a company lost a lucrative license due to an acquisition. But I doubt it. As part of the LucasArts closure indicated they indicated that they planned to license the IP for other studios to make games based on it. Disney seems to be perfectly willing to license the product, and with them not wanting to be in the business of computer games I tend to doubt they're going to want to be in the business of tabletop games. The biggest risk is probably that Disney will have different numbers in their head for what the license is worth, and it'll be too much/more than FFG wants to pay.

A lot of people like to characterize Disney as either 1. a children's entertainment company (e.g., Mickey Mouse, Pixar, Disneyland) or 2. a soulless, money-hungy behemoth intent on destroying entertainment. I think both of these characterizations are unfair, and I am still optimistic about Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm. Many people cried afoul when Disney acquired Marvel Comics in 2009, and a lot of fans were convinced that Disney would bring about the death of that brand. Three years later Disney produced one of the best super hero movies to come out in years in The Avengers.

That being said, Disney's chopping block hasn't claimed any entities very near or dear to me. LucasArts, for example, hasn't developed a decent game in over 10 years, with all the good ones (KOTOR, Battlefront) being licensed to third parties. So perhaps my opinion could change if Disney cuts something more important to me.

Nevertheless, there will inevitably be some reorganizing on Disney's part as Lucasfilm settles into the new order of things. Right now we're seeing the cuts because that's the first part of reorganization. Soon we will begin to see new material coming out.

And as far as tabletop miniatures go, X-Wing seems to repeatedly sell out of expansion packs with everyone wondering where to get more. I can't see how that's anything but a good thing for such a niche part of the Star Wars universe.

I'm still skeptical as well (and a little miffed… I'm in the gaming industry and LA's let-go tallent are now competing with me for jobs), but I'll wait until promotional stuff for the first movie comes out before passing judgement. About the only thing I'll miss from the discontinued stuff is Star Wars Detours.

While I'm bummed about the cancellation of The Clone Wars, the delay of FFG's RPG actually gives me hope: instead of vagueness (Q2 2013), we've got a firm release date (first week of July, 2013).

As others have said, the cancellation of television media makes sense: they want all eyes on Episode VII (and I'm personally happy that Detours never got off the ground). And again, as others have said, the disollusion of Lucasarts makes sense, too - they'd rather license Star Wars games to more capable game studios than to make subpar games in-house.

As far as tabletop games go (X-Wing, the RPG, and the LCG specifically), I agree that this is a niche of a niche, and Disney has little to gain by squashing it. Nobody ever didn't go and see a major new blockbuster motion picture because they'd just played a tabletop game based on the same IP. If anything, this situation with FFG is seemingly the exact kind of situation they'd like to be in as regards their Star Wars computer games.

The big question is: Hasbro. If we ever hear that Disney wants them to discontinue making Star Wars toys, that's when we'll know that all bets are off…

I. J. Thompson said:

Hasbro or LEGO. I don't see either happening.