LucasArts Confirms Layoffs, Claims Company is “Healthy”
By Chris on Friday, June 6th, 2008 at 8:00 PM PST In Game Companies, Games, Games Industry, LucasArts, Star Wars
The rumored news that LucasArts had laid off as many as 100 employees — including the Peter Hirschmann, VP of product development — have been confirmed by the company today, Kotaku reports. Spokesperson Margaret Grohne said the decision to let Hirschmann go was a “mutual decision” and claimed that things are still in good shape.
“I can confirm we had layoffs yesterday they were in the studio,” said Grohne. “They had to do with where we are in our product life cycles.”
LucasArts underwent a change at president recently when former prez Jim Ward resigned. He was replaced by former Electronic Arts COO Darrell Rodriguez shortly thereafter. It’s unclear if those moves led to the layoffs, but it’s certainly a fact worth keeping in mind.
“We are healthy,” Grohne continued. “LEGO Indie was launched on seven platforms to positive reviews, The Force Unleashed and Fracture are on track for this fall. We have a good slate of games and we have some good stuff going on in production.
“We are definitely committed to the internal studio.”
But with so much of the company’s staff getting the boot, is the company really in a position to continue internal development? We’ll have more on the story as it develops.
