The Walt Disney Co. has agreed to acquire Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion in cash and stock, in one of the big stories the storm prevented us from reporting when it was announced yesterday. As noted by
latimes.com, the deal includes ILM and most everything else from the Star Wars franchise to LucasArts, the company's gaming arm. The story focuses on plans to imbue Disney's theme parks with The Force and on plans to continue the Star Wars film series, but
Forbes has word on the gaming implications of this, suggesting that this might make LucasArts' gaming efforts less focused, rather than more. They say Bob Iger indicated PC titles will likely be licensed, and "In its core division, Disney will likely be focusing on social and mobile games based around Star Wars." In the meantime,
Star Wars 1313 is still on track, but they also note the complications of persuing other projects gamers dream about: "As for all those other dream titles? It’s more complicated than just Lucas being out of the picture. KOTOR 3 for example is under the license granted to EA/Bioware currently, and after the disaster of The Old Republic, it’s hard to imagine them gambling on a game so similar, even if the old ones were classics."