14 DAY TRIAL // LucasArts is apparently laying off some of its staff, following the release of LEGO Indiana Jones, but well before the release of games like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Fracture. One of the high profile departures is that of Peter Hirschmann, who was vice president of product development. No replacement has been announced yet.
LucasArts has already lost Jim Ward, when Darrell Rodriguez, who was Chief Operating Officer at Electronic Arts, was appointed president back in February, and decided to make some changes. The new layoffs are billed as being part of a re-structuring effort in the company, which is getting ready for the remainder of 2008.
Initial reports said that between 50 and 100 employees were let go, some of them part of the quality assurance department, and some of them involved in the programming and art departments. Most of them seem to have some sort of connection with the development effort for LEGO Indiana Jones, which was recently released. There are rumors that game producer Shawn Storc was one of the guys that left the company, so it might be that LucasArts is simply reducing its staff as the game is now transitioning from the development phase to the support phase.
A representative of LucasArts confirmed the company "did have a lay off... for some of our workforce" sometime around June 5, but he refused to comment on specific names, saying that it would be "not fair to the people that have left, and not our policy." He said that more information on the re-structuring of the company will be made available in the near future.
LucasArts has been developing Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, one of the most eagerly awaited titles of the year, which should re-launch the Star Wars. Some commentators are worried that the release of the game will be affected by the recent layoffs, but apparently no changes to the release schedule will be made.