These are the new digs, Doll. What do ya think?

The Walt Disney Company is to purchase Lucasfilm in a US $4.05b transaction that includes ownership of the LucasArts game development business.

Director George Lucas formed LucasArts in 1982 and titles such as Maniac Mansion, The Secret of Monkey Island and Grim Fandango (pictured above) saw the studio hailed as a champion of the adventure game genre.

In more recent years, LucasArts has relied primarily on its most iconic film licence. The studio’s current project, for example, is Star Wars: 1313, a third person shooter set in the criminal underworld of the popular sci-fi universe.

Given that Disney already has a games development division of its own, it will be interesting to see if LucasArts is retained as a separate entity. A Disney representative told Game Informer that all of the studio’s existing projects will proceed for “the time being”.

Of course, the most widely publicised component of the Disney announcement is the revelation that a new Star Wars film is in the works for 2015. While series visionary Lucas will serve as a creative consultant on the project, it will be written and directed by a new generation of filmmakers.

Image Credit: MobyGames

Don’t ask.

Hotline Miami co-creator Jonatan Söderström has confronted the miscreants responsible for illegally uploading his game to a torrent site. Of course, by ‘confronted’, we actually mean that Söderström has politely asked the thieves to patch their version of the game to ensure the best possible experience for pirate players.

As reported by PC Gamer, the remarkably magnanimous developer took to the Pirate Bay forums to tell users that a range of bug fixes are in the works. He then noted that it would “be great if you could update the torrent when the patch is out! It’d be great if people get to play it without any bugs popping up. Hope everyone will enjoy the game!”

While he also encouraged players to shell out their hard earned, the developer demonstrated considerable empathy towards financially stricken gamers. “I don’t really want people to pirate Hotline Miami,” Söderström said the following day on Twitter, “but I understand if they do. I’ve been broke the last couple of months. It sucks.”

The latest indie PC game to ride the retro wave, Hotline Miami challenges players to drill, smash and blast their way through the Miami crime scene, circa 1989.

Luigi may not like what he finds…

Electronics giant Foxconn last week conceded that it had employed a number of children aged 14-16 at one of its Chinese plants. Following this revelation, Nintendo pledged to conduct an investigation into the company with which it had enjoyed a long business relationship.

Nintendo of America’s Senior Director of Corporate Communications Charlie Scibetta this week announced the outcome of the platform holder’s enquiries, telling Kotaku that “Foxconn has taken full responsibility for this incident and has moved quickly to ensure that all affected individuals no longer work at Foxconn.” Scibetta also clarified for the first time that Nintendo components had indeed been manufactured at the site in question.

These labour law violations are in conflict with Foxconn’s stated policies and according to Scibetta, the manufacturer has “pledged to Nintendo via direct communications to improve its process of enforcing this policy to avoid any similar issues in the future.” Nintendo will continue to rely on a program of inspections in order to “understand the actual on-site conditions and to promote socially responsible procurement”.

How does this revelation sit with you? Are you satisfied with Nintendo’s response?

“Now… where did I leave my keys?”

A string of success stories has helped crowd funding service Kickstarter become a destination of choice for indie games developers. Titles such as Double Fine Adventure, Project Eternity and Planetary Annihilation have far exceeded their funding goals, allowing production to begin on games that may not have been feasible under traditional publishing models. In recent weeks, however, some of the risks associated with the service have begun to emerge.

In early October, Loot Drop launched a high profile Kickstarter campaign to bankroll the development of Old School Role Playing Game (recently retitled ‘Shaker’). After it attracted almost a quarter of a million dollars in pledges, Loot Drop abruptly cancelled it, perhaps sensing that it was unlikely to reach its million dollar target. The developer described the decision as a “mercy killing”.

In that example, none of the backers were required to part with their money. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Haunts: The Manse Macabre, which was fully funded via Kickstarter. Mob Rules received more than $28,000 from backers but ran into trouble when both of its programmers quit the team. The studio is now accepting help from about 30 volunteers and the game will proceed as an open source project.

It remains to be seen whether the stumbles experienced by Loot Drop and Mob Rules will discourage developers or potential backers from using the service.

In slightly more positive Kickstarter news, Star Citizen has reached its half million dollar goal. Interestingly, though, this sum represents only a portion of the game’s budget. Developer Cloud Imperium Game Corporation is also appealing for contributions on its own website. It could be argued that this fact isn’t made entirely obvious on the Kickstarter page.

Disclosure Policy for Kickstarter and Similar Programs: Black Panel staff and contributors will always inform you if they have backed the project they are discussing.