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Despite huge success for its 2009 digital strategy LucasArts says retail releases are still a key part of its business.
Last year the publisher revived many of its classic older IPs, with both new and old Monkey Island titles launched for iPhone, Xbox Live Arcade, PC and WiiWare.
Embracing digital has only widened its business, however, with the firm telling MCV that the boxed content it releases through Activision in Europe goes from strength-to-strength.
We’ve had a great 2009 and look forward to 2010, especially with The Force Unleashed 2 which we recently announced and promises to be the next massive Star Wars experience on consoles,” said global publishing VP Mary Bihr.
In fact, said Bihr, LucasArts has seen strong sales of back catalogue titles – despite the year-on-year decrease in global games spending.
She said: We, similar to many other publishers, have been challenged by the current economic climate. We’ve seen a slowdown in sales velocity across some titles, but a commensurate increase in others, sometimes with games that have been on the shelves for two, three, even four years. There’s still strong demand for these licensed games.”
The first Star Wars: The Force Unleashed arrived in 2008 and has already clocked up over six million copies sold to date, and was re-released with new added content in November.
As for recent releases, LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues has already been a huge success for us. TT Games did a fantastic job making this the most immersive LEGO game to date. We’re very pleased by its performance across Europe.”
Now Bihr says LucasArts is focusing all its efforts on the release of The Force Unleashed 2 later this year.
This will be a huge game for us. Our internal development team is hard at work making it the next massive action packed Star Wars experience. We have a lot more going on that I can’t talk about now, but it continues to be an exciting time here at LucasArts.”
