Lucasarts cuts Force Unleashed Team

There is a tremor in the force this morning as rumors circulate concerning the recent lay-offs at LucasArts. Approximately 70 – 100 employees were released from LucasArts earlier this month but the company was quick to claim that the lay-offs would not affect their video game development.

Joystiq is now reporting that the previously announced lay-offs affected the internal development team for the upcoming game “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed” including a number of “key personnel”. The Joystiq source is quoted as saying that the lay-offs occurred just as the development team was working to complete the game. It is now rumored that LucasArts does not have sufficient internal staff to complete the game without outsourcing the work to third parties.

Many gamers are now highly concerned about how these lay-offs will affect the quality of the much hyped game release scheduled for September. Not to mention how any needed patches or follow ups to the game may now be handled. Further questions are raised about how LucasArts intends to pursue further game development now that its internal studios have been so reduced.

More on this when we have it.