Disney buys LucasArts in surprise $4 billion deal

Disney said on Tuesday that it will acquire the entirety of George Lucas' privately-owned Lucasfilm Ltd. -- including its video game publishing imprint, LucasArts -- for $4.05 billion in cash and stocks. The deal includes everything Lucasfilm owns, including its technologies, its properties, and its IPs, including Star Wars, which will receive a 7th film installment in 2015. "For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next," Lucas said in a statement. "It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers." Disney has for some time been reducing its interactive division to a mainly social gaming company, while LucasArts -- which recently lost its third president in four years -- is focusing on a "dark and mature" triple-A franchise. That project is still on track for release, but looking ahead, Disney says it is more likely to focus on social and mobile for the Lucas IP in the future. Console games are still on the table, but "most likely in licensing rather than publishing," Disney CEO Robert Iger said in a conference call.