Wow, and I thought things were going so well! Eh, I guess the force was not with LucasArts it would appear. While it is totally obvious that the layoffs were pretty severe, LucusArts maintains the claim that they are doing a ‘major restructuring’.

In my industry, that is a term that we hear far too often to excuse major layoffs. I wonder how deep these layoffs are going to go. Besides that, what kind of effect will they have on game development?

Responding to yesterday’s reports that it had laid off staff, LucasArts today said in a statement that it was undergoing “a major restructuring of its development studio.” A notice on the company’s Web site outlined some of the restructuring’s details, including layoffs of 31 staffers and the appointment of Peter Hirschmann as vice president of product development. Hirschmann, a two-year LucasArts vet and former Electronic Arts producer, had been managing the development of Star Wars: Battlefront and Mercenaries.

The restructuring is the first major change to be officially announced by LucasArts since Jim Ward took over as its president. “Since joining LucasArts in early May, I’ve taken a hard, critical look at our business,” he said in the statement. “I’ve come to the conclusion that to make LucasArts thrive, and to position ourselves for the long-term future, we need to make some fundamental changes.”