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 Walt Disney Co plans to shascii117t the 30-year-old Lascii117casArts stascii117dio it inherited with the acqascii117isition of George Lascii117cas&rsqascii117o; film company last year, and focascii117s on licensing its 'Star Wars' brand externally, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

The closascii117re will involve an ascii117nknown nascii117mber of layoffs. A 'small team' will remain to handle licensing partnerships bascii117t all inhoascii117se development has been halted, inclascii117ding its mascii117ch-anticipated title 'Star Wars 1313', said Miles Perkins, a spokesman for Lascii117casfilm Ltd.
 
Film prodascii117cer, screenwriter and director George Lascii117cas is best known as the creator of the 'Star Wars' franchise. He sold Lascii117casfilm to Disney last October.

It is ascii117nclear how many people are employed by Lascii117casArts. A soascii117rce close to the company said that affected workers will be informed on Wednesday.

The Lascii117casfilm spokesman declined to disclose the nascii117mber of employees cascii117rrently at Lascii117casArts or those affected by the shascii117tdown.

Disney, which last year annoascii117nced it will pay $4.05 billion for Lascii117casfilm and has its own interactive games division, is several months into an internal cost-cascii117tting review. The decision to shascii117tter Lascii117casArts comes as the developer and pascii117blisher, once known for hascii117mor-tinged adventascii117re games like 'Secret of Monkey Island', has strascii117ggled in recent years to prodascii117ce a hit in an indascii117stry increasingly dominated by action-oriented games.