Disney Interactive Studios
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Disney Interactive Studios, Inc. was an American
video game developer A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with em ...
and
publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...
owned by
The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...
through Disney Interactive. Prior to its closure in 2016, it developed and distributed multi-platform
video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
s and interactive entertainment worldwide. Most of the games released by Disney Interactive Studios were typically tie-in products to existing character franchises. On May 10, 2016, as a result of the discontinuation of its '' Disney Infinity'' series, Disney shut down Disney Interactive Studios, and exited the first-party home console game development business in order to focus on third-party development of home console video games through other developers. However, it continues to release games for iOS and Android mobile devices under its own label,
Disney Mobile Disney Mobile is an American division of Disney Consumer Products, which is in itself a division of The Walt Disney Company, that designs mobile games and apps, content and services. History In August 2000, Disney Interactive, Walt Disney Interne ...
. Disney Electronic Content is a spiritual successor to the company.


History


1988–1994: Walt Disney Computer Software

Disney established its own in house gaming unit, Walt Disney Computer Software, Inc. (WDCS), and it was incorporated on September 15, 1988. WDCS generally used third-party development studios to design spin-off games using its existing portfolio of characters. WDCS failed to meet the high expectations that came with the Disney name, although three of its self-published computer titles – ''Mickey's Runaway Zoo'', '' Donald's Alphabet Chase'' and ''
Who Framed Roger Rabbit ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' is a 1988 American fantasy comedy film directed by Robert Zemeckis from a screenplay written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman. It is loosely based on the 1981 novel ''Who Censored Roger Rabbit?'' by Gary K. Wol ...
'' – sold more than 100,000 copies, the industry equivalent of earning a Gold Record. The underlying issues were later attributed by senior Disney executives as being due to low product quality and lack of understanding of the differences between film and games. WDCS also published a series of Nintendo (NES) and Gameboy platform game titles with Japanese video game company
Capcom is a Japanese video game company. It has created a number of critically acclaimed and List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil'', ''Monster ...
. Of these titles, 1989's '' DuckTales'' received the most commercial and critical success, selling approximately 1.67 million and 1.43 million copies worldwide respectively, each becoming Capcom's highest-selling titles for their respective platforms. Produced by founding WDCS producer Darlene Waddington, ''DuckTales'' Gameboy version was named "Gameboy Game of the Year" by ''PC Player Magazine''. ''DuckTales'' continues to be considered a game with high nostalgic interest and was remade in 2013 as ''DuckTales: Remastered''. Following ''DuckTales,'' WDCS developed and published another NES platform game with Capcom, '' Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers''. ''Rescue Rangers'' proved to be a commercial success, selling approximately 1.2 million copies worldwide, becoming Capcom's fourth highest-selling game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Continuing with the success of these titles, Disney continued to find success with another Capcom developed title, '' Aladdin'' and '' The Lion King'' (developed by Westwood Studios) in 1993 and 1994 respectively. This led to a move from self-developed and self-published to funding and development management of games with third parties published the game.


1994–2002: Disney Interactive

Using the film studio style formula, WDCS was reorganized into Disney Interactive, Inc. (DI) on December 5, 1994 with the merging of WDCS and Walt Disney Television and Telecommunications. On April 15, 1997, Disney Interactive reduced its staff by 20%, effectively ending all in-house video game production. This increased the requests for licensing from third-party games companies. Under this plan, development and production cost risks were transferred to the game companies but reduced the per-unit revenue generated to Disney and effectively yielded a near 100% margin of licensed game sales. A thirteen-game agreement was made between Nintendo of America and Disney Interactive in 1999 for both the Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color. In May 2001, the company signed a deal with Sony Computer Entertainment to allow the latter to publish titles based on '' Atlantis: The Lost Empire'', '' Monsters, Inc.'', '' Treasure Planet'', '' Lilo & Stitch'', and '' Peter Pan: Return to Never Land'' on the PlayStation and
PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...
. In European territories, Infogrames formerly distributed several of Disney Interactive's PC titles, however, this agreement was later replaced with several separate distribution deals, including JoWooD Productions in Germany.


2003–2007: Buena Vista Games

In 2003, Disney announced in their 2003 strategic review that they would re-enter the core publishing market and rebranded Disney Interactive, Inc. as Buena Vista Games, Inc. (BVG) The Disney Interactive and Buena Vista Interactive brands were retained as publishing labels for children's and core titles respectively. On April 19, 2005, Buena Vista Games announced that they had entered the game development market. The company formed Propaganda Games, based in
Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
, British Columbia; which was made up of former employees at EA Canada, and purchased Avalanche Software in
Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...
,
Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...
for an undisclosed amount. On May 13, 2005, the company announced they had acquired the video game rights to the '' Turok'' franchise from owners Classic Media; which had been previously held by Acclaim Entertainment. On April 27, 2006, Buena Vista Games entered into a publishing agreement with Japanese developer
Q Entertainment was a Japanese video game developer. The studio created, produced, and published digital entertainment content across multiple game consoles, PC broadband and mobile units. It was founded on October 10, 2003 by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, formerly of S ...
where the company would publish four of the developer's titles globally except in Asia; including a Disney-themed version of ''Meteos''. In September, Buena Vista expanded their developer cycle by purchasing Climax Racing from the Climax Group and formed Fall Line Studios in November to create casual titles for the Nintendo DS and the Wii consoles.


2007–2014: Disney Interactive Studios

On February 8, 2007, The Walt Disney Company renamed Buena Vista Games to Disney Interactive Studios as part of a larger company initiative to phase out the Buena Vista brand that year. The studio publishes both Disney and non-Disney branded video games for all platforms worldwide, with titles that feature its consumer brands including Disney, ABC,
ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
, and Touchstone (which is used as a label for Disney). In July 2007, the studio acquired Junction Point Studios. On June 5, 2008, Disney Interactive Studios and the Walt Disney Internet Group, merged into a single business unit now known as the Disney Interactive Media Group,"Disney's games and internet divisions merging"
, Joystiq.com, 2008.
and it merged its subsidiary Fall Line Studios with its sister studio, Avalanche Software, in January 2009. In February 2009, Disney Interactive acquired Gamestar, a Chinese game development company. On September 8, 2009, Disney Interactive announced that it had acquired Wideload Games. In November 2010, the executive Graham Hopper left the company. He announced his departure via an internal e-mail saying "the time has come for me to move on from the company and set my sights on new horizons." DIS in October 2012 announced "Toy Box", a cross platform gaming initiative where Pixar and Disney characters will interact from a console game to multiple mobile and online applications. The first Toy Box cross platform game is '' Disney Infinity'' based on the '' Toy Story 3'' game's Toy Box mode crossed with a toy line. After the purchase of Lucasfilm by The Walt Disney Company in 2012, Disney Interactive assumed the role of developing '' Star Wars'' games for the casual gaming market, while
Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...
would develop ''Star Wars'' games for the core gaming market through an exclusive license (although
LucasArts Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game brand licensing, licensor, former video game developer and video game publisher, publisher, and a subsidiary of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George ...
did retain the ability to license ''Star Wars'' games to other developers for the casual gaming market). At
E3 2013 The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2013 (E3 2013) was the 19th E3 held. The event took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California, with many press conferences taking place at nearby venues including the Microsoft Theate ...
, Disney and Square Enix released a teaser trailer for ''Kingdom Hearts III'', after going seven years of not declaring any console ''Kingdom Hearts'' game since ''Kingdom Hearts II''. The game would release nearly six years later in January 2019. Disney Interactive Studios has lost more than $200 million per year from 2008 to 2012 during a period in which it shut down Propaganda Games,
Black Rock Studio Black Rock Studio Limited was a British video game developer based in Brighton, England. It was a division of Disney Interactive Studios. The studio was founded by Tony Beckwith in 1998 as Pixel Planet. It was acquired by the Climax Studios, Cl ...
and Junction Point Studios and its co-president John Pleasants stepped down in November 2013 after the launch of ''Disney Infinity''.


2014–2016: Decline and dissolution

On March 6, 2014, 700 employees were laid off. After the cancellation of ''Disney Infinity'', Disney Interactive Studios closed in 2016.


List of games

The company also publishes games from ''
Q Entertainment was a Japanese video game developer. The studio created, produced, and published digital entertainment content across multiple game consoles, PC broadband and mobile units. It was founded on October 10, 2003 by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, formerly of S ...
'' worldwide except Asia: '' Lumines II'', the sequel to the puzzle game for the PSP system; '' Lumines Plus'', a new version of '' Lumines'' for the PlayStation 2; '' Every Extend Extra'', a puzzle shooter; and a Disney Interactive Studios's '' Meteos: Disney Edition'', the popular '' Meteos'' game for the Nintendo DS with Disney characters. The company revealed a lineup of games at E3 2006, which include DIE's '' Turok'', a re-imagining of the video game series of the same name and '' Desperate Housewives: The Game'', based on the hit
television show A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platf ...
. Disney Interactive Studios is credited in all entries to the '' Kingdom Hearts'' franchise, with the original release box art of each entry to the series having different logos and name of the company seeing as coincidentally, the company is re-branded in between the releases. Notably however, the company is not credited to actually developing the game.


Studios


Moved to Disney Interactive

*
Disney Mobile Disney Mobile is an American division of Disney Consumer Products, which is in itself a division of The Walt Disney Company, that designs mobile games and apps, content and services. History In August 2000, Disney Interactive, Walt Disney Interne ...
* Disney Online


Former/defunct

* Avalanche Software, based in
Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...
,
Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...
. Acquired April 2005. Shut down May 2016. Later re-opened and sold to Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in January 2017. *
Black Rock Studio Black Rock Studio Limited was a British video game developer based in Brighton, England. It was a division of Disney Interactive Studios. The studio was founded by Tony Beckwith in 1998 as Pixel Planet. It was acquired by the Climax Studios, Cl ...
, based in
Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...
, England. Founded in 1998, acquired in September 2006 and closed in July 2011. *Creature Feep, founded in 2009, closed in 2015. * Fall Line Studios, based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Founded in 2006, merged into Avalanche Software in 2009. *Gamestar, based in
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
. Acquired February 2009, defunct. * Junction Point Studios, based in
Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...
. Acquired July 2007. Shut down in January 2013. * Propaganda Games, based in
Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
,
British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...
. Founded in April 2005, closed in January 2011. * Playdom, based in
Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...
,
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
. Founded in December 2008, acquired in July 2010, closed in 2016. *Rocket Pack, based in
Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...
, Finland. Founded in 2010, acquired in 2011, closed in 2015. * Wideload Games, based in
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
,
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...
. Acquired September 8, 2009. Shut down March 6, 2014.


References

{{Authority control 1988 establishments in California 2016 disestablishments in California Companies based in Glendale, California Defunct companies based in Greater Los Angeles Defunct video game companies of the United States Disney Interactive Disney video games Technology companies based in Greater Los Angeles Video game companies based in California Video game companies disestablished in 2016 Video game companies established in 1988 Video game development companies Video game publishers