Disney CEO Reportedly Being Pressured to Double Down on Gaming

Sad times ahead people. Monopoly is never good for us in the long run.

I'm all for whichever answer gives me Epic Mickey 3 faster.

Iger needs to go Disney isn't Disney that I grew up with.

And then shut em all 8 years later like they did last time.

I'm not worried... if they decide so there is 99% they fall into GaaS vortex and waste millions on "dead on arrival" project forcing them to close studio again...

Team up with Sony, or just use their ethic of working with the smaller up and coming developers before buying them, put out all of your pixar and disney animated stuff with accompanying games, anything kids will pester mom to buy. That's one option

Ubisoft is working on Star Wars and Avatar, and they could clearly do a Pirates of the Caribbean game, another reason to sink Skull & Bones

Ubisoft seems the most likely candidate, as they can also do smaller games too, unless disney wants in on sports... then EA, but I'd say the Jedi games are a bit more niche style than Ubisoft stuff, with the weird mix of soulslike, story, and cinematic action, they don't feel very disney, whereas Ubisoft is kind of simplified stuff, that can be done very well.

On top of this, Ubisoft has some tempting IPs to make films and series out of: AC, Far Cry, Prince of Persia, Watchdogs, Rabbids

I imagine this is what the execs are really pushing for, Ubisoft is a potential golden goose for a streaming service, and already has the gaming market sorted.

How about they open and invest in their own studios

Here's a novel idea - how about Disney founds a studio to make great games instead of buying an entire publisher? Just a thought... I know it's crazy.

@Maddie47
I really liked Split/Second!

I mean, I don't love acquisitions, butttttt

I really want to see some high production quality Far Cry, AC and Watchdogs series and films on disney plus now 😪😪😪

It actually seems really stupid that Disney didn't try to acquire Ubisoft much earlier, it seems like a no brainer to merge Disney and Ubi IPs with TV, Film and Games for all of them. If I was an exec i'd be hammering that message home to the CEO, its not just about breaking into the gaming market more, both companies IPs are made for each other.

Disney should buy Sony. Just spider-man is enough to justify.

I keep seeing videos about Disney being sold. Now they're looking to acquire gaming companies.

Who to believe 🤔

I’d welcome more Disney games but licensed out, not from buying a big publisher.

Enough with the acquisitions, let’s just start making some games.

@wildcat_kickz Can people stop with that suggestion?
You know that if you try to build a dev teams who will then make a game for you, that's 10 year process at minimum? With questionable ROI?

Like, we can all argue if consolidation is bad or a good thing. But the fact is that trying to build gaming division at the time when average AAA game takes 5 years to make is just suicide.

Building gaming division from ground up could be feasible during 360/PS3 era when you could spun of entire trilogy of games during one gen with studio consisting of 100 people. Not today...

Fact is that if Disney/Apple/Comcast etc. wants to enter gaming industry, gobbling up huge publisher is their only option.

This is the damage Microsoft caused with their endless acquisition spree.

I can't help but feel that Disney trying to get back into the gaming space via acquisitions would only end up killing off some poor unfortunate development studios that get caught in the middle of poor executive decisions and games that under-performs against ludicrously unrealistic sales expectations

Disney acquired LucasArts and could have been a big Gaming Company by now if they had ambition in that direction.

As for a Monopoly, that would require so many Publishers to be bought. In Japan alone you have Sony, Nintendo, Bandai Namco, Square Enix, Sega, Capcom etc let alone Ubisoft, EA, TenCent, Embracer, Warner Bros etc as well - all Publishers/creators of Games so a long way to go to get down to 2 or 3 big companies with anyone owning the vast majority of IP's, Studio's etc. People need to know what a 'monopoly' is before they start claiming a monopolisation of the Industry.

That being said, I can see Disney being an attractive proposition for the right Company. Not only do you have some of the Biggest IP's in 'media' (Disney, Star Wars, Marvel etc) to create games for, you also have their TV/Movie expertise for their Games - whether they choose to make a TV series, Movie or use that expertise for more cinematic games, Motion Capture etc.

If Disney did buy EA, they could turn Mass Effect, Dead Space etc into TV/movies - much like Sony are doing with their Game IP's - Last of Us, Uncharted. Twisted Metal, R&C etc.

@Zeke68 Hardly a monopoly if they only get one company… as for the monopoly on their IPs, yes that might be true but at the same time it may be that they think not enough care are put into them… one could hardly say that the avengers game, the launch state of the Jedi games and the predatious monetization of the gameloft games make them look good.

@Mad001 I read his biography last year, quite an interesting fellow I would say… yes he’s a business guy, but he still care about the product. I think he left Disney in a pretty spot the first time but came back as a CEO with a company in a more difficult situation in a more difficult time…

Technically have Jedi Survivor in my pile of shame from a sale,but would have to go back to PS2 era NFS Underground/SSX series or GOG PC games like Theme Park/Hospital etc,for EA being a go to for me.

That said,would absolutely detest a Disney run EA even moreso. Currrent day Disney's bereft of any creativity,with remakes minus the soul of what made their originals good or designed by committee borefests to feed their streaming machine.

Literally killed off the once innovative Lucasarts Games as one of their first acts of taking it over!🙄

@Godot25 I think that's a false premise. The easier option is to buy a studio or publisher. But "easier" does not equal "better" and "harder" does not equal "impossible." Yes, starting a studio is more work, but Disney has absurd resources and can hire plenty of people to staff up. Yes, it would take more time, but would be healthier in the long run. That way, if they fail, they don't close a studio or publisher that would still be around, had they not gobbled them up and mismanaged them.

So shortsighted.

They've literally done this before, failed, and then scaled back.

So why, on successfully pivoting to licencing out your IP, is the consensus is not "Wow, this works really well, better than when we tried to run our own studio, we have clearly made the right decision here" but instead "dammit, money left on the table, lets try it again!"

If they get there way, you'll get a decade of struggle to make a successful title, and then they will shut down all the studios...again and pivot back.

Feels like so many businesses never learn any lessons from anything!!

The article is a fascinating read, but it's pretty apparent from its context that an EA acquisition isn't very serious and was just suggested as a possibility from another exec. This also comes on the heels of months and months of rumors that Disney will sell to Apple, so it's more about Disney's uncertain future than anything else.

Still, it wouldn't shock me if they try and get more into gaming in some capacity.

Disney haven't got the money to buy a publisher they are haemorrhaging cash. they have to buy hulu next year for close to 10 billion

@RunGMhx You're naive if you think they are pressuring him into buying only one company. It will start with one PUBLISHER (=many studios) and if that goes well they will surley buy another, and another...
It's Disney for christ sake, look how many Filmstudios they bought: The own Marvel, Star Wars, Transformers and a ton of studios to make all these franchises.
One isn't in Disney's vocabulary.

Does nobody else think this could lead to the games being exclusive to Disney+ via streaming?

They'll pick the company, with the easiest catalog of games, they can also turn into a series or movies as well. I think, that'll be Ubisoft. But will they sell?

Given the way they destroyed Star Wars and the MCU spin-offs, I can't imagine much worse than Disney taking over any sizeable publisher.
They are totally imaginatively bankrupt and even Pixar can't help as they are a mere shadow of their former selves post John Lasseter, no matter what you think of him and his reasons for not being with the company any more.

Do disney have the money to buy large publishers like EA? Their own ip (and value) is already destroyed, starwars, marvel, and others, I don't think disney can even be saved, unless some others big corpo like apple bought them.

ps. Oh I forgot, pixar too, from always making winner to only making bomb (at theatre) movies now.

@Mad001 What era of Disney did you grow with? Cause Eisner era Disney wasn’t all that great from multiple standpoints.

@AverageGamer 70s and 80s magical time lol Disney lost it's self now

@RunGMhx overlord DVD paints a good picture of him and Disney that craics me up 😂

@wildcat_kickz They had a company called Disney Interactive as mentioned in the article which was shutdown as it was easier/cheaper to give away licenses to more experienced companies it was actually a sound decision for Disney.

@Mad001 The 70s and 80s was literally Disney dark era… Get out here with that era being good. The worst era of Disney. 🤣 The Black Cauldron almost single handily killed that company. But Robin Hood and The Rescuers was great.

@Grumblevolcano Tencent, Amazon and Embracer were acquiring studios before Microsoft. incfact Microsoft started acquiring 'cause they dont want tech giants in the market. And they were afraid of Google and Amazon entering the market in a disruptive way.

Yeah no…developer a studio, no live action games, then maybe?

They will pump and dump games so fast just look at the Star Wars hotel! Although I’m sure that write off is attractive, they still lost a grip of cash on it

I mean if this is their strategy then why close down Disney Interactive and then LucasArts? Seems like they don’t know what they want.

@MaikonCSGarcia @Grumblevolcano 100% correct Malkon and again one of the biggest points in the ABK deal that is rarely talked about is, Facebook was the first call to ABK to try and get a deal done. MS was choice 2 or 3 for ABK.

Sounds like some execs are looking for new growth drivers as Disney+ is looking like it wont achieve nearly the profits initially expected. While I'm not sure how much they actually make off licensing their properties, I would think that's the preferable option. Low or no risk involved, can spread the popularity of their IP and still focus on their core strengths. I wouldn't hate the idea of buying/founding some smaller teams and doing both, but that doesn't sound like the approach they're taking.

@AverageGamer I think today's era of Disney is crumbling worse can't show my nephew anything off Disney today up to 2014 ish is good just gone a bit out there now so it has. Besides Lucas and Spielberg will be selling their shares to apple if Disney font get their act together and then there's apple and their hostile take over. Now I want to listen to Pantera now 😂

@MonkeyDLuffy19 I'd agree that licensing out titles to proven developers was a wise choice for Disney. Selfishly, I wish some of those developers were making their own IP, but I do understand the rationale. My argument was based on the premise that Disney would be reinvesting in developing their own titles and I'd rather them put in the legwork instead of just buying a developer that's not for sale.

This might not be good, especially for sony. The news here is not just about buying a publisher of their own, but to move away from licensing. This would mean no more Spider-Man by Insomniac.

Currently those are my favorite Sony games so I rather that does not stop. I think Disney is better off licensing their IPs, in a non-exclusive form.

@nookie_egg Disney should stay away from Sony these American companies are good for one thing. And that is destroying it sucking it dry and leaving a dead husk. Disney is a terrible company they destroyed enough brands already.

@Godot25 For just two recent examples, both Ascendant Studios and Striking Distance Studios were formed within the last five years, 2018 and 2019 respectively. Both developed and delivered brand new I.P. within that time frame. It’s not impossible. In fact, with the amount of layoffs currently rippling through the industry, I’d argue it’s an excellent time to start a studio from the ground up, independent or otherwise.

@Flaming_Kaiser maybe so. But if they bought the whole company, they'd gain access to spidey in film and that alone is worth billions. It'd also be the best bet to get into gaming, buy the biggest name in it and then be free to slap your games everywhere. Be pocket change for the mouse as well.

@sanderson72 Disney is quite good at ruining brands. Starwars, Marvel is a borefest, Pixar is way worse, lazy woke points with all their movies. Just lazy raceswappes instead of nice new characters like a princess Tiana. Now I think of it there are not so many original black characters it's just lazy.

It's not the worst idea, but this is the wrong time. Disney's current downfall is because of a lot of bad decisions, but among them is their attempts to do things outside the scope of the company. They're making very little money off of Disney Plus, yet they invest billions into it and actively work to tear apart the guest experience at their theme parks (their actual biggest moneymaker.) Not to mention stuff like the weird company owned planned living community they're building.

@AverageGamer The Black Cauldron is an awesome movie IMO it just wasn't the right time for it and not making it a musical was a odd choice

An article where I get to discuss the corporate structure and failures of TWDC, on PushSquare? :0

@Jimmer-jammer Outside of fact that both games bombed hard commercially and had to layoff most of their staff you forgot to mention that The Callisto Protocol had help from Sony XDEV and Immortals had help from EA studios.

None of that would be available to Disney if they decided to set up their own studios. You have to also build that.
Not to mention that as a Disney you would need to set up multiple studios at once not just one because setting up whole gaming operation for one studio is pretty big waste of resources if you want to be serious about gaming. That would make things even harder. Also you would have to setup whole management structure for publishing arm and everything included in that...

So it is just way better to buy existing studio that has established workflow. And EA is great candidate because they are working on at least 5 games that are licensed by Disney - Iron Man, Black Panther, Star Wars Jedi sequel and two more Star Wars games from Respawn. You would also have DICE for potential Battlefront 3. So you can basically buy a publisher that is already making "your" games. It would just cost a fortune.

I mean. Even if we are talking about "organic growth" of Sony. Yes, Sony was working closely with almost every studio they bought. But important bit is that they bought studio after it established workflow. Which is crucial. They also bought Bungie because they realised that it will take ages to get required knowledge for live service games if they would decide to create live service studio from scratch.

@nookie_egg Let's hope this diseased company is stays far away. All these massive corporations are ruining the industries they touch especially the mouse is bad for everyone.

They don't have any vision buy run it in the ground they don't care what damage they cause and how they ruin the normal workers. Just close the companies and use it as a tax write off they don't care about anything like that.

Microsoft buys for ABK for 68.7 billion and fires 10000 employees it's disgusting. How people keep cheering for these buyups in beyond me and a Spider-Man game is not even close to worth the mess it probably will make.

OMFG. These companies and their need to keep growing when they're already too big and control too much.

@somnambulance have you watched any of the other Disney Stars Wars stuff.? Mandalorian epic, Book of Bobba Fett was decent. Really enjoying Ashoka just now. Andor is excellent. I thought Kenobi was decent also. TBH I like all the newer films also (maybe im not vey subjective actually lol). Rouge One was bloody fantastic also. Annoys me when people just say Disney ruined Star Wars......they done some very good stuff

@Godot25 I see more companies die after a takeover then make a solid amount of games.

@Flaming_Kaiser Well. There is for sure one possibility. But it is pretty clear that EA is willing to sell.
They had talks with Comcast-NBC Universal last year and they conveniently split company in two "halves" for easier sell of one half of company if that situation will occur.

@Grumblevolcano Microsoft didn't start this.

Seems like it would make sense for them to buy a major publisher. It would sure beat any sort of studio they had to build from the ground up.

@Godot25 Good points all around though to be clear, I’m not arguing entirely against acquisition or licensing, only against the assertion that building a studio from the ground up and delivering a high quality product in a timely manner is not realistic.

Concerning commercial failure, both of the aforementioned games were brand new I.P., which is always a tough sell. Disney obviously wouldn’t have this particular mountain to climb. Striking Distance may have had help but cross pollination of tech and resources during development is largely quite normal, isn’t it?

Acquisition, building a new team or any combination therein, however you slice it there are always pros and cons to every strategy, any of which can be made viable under the right circumstances. I’d just generally like to see an industry thriving with entrepreneurship, innovation and independent wealth over one creatively stifled by corporate growth. The ‘It can’t be done’ mentality adds fuel to that fire.

@Maddie47 and Pure

@Goat_FromBOTW Storyliving isn't all that weird, or out of Disney scope. Sound more like going back to their roots, and doing what Walt originally wanted EPCOT to be, not what we got... Plus they already have a pretty good concept of Disney owned community would be like with golden oak and the Town of Celebration.

@Discol76 People perspective of Stars Wars is literally just the mainline films. If the films aren't good than nothing else is good. TBH for me, current Star Wars is in the best state it has ever been. Granted i don't read, so I'm not upset about the current state of books. Like you said, Mandalorian epic, Book of Bobba Fett was decent. Really enjoying Ashoka. Andor is excellent. I thought Kenobi was decent also. But add in the last few seasons of The Clone Wars, Bad Batch, Tales of the Jedi, Visions, and I enjoyed the lego stuff. I could care less about the films.

The gaming market isn't as easy as it seems. They should focus on their movie business and kill disney+ and instead license their stuff to everyone else for money.

Let me just say this: when Iger left the company was at its peak and the smooth brains who pushed ideas that literally made Disney drop from the peak are the ones pushing this idea too.

No need to say their opinion shouldn't be heard, anyone with 2 brain cells working knows that the model Disney has right now doesn't generate huge revenues, but it does generate profit, CONSTANT profit mind you.
Right now Disney doesn't need to deal with development costs, advertising nor anything related to game development, they just license their IPs and collect royalties. No costs, only profit, small but constant profit.

@Godot25 Great point on EA and Disney entertainment properties. In addition there are huge synergies between Disney's ESPN/ABC Sports and the EA Sports games.

I can just smell a new LucasArts situation incoming..

@Godot25 To fair what is EA nowadays it's a gloryfied license based company. Besides the few really nice indie games and their ability to sit on licenses what is there?

I still firmly believe that the only way we get a truly decent star wars game is if a Disney owned studio is developing it. Disney definitely outsource too much and should invest in delivering their own games themselves.