Disney stops making video games in house – insiders reveal what went wrong
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Re: Disney stops making video games in house – insiders reveal what went wrong
#2Acquiring and trashing companies is seriously annoying. Disney did this to about a half dozen game companies. Google is doing it to about a half dozen robotics companies. In both cases, the acquisitions were initially seen as positive. In both cases, the parent company had no clue what to do with what they bought.
I have a friend who works at a company recently acquired by Microsoft, a company whose product was not Microsoft-oriented. I wrote to her "You've been acquired by the Borg - now what?" She hopes the company doesn't get trashed.
Another case that irks me is QNX, the microkernel OS. They were bought by Harmon, which is mostly a car stereo company. That didn't work out, and Harmon sold them to Blackberry. Blackberry has a clue technically, but is stuck with a business model in decline. Meanwhile, a really good OS is in limbo. Not dead; many important embedded systems use QNX. The reliability is much better than either Windows or Linux, partly because the kernel is small. As a result, it's actually been debugged.
Re: Disney stops making video games in house – insiders reveal what went wrong
#3Disney should just let Square Enix handle their gamibg ventures. Somehow they could turn a 14-year-old girl's crossover fanfic into a phenomenal series and franchise in its own right (I of course am referring to Kingdom Hearts).
Re: Disney stops making video games in house – insiders reveal what went wrong
#4Acquiring and trashing companies is seriously annoying. Disney did this to about a half dozen game companies. Google is doing it to about a half dozen robotics companies. In both cases, the acquisitions were initially seen as positive. In both cases, the parent company had no clue what to do with what they bought. I have a friend who works at a company recently acquired by Microsoft, a company whose product was not M…
Disney: this isn't surprising. I don't think people realize how bureaucratically corporate Disney is, almost a parody at the level of "Brazil". They are a good employer though if one finds a happy place there with excellent benefits.
QNX: a lovely embedded and even service OS. I used it for encryption and stream management in a game-cartridge-over cable-TV headend. They also included a bag of chocolate chip cookies in the box. :)
Microsoft: I remember the agonizing (and multiply failed) Hotmail transition from Unix to Windows after the acquisition. I was working for a vendor called in to assist and the status meetings were a slow motion car wreck.
Re: Disney stops making video games in house – insiders reveal what went wrong
#5It's cheaper to buy and trash than compete.
Re: Disney stops making video games in house – insiders reveal what went wrong
#6While I think it is a good idea for a company to stick to their knitting (making movies and such, not video games) I'm not sure what studio will want to work with them when Disney holds all the IP to the characters.
Say a game is a hit and makes the game studio a lot of money. Disney's going to see that and demand more for licensing fees. What is the studio going to say? No? It isn't like the studio can start releasing games with those characters without Disney's blessing.
Or maybe it will work, who knows. It will be interesting to watch.
Re: Disney stops making video games in house – insiders reveal what went wrong
#7Disney should just let Square Enix handle their gamibg ventures. Somehow they could turn a 14-year-old girl's crossover fanfic into a phenomenal series and franchise in its own right (I of course am referring to Kingdom Hearts).
While Square Enix may tend to make great series, their financial situation isn't all roses either. The huge production delays on their games out of Japan have made those projects huge risks. Take a look at the amazing amount of money they seem to be putting into the launch of the new Final Fantasy game to try and recoup costs.
Their subsidiaries (eg IO Interactive and, Edios Montreal, and Square Enix Montreal) seem to be doing better overall.
Re: Disney stops making video games in house – insiders reveal what went wrong
#8Acquiring and trashing companies is seriously annoying. Disney did this to about a half dozen game companies. Google is doing it to about a half dozen robotics companies. In both cases, the acquisitions were initially seen as positive. In both cases, the parent company had no clue what to do with what they bought. I have a friend who works at a company recently acquired by Microsoft, a company whose product was not M…
Cisco licensed QNX and turned it into a nice operating system called IOS XR.
Re: Disney stops making video games in house – insiders reveal what went wrong
#9Saddest part of the Disney Infinity debacle is the fans. DI was marketed strongly to kids based on the success of Star Wars and MCU franchises. Although game play was lackluster, the target audience (kids 4-8) didn't care. And the figurines were really very cool.
When they pulled the plug on Disney Infinity, they really sent a pretty clear "we don't care" to any kid that loved those DI figurines.
You don't want to send a FU to that market segment, because little boys don't forget.
Re: Disney stops making video games in house – insiders reveal what went wrong
#10While I think it is a good idea for a company to stick to their knitting (making movies and such, not video games) I'm not sure what studio will want to work with them when Disney holds all the IP to the characters. Say a game is a hit and makes the game studio a lot of money. Disney's going to see that and demand more for licensing fees. What is the studio going to say? No? It isn't like the studio can start releasi…
Their videogame deal with Lego seems to be working out OK. And they've got loads of experience licensing out their IP for toys etc.