Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Disney stops making video games in house – insiders reveal what went wrong

techinsider.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 61 posts

Re: Disney stops making video games in house – insiders reveal what went wrong

#51

Post by cableshaft »

I interviewed at Wideload in downtown Chicago when they were owned by Disney and working on that Marvel mobile game. They were located in a floor of a building that kind of looked like a huge studio apartment. The people there were nice and it looked like a fun place to work. I only went with another company because they gave me an offer first.

But even though the company I went with instead proceeded to have a super rough year of losing multiple clients that ultimately resulted in my getting laid off, Disney had shuttered Wideload several months before that. It didn't make any sense to me, since these people were clearly talented (check out Guilty Party on the Wii, it's excellent).

And then I saw them shut down studio after studio, and it just makes them look inept in the game space, to me. Then another Disney company contacted me last year asking me to move across the country so I could work on their mobile park app. Couldn't really trust them anymore, so I passed.

Re: Disney stops making video games in house – insiders reveal what went wrong

#52

Post by diogenescynic »

gaius wrote: post #30
Animats wrote: post #2

Acquiring 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…

I have been through 3 acquisitions. They always tell you that nothing will change and this isn't really a lie exactly, as the person who says it genuinely believes it. But in a year's time that person has moved on, been promoted, busy with another acquisition, whatever, and now you report to an established and powerful manager in the old company, who doesn't see why you are special or should be treated differently th…

>But in a year's time that person has moved on, been promoted, busy with another acquisition, whatever, and now you report to an established and powerful manager in the old company, who doesn't see why you are special or should be treated differently than his or her existing staff. In fact they probably actively resent you; the company buying you at all they take as a signal that existing staff weren't "good enough".

Reading that gave me a since of deja vu. I'm going through exactly what you describe, but it only took 6 months, not a year, to get to this point. It seems like the people running the acquisition actively want to destroy the business they've acquired by making us fit into their 'box' while missing the bigger picture.

Re: Disney stops making video games in house – insiders reveal what went wrong

#53

Post by abritinthebay »

wanderer2323 wrote: post #26
bitJericho wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, unless you're an angsty teen, you weren't meant to relate to emo-vader, er, Kylo Ren. You were meant to relate to Han Solo. But you'd only relate if you're a parent. If not, then I guess there's always Traitor-guy. Yes the new episode is derivative. That's because it is how epics are told. It will diverge on the next two episodes from the original trilogy, unless Disney gets scared... that would be a huge disa…

"Yes the new episode is derivative. That's because it is how epics are told" What a load of bull. It is how bad sequels are told, "more of the same".

No, that's literally standard epic storytelling structure. This is Lit 101 stuff.

Re: Disney stops making video games in house – insiders reveal what went wrong

#54

Post by hexane360 »

philh wrote: post #42
a_imho wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imo it is not very surprising, classical hype machine thing to the t. Even if we don't need to be told what to like, it is easier to play along and pretend we enjoyed it, even convince ourselves it was good, than admitting we were lead on and it is pretty bland. Of course, Occam is screaming every time a big budget IP blockbuster is coming, we just prefer not to pay attention. Without hindsight I might add. The next…

> it is easier to play along and pretend we enjoyed it, even convince ourselves it was good, than admitting we were lead on and it is pretty bland Even easier than this is to actually enjoy things. I didn't like it myself, but I'm happy to believe that my friends did. Why do you claim people are pretending to like TFA but not the prequels?

They were never actually excited for the prequels, and/or it's long enough ago that they forgot the buildup to the prequels.

Re: Disney stops making video games in house – insiders reveal what went wrong

#55

Post by a_imho »

philh wrote: post #42
a_imho wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imo it is not very surprising, classical hype machine thing to the t. Even if we don't need to be told what to like, it is easier to play along and pretend we enjoyed it, even convince ourselves it was good, than admitting we were lead on and it is pretty bland. Of course, Occam is screaming every time a big budget IP blockbuster is coming, we just prefer not to pay attention. Without hindsight I might add. The next…

> it is easier to play along and pretend we enjoyed it, even convince ourselves it was good, than admitting we were lead on and it is pretty bland Even easier than this is to actually enjoy things. I didn't like it myself, but I'm happy to believe that my friends did. Why do you claim people are pretending to like TFA but not the prequels?

I don't think I have claimed that, but I believe it is more apparent in this case because TFA is the copy/remake/homage

Re: Disney stops making video games in house – insiders reveal what went wrong

#56

Post by philh »

a_imho wrote: post #55
philh wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it is easier to play along and pretend we enjoyed it, even convince ourselves it was good, than admitting we were lead on and it is pretty bland Even easier than this is to actually enjoy things. I didn't like it myself, but I'm happy to believe that my friends did. Why do you claim people are pretending to like TFA but not the prequels?

I don't think I have claimed that, but I believe it is more apparent in this case because TFA is the copy/remake/homage

> I don't think I have claimed that

True, but you are claiming that people are pretending to like TFA, and presumably you don't think people are pretending to like the prequels. It's rare to hear anything good about the prequels.

What's the "it" that's more apparent?

Re: Disney stops making video games in house – insiders reveal what went wrong

#57

Post by a_imho »

philh wrote: post #56
a_imho wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think I have claimed that, but I believe it is more apparent in this case because TFA is the copy/remake/homage

> I don't think I have claimed that True, but you are claiming that people are pretending to like TFA, and presumably you don't think people are pretending to like the prequels. It's rare to hear anything good about the prequels. What's the "it" that's more apparent?

I mean the skewing effect of a cult following on the perception of the movie's qualities is more apparent here. I believe when someone is a fan they is already invested and hence incentivized to like/defend a movie/brand/franchise. Which is true for the prequels too btw. However TFA being merely a remake makes it objectively inferior imo, as I think people rate original artistic works higher (at least I do). A fact, which is not really reflected nor in its commercial, neither in its critical success. All that said, I might be just arguing about taste and trying to rationalizing my dislike for TFA.

Re: Disney stops making video games in house – insiders reveal what went wrong

#58

Post by philh »

a_imho wrote: post #57
philh wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think I have claimed that True, but you are claiming that people are pretending to like TFA, and presumably you don't think people are pretending to like the prequels. It's rare to hear anything good about the prequels. What's the "it" that's more apparent?

I mean the skewing effect of a cult following on the perception of the movie's qualities is more apparent here. I believe when someone is a fan they is already invested and hence incentivized to like/defend a movie/brand/franchise. Which is true for the prequels too btw. However TFA being merely a remake makes it objectively inferior imo, as I think people rate original artistic works higher (at least I do). A fact,…

It sounds like you're saying the effect is more apparent because TFA is bad. But the effect you claim is that people pretend (to themselves or others) to like works that have a brand or franchise or cult following behind them. And you admit that the prequels have that too.

But then we would expect people to either like or pretend to like the prequels. And we don't see that. The prequels are widely disdained. And you haven't explained why the prequels don't get the same pretense as TFA.

Re: Disney stops making video games in house – insiders reveal what went wrong

#59

Post by dottrap »

cwilkes wrote: post #6

While 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…

This is the exact model that LucasArts had. If you listen to stories from the original LucasArts crew, like David B. Fox, they tell stories that they were not allowed to make Star Wars games (originally to their disappointment) because George Lucas knew there was always somebody else willing to pay him gobs of money for the permission to make a Star Wars game. They take all the risk, and he makes money.

So this model is proven. Despite the hypothetical risk to not owning the IP, there was always somebody willing to pay and take the gamble.

Re: Disney stops making video games in house – insiders reveal what went wrong

#60

Post by dottrap »

csydas wrote: post #20
cwilkes wrote: post #6

While 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…

I'd be curious to see what deals Disney had worked out for its NES era games made by Capcom. While I remember them fondly, I guess I don't really know if they were commercially successful at the time or not. If it was successful, then it just seems natural that they'd continue to license the IP out to let those who do know games do their thing with franchises, and honestly the in-house production of games for Disney…

They were commercially successful.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2008/05/23/capcom-releases-lifet...

(NES) DuckTales outsold all their (NES) Mega Man's. It's an interesting comparison because DuckTales shares a lot of similarities with Mega Man.

Disney franchise sales for them ranks 4 in total which is high, but still misleading because Resident Evil is ranks 1 and they weren't making Disney games in that era where more people bought video games. I speculate the Disney number would be much bigger if they did.

Post reply on HN