Disney at E3

It wasn't long ago that all Disney video games were made by other folks.  Then Bob Iger decided that Disney needed to get in to the gaming market and launched Buena Vista Games which became Disney Interactive Studios.  The biggest event in the gaming world is E3(Electronic Entertainment Expo) and this E3 was Disney's coming out party as a major video game producer. 

Disney gained some legitamicy in the gaming world by the success of Spectrobes.  This original game was the highest selling third-party game for the Nintendo DS, a gaming system Disney seems to favor.  So it wasn't much of a surpirse when Disney announced Spectrobes II will be coming out next Fall.  In addition to the wide variety of Disney branded games coming out for Nintendo DS, Disney is launching DGamer an online community that will be incorperated in to all of Disney's Nintendo DS games. 

Disney took E3 as an opportunity to discuss it's gaming strategy.  Ninety percent of it's games will be Disney branded, with 70 percent being based off of existing Disney franchises and with 20 percent being new franchises, such as Spectrobes.  The other ten percent will be under the ABC or Touchstone label, such as Turok being produced by Disney's Propaganda Games studio in Vancouver, British Columbia.  The company also plans on growing its investment in development and talent. 

An example of this investment is that they acquired Junction Point Studios.  If you want to see the website click here  if you want to see Warren Spector's, the founder of the studio, blog where he discusses his thoughts on creativity click here.  If you look at Warren Spector's entry on Wikipedia you find out that he had created a role playing game called Toon in 1984 although he is more known for his work on Deus Ex a cross between a role playing game and a first-person shooter.  But in that same Wikipedia entry it says that a job ad for his studio was looking for folks to work on a game that "classic Hollywood cartoons" featuring "cartoon mice, cats and wabbits," though this is just coming from Wikipedia so take it with some NaCl (If you don't know what that is, look it up in Wikipedia). 

There is no question Disney is getting in to gaming BIG TIME.  Only time will tell how well they do.  It seems like Disney isn't worried about spending money, and they are focused on getting talent, so that tends to be a good combonation.  Now all they have to do is have their own "Lizzie McGuire", a hit that makes the rest of The Walt Disney Company stop and take notice.