Should Disney get into the video game business?

[maninahat]

Good question. Personally I'm not keen on Disney owning yet another corner of childhood entertainment, considering they're making all the movies and own all the television now.

Disney could easily buy out a bunch of companies (like with Lucasarts) or start its own division using all the franchises they now own. There probably is a nightmare involved of untangling all the other licences they've issued to other companies like WB, but what's probably stopped Disney so far is that it doesn't like anything deemed family unfriendly. Game companies usually make games to appeal to a whole age range, whereas Disney would be stuck making games that are safe for teenagers and children only, bereft of the realistic graphic violence or adult themes that makes up a huge portion of the games market. They'd be having to spend a lot in a market where their hands are tied as to what content they provide, and they don't have the same reputation for games as they have for movies, so they can't go on brand alone.

 

[Deshin]

After the complete bum-hattery they've pulled with all the Marvel games over the years? Here's what's effected me personally:

Marvel Ultimate Avengers 2: Pulling the DLC from the store because licensing so then it's impossible to play online as most people don't have it

Marvel Avengers Alliance: Shut down by the mouse because they wanted to move into bigger mobile territory and decided the best method of doing so was to completely scorched earth the existing "go to" Marvel FB/Mobile promo game and make a new one from the ground up.

Marvel Avengers Tactics: See above

Marvel Heroes: There's a lot of he-said, she-said going on and even some talk about the CEO of the dev being outed in all the sexual abuse allegation scandals going on at the moment. But once again decided that instead of keeping their long standing F2P title on Steam + Consoles it's better to just whip out the flame thrower.

I like Disney's IPs (at least the ones they've bought) but I don't trust Disney as a game publisher because of the miles and miles of legalese red tape bull they throw around like a parade.

 

[dscross]

Why do you want them any more involved than they are though? They are still very much involved in Kingdom Hearts I believe.

Plus look at all the millions of games they've been involved with in the past: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Disney_video_games

 

[CaitSeith]

Sorry, but unless they resuscitate the Lucasarts adventure games studio, they won't be bringing anything actually noteworthy to the industry that any other studio isn't already doing now.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Sorry, but unless they resuscitate the Lucasarts adventure games studio, they won't be bringing anything actually noteworthy to the industry that any other studio isn't already doing now.

I agree. Lucasarts was great, and that's where Disney should direct its attention.

 

[sXeth]

If you have any kind of complaint about exclusives, or companies sitting on IP. This should be the last thing you'd ever want. The megacorp that literally wrote the ever-expanding laws stopping modern media from shifting into public domain.

If thats too abstract, lets take an actual videogame example. Disney bought Lucasfilm/arts/etc. Primarily for Star Wars, of course. But in that deal they also picked up Lucasarts various other game lines. Creators have literally tried to approach Big Mickey about buying or licensing those unused IPS, and they're sitting on them even though they have no use for them.

You're essentially asking the combined gestalt of EA and Konami to actively expand a presence into the medium. Sure, you might get a little more polish on the products, but you also get all of the bad. Even that polish is a bit of a coin flip, historically. Disney's been quite willing to push out shovelware to keep up with movie release schedules, whether on their own or via license.

 

[COMaestro]

Sorry, but unless they resuscitate the Lucasarts adventure games studio, they won't be bringing anything actually noteworthy to the industry that any other studio isn't already doing now.

This was my thought exactly. They already had the talents of those at LucasArts, and instead of allowing them to continue making games (Star Wars 1313 was looking excellent, though I was discouraged when I heard they were making it into a Boba Fett game), they scrapped everything and tossed all the SW stuff to EA, who has proceeded to fuck up nearly everything they've done with the property. Revive LucasArts, get back what talent you can, and let them create games in house. Every LucasArts game I ever played was enjoyable, from all their point and click adventure games to all their Star Wars releases, to Zombies Ate My Neighbors! Having that talent making SW games again, plus anything Disney related, would be welcome.

 

[Zombie Proof]

I hope they stay far far away from gaming. Considering how they've been treating the Star Wars franchise, I can't see them making anything other than large, homogenized, corporate bullshit. They'll be the worst parts of EA, Activision, and Ubisoft combined.