The House that Mickey Built made a strong financial showing in the first quarter of 2013, but the Games that Mickey Makes can’t share in the good news.
While Disney as a whole reported a 32 percent increase in its net income to $1.5 billion, Disney Interactive saw a loss of $54 million for the same timeframe, making it the only division of the company to not see a return on investment. Disney also projects a loss for its games division for the current quarter.
However, in true Disney fashion, all hope is not lost. Although it still lost money overall, Disney Interactive’s revenues rose 8 percent to $194 million. And while Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two failed to find a foothold in sales, many eyes are on the third quarter and the potentially epic release of Disney Infinity.
Do you think Disney will financially turn its games-making steamboat around by the end of the year, or should it focus more on handing its properties out to other parties, such as in the recent Star Wars deal with EA? Let us know in the comments.
[source mcvuk.com]
Comments 24
DUN DUN DUUUNN!
Meh, not sure.
I am not really interested in infinity, but a lot of people I know like skylanders, sooo....
Too bad. Mickey on 3DS is pretty good.
Making binding decisions with the likes of EA really doesn't help, either.
Star Wars will make their wallets fat again, no doubt.
If they bring castle of illusion remake to Wii U it likely won't impact any of that loss but I'll be a happy customer!
Just tossing this out there... What if Disney winds up buying out EA at some point and merges it with Disney Interactive? EA makes a lot of news, but really they're not doing all that great financially. Plus alienating a market share like Nintendo is something that Disney does not want to do. I could see a scenario where things are merged to maximize profits. Would they be pure evil incarnate?
So, where's the Doom and Gloom?
If Disney Interactive is responsible for Disney Infinity then I predict they make some profits in the 2nd half of the year. Not from me though, I'm saving up for Pokemon Rumble characters
I hear tell they're more likely to focus on partnerships...I wouldn't expect the EA Star Wars deal to be the last we hear of this year.
Most of that money was probably lost from developing Disney Infinity,
So this loss for them would probably be like me losing the $0.84 that must have fallen out of my pocket when I got in my car today. But I agree the Star Wars games most surely are going to allow them to have money fights once they get rolling.
I'm not a huge Star Wars fan and I've never got into many Star Wars games but I am intrigued to see what comes of this deal. Plus I'm excited to see how the new movies will be.
Isn't $54 million around the same amount Capcom fell short of this quarter?
And yet they shut down LucasArts. The irony is delicious...
It's really not any kind of surprise at all that Disney Interactive is doing poorly if you ever actually look at the games they release. As exampled by the Epic Mickey series, part of the problem is from the higher ups putting restraints on the developers.
Given that Disney is actually more powerful than EA, and owns the license, I hope they retain some control over the Star Wars games that EA will be releasing and stop them from pulling so much crap as EA loves to do. That is wishful thinking I know.
Maybe they could help turn it around by making the awesome Once Upon a Time game that there's the potential for it to be! It could really set itself apart from Kingdom Hearts by being less cartoony, and much darker! I can't believe there's no OUaT game, here at almost the end of Season 2.
I'm glad to see Disney as a whole is doing great since I'm a pretty big fan of them. I'm also curious to see if Disney Infinity can be as successful as Skylanders. It does have some serious potential after all.
DarkKirby
I hope they retain some control over the Star Wars games that EA will be releasing and stop them from pulling so much crap as EA loves to do.
They've made a contract with EA giving EA control over the franchise.
good... Disney deserves to suffer...
Disney will do fine. Bad Star Wars games will sell ok, but with the movies and endless runs of toys, action figures, and who knows what all merchandise..., the SW fans are loyal to the end. And there's a lot of them. Marvel will probably be their rainy day money in comparison.
I point the finger at Epic Mickey. Blast me if you want, but I feel that game was just like de Blob. The originals had charm and potential to turn into something big, as well as being profitable. But the studios overestimated their success and when large scale too quickly. I think they would have been better off making the sequels exclusive to Wii and putting more time and effort into making sure everything in the sequels was truly fresh and improved. I think going multiplat devoted time and resources from improving quality. Would have also saved money too. Apparently, the game had dev team size of 700 people with 160 people comprising the core team.
http://www.notenoughshaders.com/2012/07/02/the-rise-of-costs-the-fall-of-gaming/
Shame really. I love 3D Platformers...
A little bit of financial loss for a big "Greedy" company like Disney,will do them the world of good.Shame it's the staff who'll get it in the neck,rather the organ grinders.
@banacheck
They made a contract with EA that only EA will be allowed to released Star Wars games. But the conditions of said contract or not stated. Disney is not only powerful, but I do not think they are stupid, and as the license owners, EA would have to abide by any conditions Disney may have stated in their contract.
Of course, the contract will never be revealed to the public, and as I said, it's still wishful thinking.
@DarkKirby
Yeah I don't see Disney giving out the 'do whatever you want' contract.
2K or Sony San Diego don't have creative control over the Major League players and team designs. They would be sunk if they tried to sneak something past MLB. I imagine it isn't much different.
Tap here to load 24 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...