While Disney was a somewhat prominent game publisher just a decade ago, they’ve definitely fallen out of it in recent years, shutting down developers like Junction Point Studios, LucasArts, and Avalanche Studios as well as licensing out Star Wars and Marvel properties to companies like EA, Nintendo, and Sony Interactive Entertainment.
On a recent earnings call, Disney CEO Bob Iger was quite pessimistic about Disney’s past performance, going as far as to say Disney “never managed to demonstrate much skill” when it came to creating and publishing games in the past.
This comment seems to have resulted in tepid responses from fans of classic Disney titles. Word about Bob Iger’s Disney game publishing comment has also reached Warren Spector, a highly respected game developer who previously worked with Disney at Junction Point Studios. Following Bob Iger’s statement, Warren took to Twitter so he could compliment the developers he worked on Epic Mickey and its sequel with:
Huh. I guess I should be insulted when @RobertIger says Disney has never been good at video games, but I’ll just take the high road and stand proud with the Epic Mickey team and laud them for the great work they – we – did for Disney. https://t.co/djVn5uQyjN
— Warren Spector (@Warren_Spector) February 6, 2019
For a bit of history on Junction Point Studios, it was founded by several industry veterans, namely Warren Spector and Art Min, who came from Deus Ex and Thief developer Ion Storm. The studio was acquired by Disney in 2007 and began work on Epic Mickey, a experimental platformer starring Mickey Mouse that was said to be a true dream and passion project for Warren Spector. The game released to somewhat mixed reviews in 2010, but seemed to have sold very well.
Unfortunately, Junction Point found itself in a tumultuous situation after the game’s sequel, Epic Mickey: The Power of Two, flopped. This meant that a title called Project Goliath never got off the ground due to the studio’s situation and the fact one of the game’s artists was caught plagiarizing. Disney then made the decision to shut down Junction Point Studios on January 29. 2013.
Since then, Warren Spector has been working at OtherSide Entertainment on Underworld Ascendant and System Shock 3. Even if Disney doesn’t look upon its past in game publishing with much positively, and least its developers have gone on to other successful ventures and look back at their time there fondly. In terms of upcoming Disney games, we can expect Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 to launch over the next year.
The post Disney’s Pessimistic Comment on Past Games Elicits Response from Epic Mickey Creator Warren Spector by Tomas Franzese appeared first on DualShockers.