Media giant Disney has shared some highly-interesting details about what might become the future company strategy in terms of licensed games. During this year’s DICE summit, Senior Vice President of Games and Interactive Experiences at Disney Sean Shoptaw openly invited game developers to create their own unique takes on the vast library of franchises at the big mouse.
Licensing games is hardly a new thing for Disney, but for several years now, Electronic Arts & Square Enix have been at the center of attention when it comes to large scale game projects. From the online Battlefront FPS series to the wholesome crossover franchise Kingdom Hearts and most recently the excellent Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, it’s these two large publishers who are mostly delivering Disney games.
“I’m here for one specific reason: to empower you to do really unique things with our catalog”
“We want to tap into the power of creatives across the industry.”
“We want to dream big and look forward to all the things we can do together.”
While EA has enjoyed an exclusive partnership with regards to the Star Wars license, one must also not forget that Disney owns so much more than just that. Not only is the seemingly endless treasure trove of superheroes courtesy of Marvel under the Disney umbrella but with the recent acquisition of 20th Century Fox many more intellectual properties have joined.
There are also older IPs like Indiana Jones which have been criminally neglected, alongside all cult-classic LucasArts franchises. And this is where Shoptaw especially wants developers to get creative. Not only is he wishing for new stories and ideas to be told but also reimagine old tales anew. We’re very hopeful that this will lead to a new Golden Age of Disney related games. The demand is absolutely there.
