Disney Interactive Studios, Inc. was an American

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

and

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

owned by

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on Octobe ...

through Disney Interactive. Prior to its closure in 2016, it developed and distributed

multi-platform In computing, cross-platform software (also called multi-platform software, platform-agnostic software, or platform-independent software) is computer software that is designed to work in several computing platforms. Some cross-platform software r ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedba ...

s and interactive entertainment worldwide. Most of the games released by Disney Interactive Studios were typically tie-in products to existing character franchises. On May 10, 2016, as a result of the discontinuation of its ''

Disney Infinity ''Disney Infinity'' is an action-adventure sandbox toys-to-life video game series developed by Avalanche Software. The setting of the series is a giant customizable universe of imagination, known as the Toy Box, populated with toy versions o ...

'' series, Disney shut down Disney Interactive Studios, and exited the first-party home console game development business in order to focus on third-party development of home console video games through other developers such as

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the ...

(''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various film ...

'' games),

WB Games Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (WBIE; also known as Warner Bros. Games or WB Games) is an American video game publisher based in Burbank, California, and part of the newly-formed Global Streaming and Interactive Entertainment unit of ...

(owned by rival company Warner Bros., which handles the publishing of Disney-related Lego video games and '' Cars 3: Driven to Win''),

Bandai Namco Entertainment is a Japanese multinational video game publisher headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Entertainment America and Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe, are respectively headquartered in Irvine, California and ...

('' Disney Tsum Tsum Festival''),

Square Enix is a Japanese multinational holding company, production enterprise and entertainment conglomerate, best known for its ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', ''Star Ocean'' and ''Kingdom Hearts'' role-playing video game franchises, among numerous ...

(''

Kingdom Hearts is a series of action role-playing games developed and published by Square Enix (originally by Square). It is a collaboration between Square Enix and The Walt Disney Company and is under the leadership of Tetsuya Nomura, a longtime Square ...

''), and

Capcom is a Japanese video game developer and publisher. It has created a number of multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being '' Resident Evil'', '' Monster Hunter'', '' Street Fighter'', ''Mega Man'', ''De ...

(several Disney games, ''

Willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist so ...

'' games and '' Marvel vs. Capcom''). However, it continues to release games for iOS and Android devices under its own label,

Disney Mobile Disney Mobile is an American division of Disney Consumer Products, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, that designs mobile apps, content and services. History In August 2000, Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) entered the mobile content mar ...

History

1988–1994: Walt Disney Computer Software

Disney established its own in house gaming unit, Walt Disney Computer Software, Inc. (WDCS), and it was incorporated on September 15, 1988. WDCS generally used third-party development studios to design spin-off games using its existing portfolio of characters. WDCS had little success attributed by senior Disney executives due to low product quality and lack of understanding the differences between film and games. The few market successes were third-party-published games based on major Disney animated features like ''

Aladdin Aladdin ( ; ar, علاء الدين, ', , ATU 561, ‘Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with ''The Book of One Thousand and One Nights'' (''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part o ...

'' and ''

The Lion King ''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 32nd Disney animated feature film and the fifth produced during the Disney Renaissance ...

'' in 1993 and 1994 respectively. This led to a move from self-developed and self-published to funding and development management of games with third parties published the game.

1994–2002: Disney Interactive

Using the film studio style formula, WDCS was reorganized into Disney Interactive, Inc. (DI) on December 5, 1994 with the merging of WDCS and

Walt Disney Television and Telecommunications This is a list of assets currently or formerly owned by the Walt Disney Company, unless otherwise indicated. Corporate Walt Disney Studios Live-action production Animated production Disney Studio Services Disney Theatrica ...

. On April 15, 1997, DI reduced its staff by 20% ending in-house video game production. This increased the requests for licensing from third-party games companies. Under this plan, development and production cost risks were transferred to the game companies but reduced the per-unit revenue generated to Disney and effectively yielded a near 100 percent margin of licensed game sales. A thirteen-game agreement was made between Nintendo of America and Disney Interactive in 1999 for both the Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color. In May 2001, the company signed a deal with

Sony Computer Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), formerly known as Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), is a multinational video game and digital entertainment company wholly owned by multinational conglomerate Sony. The SIE Group is made up of two legal co ...

to allow the latter to publish titles based on ''

Atlantis: The Lost Empire ''Atlantis: The Lost Empire'' is a 2001 American animated science fiction film, science fiction action film, action-adventure film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. ...

'', '' Monsters, Inc.'', '' Treasure Planet'', ''

Lilo and Stitch ''Lilo & Stitch'' is a 2002 American animated science fiction comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 42nd Disney animated feature film, it was written and directed by Chris Sander ...

'', and '' Peter Pan: Return to Never Land'' on the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a di ...

and

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on ...

. In European territories, Infogrames formerly distributed several of Disney Interactive's PC titles, however, this agreement was later replaced with several separate distribution deals, including JoWooD Productions in Germany.

2003–2007: Buena Vista Games

Buena Vista Games, Inc. (BVG) was spun out of Disney Interactive in 2003 after a 2002 strategic review that chose to return to being a dedicated games publisher. With DI focused on children's games, BVG took on all other content game including mobile and online mediums. Buena Vista Games is probably best known for the ''

'' series along with Japanese developer

. In April 2005, BVG purchased

Avalanche Software Avalanche Software is an American video game developer based in Salt Lake City, Utah and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. It was founded in October 1995 by four programmers formerly of Sculptured Software, including John ...

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...

and started a

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. The ...

based game development studio, Propaganda Games. In September 2006, Buena Vista acquired Climax Racing. BVG formed a new game studio, Fall Line Studios, in November 2006 to create Disney and new game titles for the

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in t ...

and the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, ...

console.

2007–2014: Disney Interactive Studios

On February 8, 2007, The Walt Disney Company renamed Buena Vista Games to Disney Interactive Studios as part of a larger company initiative to phase out the Buena Vista brand that year. The studio publishes both Disney and non-Disney branded video games for all platforms worldwide, with titles that feature its consumer brands including Disney, ABC,

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

, and

Touchstone Touchstone may refer to: * Touchstone (assaying tool), a stone used to identify precious metals * Touchstone (metaphor), a means of assaying relative merits of a concept Entertainment * ''Touchstone'' (album), a 1982 album by Chick Corea * T ...

(which is used as a label for Disney). In July 2007, the studio acquired Junction Point Studios. On June 5, 2008, Disney Interactive Studios and the Walt Disney Internet Group, merged into a single business unit now known as the Disney Interactive Media Group,"Disney's games and internet divisions merging"
,

Joystiq ''Joystiq'' was a video gaming blog founded in June 2004 as part of the Weblogs, Inc. family of weblogs, now owned by AOL. It was AOL's primary video game blog, with sister blogs dealing with MMORPG gaming in general and the popular MMORPG ''Wor ...

.com, 2008. and it merged its subsidiary Fall Line Studios with its sister studio, Avalanche Software, in January 2009. In February 2009, Disney Interactive acquired GameStar, a Chinese game development company. On September 8, 2009, Disney Interactive announced that it had acquired Wideload Games. In November 2010, the executive Graham Hopper left the company. He announced his departure via an internal e-mail saying "the time has come for me to move on from the company and set my sights on new horizons." DIS in October 2012 announced "Toy Box", a cross platform gaming initiative where Pixar and Disney characters will interact from a console game to multiple mobile and online applications. The first Toy Box cross platform game is ''

'' based on the '' Toy Story 3'' game's Toy Box mode crossed with a toy line. After the purchase of

Lucasfilm Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is a business segment of The Walt Disney Company. The studio is best known for creating and producing the '' Star Wars'' and ...

by The Walt Disney Company in 2012, Disney Interactive assumed the role of developing ''

'' games for the

casual gaming A casual game is a video game targeted at a mass market audience, as opposed to a hardcore game, which is targeted at hobbyist gamers. Casual games may exhibit any type of gameplay and genre. They generally involve simpler rules, shorter sessio ...

market, while

would develop ''Star Wars'' games for the core gaming market through an exclusive license (although

LucasArts Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game licensor that is part of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as part of a large ...

did retain the ability to license ''Star Wars'' games to other developers for the casual gaming market). At

E3 2013 The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2013 (E3 2013) was the 19th E3 held. The event took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California with many press conferences taking place at nearby venues including the Nokia Theate ...

, Disney and Square Enix released a teaser trailer for ''Kingdom Hearts III'', after going seven years of not declaring any console ''Kingdom Hearts'' game since ''Kingdom Hearts II''. The game would release nearly six years later in January 2019. Disney Interactive Studios has lost more than $200 million per year from 2008–2012 during a period in which it shut down Propaganda Games,

Black Rock Studio Black Rock Studio Limited was a British video game developer based in Brighton, England. It was a division of Disney Interactive Studios. The studio was founded by Tony Beckwith in 1998 as Pixel Planet. It was acquired by the Climax Group in 1 ...

and Junction Point Studios and its co-president John Pleasants stepped down in November 2013 after the launch of ''Disney Infinity''.

2014–2016: Decline and dissolution

On March 6, 2014, 700 employees were laid off. After the cancellation of ''Disney Infinity'', Disney Interactive Studios closed in 2016.

List of games

The company also publishes games from ''

Q Entertainment was a Japanese video game developer. The studio created, produced, and published digital entertainment content across multiple game consoles, PC broadband and mobile units. It was founded on October 10, 2003 by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, formerly of S ...

'' worldwide except Asia: ''

Lumines II is a 2006 puzzle video game developed by Q Entertainment for the PlayStation Portable (PSP). It was released in November 2006 in Europe and North America by Buena Vista Games, and in February 2007 in Japan by Bandai Namco Games. The objective ...

'', the sequel to the puzzle game for the PSP system; ''

Lumines Plus (pronounced as "Loo-min-ess") is a 2004 puzzle game developed by Q Entertainment and published for the PlayStation Portable by Bandai in Japan and by Ubisoft elsewhere. The objective of the game is to arrange descending two-colored 2×2 blocks ...

'', a new version of ''

Lumines (pronounced as "Loo-min-ess") is a puzzle video game series developed by Q Entertainment. The core objective of the games is to survive by rotating and aligning 2×2 blocks varying between two colors to form 2×2 squares of a single color whi ...

'' for the PlayStation 2; '' Every Extend Extra'', a puzzle shooter; and a Disney Interactive Studios's '' Meteos: Disney Edition'', the popular ''

Meteos is a 2005 tile-matching video game developed by Q Entertainment and published by Bandai (Nintendo outside Japan) for the Nintendo DS. It was produced by Q Entertainment founder Tetsuya Mizuguchi and designed by Masahiro Sakurai. ''Meteos'' was ...

'' game for the

with Disney characters. The company revealed a lineup of games at E3 2006, which include DIE's '' Turok'', a re-imagining of the video game series of the same name and '' Desperate Housewives: The Game'', based on the hit

television show A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed b ...

. Disney Interactive Studios is credited in all entries to the ''

'' franchise, with the original release box art of each entry to the series having different logos and name of the company seeing as coincidentally, the company is re-branded in between the releases. Notably however, the company is not credited to actually developing the game.

Studios

Moved to Disney Interactive

Disney Online Disney Interactive is an American video game and internet company that oversaw various websites and interactive media owned by The Walt Disney Company. History 1995–1996: Formation and beginnings In December 1994, Disney announced that it wa ...

* Playdom (later defunct)

Former/defunct

, based in

. Acquired April 2005. Shut down May 2016. Later re-opened and sold to Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in January 2017. *

, acquired as Climax Racing in September 2006 and closed in July 2011. *Creature Feep, 2009–2015. * Fall Line Studios, 2006–2009, merged into Avalanche Software. * Junction Point Studios, based in

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. Acquired July 2007. Shut down in January 2013. * Propaganda Games, 2005–2011. * Wideload Games, based in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

. Acquired September 8, 2009. Shut down March 6, 2014. *Rocket Pack, 2010–2015. *Gamestar, based in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. Acquired February 2009, defunct.

References

{{Authority control 1988 establishments in California 2016 disestablishments in California Companies based in Glendale, California Defunct companies based in Greater Los Angeles Defunct software companies of the United States Defunct video game companies of the United States Disney Interactive Disney video games Software companies based in California Software companies disestablished in 2016 Software companies established in 1988 Technology companies based in Greater Los Angeles Video game companies based in California Video game companies disestablished in 2016 Video game companies established in 1988 Video game development companies Video game publishers