Disney Interactive Studios, Inc. was an American video game developer and publisher owned by The Walt Disney Company through Disney Interactive. Prior to its closure in 2016, it developed and distributed multi-platform video games 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 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 (Star Wars games), Warner Bros. Games (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 (Disney Tsum Tsum Festival), Square Enix (Kingdom Hearts), and Capcom (several Disney games, Willow games, and Marvel vs. Capcom). However, it continues to release games for iOS and Android devices under its own label, Disney Mobile for mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. Disney Electronic Content is a spiritual successor to the company.
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 failed to meet the high expectations that came with the Disney name, although three of its self-published computer titles---"Mickey's Runaway Zoo," "Donald's Alphabet Chase" and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" sold more than 100,000 copies, the industry equivalent of earning a Gold Record. The underlying issues were later attributed by senior Disney executives as being due to low product quality and lack of understanding of the differences between film and games.
WDCS also published a series of Nintendo (NES) and Gameboy platform game titles with Japanese video game company Capcom. Of these titles, 1989's DuckTales received the most commercial and critical success, selling approximately 1.67 million and 1.43 million copies worldwide respectively, each becoming Capcom's highest-selling titles for their respective platforms. Produced by founding WDCS producer Darlene Waddington, DuckTales' Gameboy version was named "Gameboy Game of the Year" by PC Player Magazine. DuckTales continues to be considered a game with high nostalgic interest and was remade in 2013 as DuckTales: Remastered.
Following DuckTales, WDCS developed and published another NES platform game with Capcom, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers. Rescue Rangers proved to be a commercial success, selling approximately 1.2 million copies worldwide, becoming Capcom's fourth highest-selling game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Continuing with the success of these titles, Disney continued to find success with another Capcom developed title, Aladdin and The Lion King (developed by Westwood Studios) 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. On April 15, 1997, Disney Interactive reduced its staff by 20%, effectively ending all 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 to allow the latter to publish titles based on Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Monsters, Inc., Treasure Planet, Lilo and Stitch, and Peter Pan: Return to Never Land on the PlayStation and PlayStation 2.
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.