After a dismal financial year for its games, Disney has shut down Epic Mickey developer Junction Point Studios today, citing a strategy to prioritize development “to address the fast-evolving gaming platforms and marketplace,” a representative tells Polygon.
Warren Spector, the Austin, Tex.-based studio’s founder and president who also served as a VP at Disney Interactive, will not remain with Disney after the closure, Polygon reports.
Disney released an official statement on the developer’s closure:
“It was with much sadness that we informed our teams today of changes to our Games organization, which include the closure of Junction Point Studios. These changes are part of our ongoing effort to address the fast-evolving gaming platforms and marketplace and to align resources against our key priorities. We’re extremely grateful to Warren Spector and the Junction Point team for their creative contributions to Disney with Disney Epic Mickey and Disney Epic Mickey 2.”
Junction Point employed about 160 people as of early 2012, Polygon reports.
The Disney Careers page has a posting dated Jan. 24 for a game designer in the Austin, Tex. area, where the studio was based, but its relation is unclear. At last year’s Comic-Con, Spector said he had an idea for a third game in the Epic Mickey series. “I already know what the third one’s going to be if enough of you buy it.”
Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, released in November, failed to sell as well as its predecessor in 2010, according to an LA Times report.
Disney’s trek to slim down its game development branch began in 2011 after it closed both Propaganda Games and Black Rock Studio.
The company seems to have placed most of its efforts toward Disney Infinity, an upcoming open-world, sandbox game developed by Avalanche Software.
Disney Interactive posted a $216 million loss for its 2012 fiscal year which it attributed to “an ongoing shift from console game releases to mobile and social game releases,” according to the earnings report.
Source: Polygon [1] [2], Disney Careers, LA Times, Disney
Image credit: Game Informer
No Comments