GameSpot may receive revenue from affiliate and advertising partnerships for sharing this content and from purchases through links.

Monkey Island Creator Wants to Buy Rights Back After Disney Exits Console Games

"[P]lease sell me my Monkey Island and Mansion Mansion IP," said Ron Gilbert, self-proclaimed non-proof reader.

30 Comments

Disney exited the video game publishing business with the discontinuation of Disney Infinity games and products, and at least one developer has taken notice. Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert has asked Disney on Twitter to sell him the rights to his two beloved franchises, Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion.

Gilbert tweeted, saying he'd "pay real actual money for them." He also misspelled Maniac Mansion, later noting that he's "incapable of proof reading" his tweets, which is "part of the charm in following [him]." If he gets the rights back, I'm sure most fans would be okay with him renaming the series to Mansion Mansion.

Gilbert worked on the first two Monkey Island games, The Secret of and LeChuck's Revenge. Telltale Games took a shot at the series with Tales of Monkey Island in 2009, in which Gilbert is credited as "The Visiting Professor of Monkeyology." LucasArts also released HD remasters of the original Monkey Island games.

Gilbert developed Maniac Mansion in 1987. Follow-up Day of the Tentacle (1993) was remastered and re-released by Double Fine in March of this year--the original Maniac Mansion was playable in this release but not remastered.

Another creation of Gilbert's is the well-known scripting language SCUMM, which stands for Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion. It was used to develop all of LucasArts' adventure games that followed except for Grim Fandango and Escape from Monkey Island.

Gilbert's next game is Thimbleweed Park, which GameSpot's Scott Butterworth previewed earlier this year. He said it's "the classic adventure game you remember" that operates the exact same way as Gilbert's classic adventures did.

Thimbleweed Park releases on Xbox One, PC, Mac, and Linux either this October or January next year. Gilbert says he doesn't "want to detract from Call of Duty by releasing [during the holiday rush]."

Gilbert isn't the only developer who wants their IP back from Disney. Deus Ex creator Warren Spector has tweeted, asking for the IP he created at Junction Point, which Disney owns. Not much is known about the games in question, though one of them is Necessary Evil, which was intended to be a spiritual successor to Deus Ex.

Update and Correction: Gilbert did not make Day of the Tentacle. GameSpot regrets the error.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

Join the conversation
There are 30 comments about this story