Disney reclaims Toy Story license

Wall Street Journal says media conglomerate is abandoning longtime Pixar publishing partner THQ in favor of in-house development.

Last year, Disney announced it would be significantly ramping up spending on its games label, Disney Interactive Studios. The media conglomerate said that it would funneling roughly $350 million a year into its games business, with the majority being spent on developing established franchises. The House of Mouse has also brought in big-name talent to be part of its development stable, namely Deus Ex creator and Ion Storm founder Warren Spector.

While it remains to be seen what effect the refocus on games will have on Disney, the move may already be having a negative impact on THQ. The publisher--which has handled the game adaptations for several of Disney's most recent productions, including Cars and Ratatouille--may soon be having a core aspect of its business sliced clean away, as Disney has opted to develop the game adaptation for Pixar's upcoming Toy Story 3 in house, reports the Wall Street Journal (registration required).

"We would have loved to keep the business, but when you see a company like Disney scaling up, we weren't surprised they went internal with it," said a compulsorily optimistic THQ CEO Brian Farrell. However, Farrell remains optimistic that Disney's handling of Toy Story 3 development is an anomaly, rather than precedence for the future. "I've seen this before and the jury is still out," noting that media companies have in the past taken a crack at game development on numerous occasions, with questionably successful results.

THQ has entered a tumultuous period of late. Reporting on its holiday-quarter sales earlier this month, THQ noted that while revenues had actually grown by 7 percent to $509 million for the quarter, profits had plummeted by nearly 75 percent to less than $16 million. The publisher also abruptly shelved a number of franchises and projects in January, including the recently acquired Juiced and Stuntman driving series, as well as the Frontlines: Fuel of War for the PlayStation 3 and Destroy All Humans: Big Willy Unleashed for the PlayStation 2.

28 Comments

  • strawberryheart

    Posted Jun 22, 2008 3:35 pm PT

    WHERT!!!
    Disney is stupid if they think hey can do anything with Toy Story without Pixar, morons........

  • raahsnavj

    Posted Feb 21, 2008 8:41 pm PT

    Oh crap... here comes the game sequels to movie sequels that should have never existed. The only thing that hasn't sucked as a movie sequel that happened to have disney's name on it somewhere was really made by Pixar.

  • gnbfd

    Posted Feb 21, 2008 4:02 pm PT

    So is that it for THQ?
    Or just Toy Story?

  • Thorpe89 Site moderator

    Posted Feb 21, 2008 2:50 pm PT

    I remember playing Toy Story Racer on PS1. Oh my.

  • SaxxyGamer18

    Posted Feb 21, 2008 1:41 pm PT

    And we care...why?

  • mikewalsh69

    Posted Feb 21, 2008 5:57 am PT

    i'd rather see a toy story 3 film

  • somberfox

    Posted Feb 21, 2008 4:36 am PT

    Buzz Lightyear in Kingdom Hearts 3 would be seriously awesome.

  • Trashcan_Man

    Posted Feb 20, 2008 11:09 pm PT

    THQ, Disney isn't scaling up: they've always been lightyears ahead of you. And...does anyone even really remember the Toy Story games? I remember the first one had slippery controls...that's about it.

  • umbrae

    Posted Feb 20, 2008 10:24 pm PT

    Wow, Disney games may not suck (except KH which is more a Square game anyway). THQ can kill a license.

  • pastro243

    Posted Feb 20, 2008 9:50 pm PT

    Toy story in KH3!!!!!plz!!!

  • KH-mixerX

    Posted Feb 20, 2008 9:24 pm PT

    Man I can't wait for Kingdom Hearts 3. You can bet we'll see games like Toy Story and Monster's Inc. in it in the form of worlds.

  • aygol

    Posted Feb 20, 2008 9:05 pm PT

    hazelnutman,

    I totally agree. Toy Story was my childhood!
    I still love both Toy Story and Toy Story 2 and watch them once in a while!

  • xgalacticax

    Posted Feb 20, 2008 9:05 pm PT

    What ever happened to Ion storm eventually?

  • Nadan10

    Posted Feb 20, 2008 8:38 pm PT

    Does this mean pixar games are gunna be good now?

  • BoogieManZero

    Posted Feb 20, 2008 8:36 pm PT

    The original Toy Story game wasn't too bad back on the Genesis.

  • quietguy

    Posted Feb 20, 2008 8:16 pm PT

    I'm okay with a Toy Story 3 movie, but seriously, a VG version? Damn didn't they learn already?

  • willauqs

    Posted Feb 20, 2008 8:07 pm PT

    littleyoshi! toy story in KH?! i would love for nothing more than to experience that. you could turn into toy sora haha. oh mannnn

  • mfrogue13

    Posted Feb 20, 2008 8:02 pm PT

    I want an Incredibles 2, personally, but I'll still see TS3

  • JangoWuzHere

    Posted Feb 20, 2008 7:54 pm PT

    what does this have to do with games?

  • LittleYoshi

    Posted Feb 20, 2008 7:54 pm PT

    Well, I heard Toy Story will also be part of the many worlds in KH3

  • RandyAU93

    Posted Feb 20, 2008 7:47 pm PT

    Actually I love the second one, more than the first. The third will be in 3D, and Disney/Pixar are releasing 3D conversions of the 1995 and 1999 movies in October 2009 and February 2010, respectively, prior to the launch of Toy Story 3D in June 2010.

    As to the games, since this is a gaming website ... feh. License game.

  • hazelnutman

    Posted Feb 20, 2008 7:41 pm PT

    YES! Toy Story 3 would be my dream!!! Toy Story was a part of my childhood. Scratch that... it WAS MY CHILDHOOD!

  • Adam_the_Nerd

    Posted Feb 20, 2008 7:31 pm PT

    TOY STORY 3 FTW! I've been waiting forever for the sequel to my beloved childhood movie haha.

  • Bay_Maximus

    Posted Feb 20, 2008 7:28 pm PT

    Believe me, Toy Story 3 will happen as long as Disney feels that can turn a profit. That said, the game going from THQ is like jumping from the pan into the fire. Frankly, neither dev team has the chops to make a decent Toy Story game IMO. If Disney really wants to make a respectable game off of a loved property like Toy Story, they need to put it in the hands of a competent dev house.

    Bay

  • RaiKageRyu

    Posted Feb 20, 2008 7:27 pm PT

    Ugh, Toy Story 3...

  • nintendude009

    Posted Feb 20, 2008 7:15 pm PT

    They honestly should've stoppped after the first Toy Story. The second one really sucked and was a rip off of the second. And they've had like 5 different scripts for the third in like three years. I doubt it will really happen.

  • speedjunkie4

    Posted Feb 20, 2008 7:15 pm PT

    And do we all know what is going to happen? That's right, it will SUCK.

  • Zidaneski

    Posted Feb 20, 2008 7:05 pm PT

    So there's a Toy Story 3 movie? Thats good enough for me.

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