After a few failed attempts at developing and publishing its
own games, Disney (NYSE:
DIS
) has announced a partnership with Activision (NASDAQ:
ATVI
) that will bring Wreck-It Ralph to three Nintendo (
NTDOY
) game devices. Based on the upcoming animated film of the same
name, Wreck-It Ralph is being developed for the Nintendo Wii,
Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo DS. The game will be a "collaboration"
between Disney and Activision, both of which will "produce and
distribute a Wreck-It Ralph video game."
"Wreck-It Ralph, as a brand entity, is perfectly suited for
video game stardom," David Oxford, Executive Vice President of
Activision Publishing, said in a company release. "With the
fantastic characters and creative atmosphere envisioned by Walt
Disney Animation Studios, we know fans are going to love seeing
their newfound favorite characters embark on an all-new side
scrolling adventure."
This is Disney's first major partnership since it quietly
ended a multi-year venture with THQ (NASDAQ:
THQI
), which was responsible for publishing several games based on
Disney and Pixar properties, including Up, Wall-E, and The
Incredibles. THQ commissioned outside developers to produce these
games, resulting in a big win for the Cars franchise, which sold
more than six million copies
across multiple platforms. THQ was unable to sustain that
success, however. While the company sold
more than 4.6 million
copies of the Wall-E video game, later releases -- including Up
and Cars: Race-o-Rama -- did not sell nearly as well.
THQ's decline coincided with several acquisitions at Disney
Interactive Studios, which was trying to expand its presence in
the game industry. Instead of licensing its movie properties to
THQ, Disney decided to start publishing its own games, starting
with the release of Toy Story 3, which sold
4.7 million copies
. But Cars 2 (which Disney also published) was somewhat of a
flop, selling
less than two million units
.
In January, THQ removed any hope that it may renew its
partnership with Disney after telling
VentureBeat
that it would no longer work on licensed entertainment properties
for kids.
Meanwhile, Disney had already formed an unofficial alliance
with Activision through its acquisition of Marvel. For more than
10 years, Activision has been publishing games based on Marvel
properties.
Now that partnership has come full circle with today's
announcement that Disney and Activision have joined forces to
produce the upcoming Wreck-It Ralph game.
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