Disney Interactive Studios has just shutdown Propaganda Games, its Vancouver-based console game development studio, employing around 70 people. The move is clearly in response to dismal performance of console based games in general and the ones being developed by Propaganda studio in particular. Propaganda’s latest project was Tron: Evolution, a console game that serves as a prequel to the movie “Tron: Legacy” and the graphic novel “Tron: Betrayal“. Tron failed to be a business success and its sales remained weak. According to NPD Group, Disney has sold only 190,755 copies.
It seems that Disney has now realized that the future of gaming is in the social arena. Robert A. Iger, Disney Chief Executive, also admitted the fact that there is an ongoing shift within his company from consoles towards social and mobile games.
To position itself for to exploit the new trend, Disney acquired online social gaming company Playdom and with this acquisition John Pleasants (chief executive of Playdom) was brought in and made head of Disney’s game group. In this capacity Pleasants oversees all of Disney’s video game business, including console titles, mobile and online games, and Web-based virtual worlds such as Club Penguin and World of Cars.
To Disney it is clear that unless they do something and soon about their current strategy, they would be eaten up alive by the like of Zynga.
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