Disney’s gaming ambitions were put on hold in recent months due to the company having to appoint a new CEO. The lengthy, in-depth process to find outgoing CEO Bob Iger’s replacement has only just concluded. This stalled lots of plans including seeking new video game partners.
In a new report about The Walt Disney Company’s latest quest, The Wall Street Journal (as spotted by GameSpot) claims such a big leadership change has had impacts on parts of the business you might not have expected: video games.
Iger has been on record at saying Disney have not been good at making games. They prefer to leave it up to the developers elsewhere who know their stuff. That said, Disney still like to have a hand in things and ultimately it is their IP being used. Star Wars games have largely been a success under Disney in terms of how much they have made and fan reception. There has been a lot of synergy between the interactive media and big screen features too.
The WSJ article states this succession battle created a difficult environment for making “consequential decisions about Disney’s future”. Company executives reportedly met with various game studios over the possibility of making games together at points in the past year.
Whether this includes Star Wars games remains to be seen but one could say it is likely given how big the Star Wars game business is. A source close to this topic told the WSJ that such conversions were ceased until Iger’s successor takes over. We don’t have a specific timeframe for when things stalled but the final two candidates presented their visions to Disney’s board in August.
What’s Next?
Last week, Disney announced Josh D’Amaro would be taking over the company. His vision for Disney will mark a new era for the company and it will be interesting to see how he shapes their games business.
We know D’Amaro’s start date as CEO is March 18th meaning any discussions over video game partnerships will be on hold until at least after then. Hopefully D’Amaro is proactive in getting back to the table with video game companies.
For what it’s worth, D’Amaro is no stranger to Disney’s games business. He was a key figure in Epic and Disney’s on-going Fortnite collaboration for their huge new game experience. The CEO-in-waiting has spoken on how Disney’s data shows games are a key part of Gen Z and Gen Alpha’s lives and that gaming must be an area Disney continues to innovate in.
This appointment might be a good one for fans of Star Wars games. However, we’ll just have to wait quite some time before any results appear. The recent leadership change at Lucasfilm is also something to keep an eye on in terms of Star Wars video games.
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