Disney Invites Developers to "Play" with their Properties

Disney and Nintendo have a lot in common: both of them are big, international companies, both are preoccupied with keeping a family-friendly image, and both of them have made big bank through a catalog of extremely recognizable and profitable IP. In the past, you could have argued they were also similar in that they were extremely picky over who got the rights to actually use their IP, but during this year's DICE summit, Disney's Senior VP for Games and Interactive Experiences, Sean Shoptaw, decided to challenge that reputation by asking developers to “come and play” with some of their most iconic properties.

"I'm here for one specific reason: to empower you to do really unique things with our [catalog]. We want to tap into the power of creatives across the industry… We want to dream big and look forward to all the things we can do together.”

It’s not terribly surprising Disney would issue such an invitation. As of late, they’ve gotten a lot of success trusting developers with their properties, specifically EA’s Jedi: Fallen Order, as well as the presumed success of Square Enix’s upcoming Avenger’s game. But even if you were to ignore all that, Disney has already made a habit of playing and, in many respects, twisting its most recognizable franchises. They’ve been getting some good success twisting the traditional princess formula in the past, and have rebooted some of their oldest IP’s in live-action format with mixed, generally positive reception.

So basically, this is a new Disney that’s looking to be less restrictive and controlling than the Disney of the past… which would be nice, I guess, if it wasn’t just more proof that Disney is getting way, way too big these days.

Remember when all our anti-monopoly laws actually meant something? Because I don’t.