Disney Interactive implements mass layoffs; status of Junction Point, Black Rock currently unknown

by Alexander Sliwinski on Jan 24th 2011 8:08PM

Beyond Disney Interactive's layoffs today at Junction Point and last week's closure of Propaganda Games, sources tell Joystiq that the division's job cuts go much deeper. We've been informed in this "first round" of layoffs that 250 people have been let go.

Numerous attempts to obtain an official statement from Disney have gone unanswered. There is currently no word on the overall status of Split/Second developer Black Rock Studios nor Warren Spector's Junction Point, which recently released Disney Epic Mickey, a title we've been told has not sold as well as expected. Sources also tell us that the fate of Spector could be separate from that of the studio.

Massive changes at the division have come at a steady clip ever since Disney bought social game developer Playdom for upwards of $563.2 million. Then there was the double-barreled resignation of longtime boss Graham Hopper and bigwig Steve Wadsworth. It is currently the era of James Pitaro and former Playdom CEO John Pleasants, who are seeking not to repeat the division's $234 million loss this fiscal year.

Update: Disney's terse official statement: "As part of setting a strategic direction for future success in the digital media space, the Disney Interactive Media Group today began a restructuring process"

Tags: black-rock, black-rock-studios, Disney-Interactive, disney-interactive-studios, junction-point, junction-point-studios, layoffs, microsoft, nintendo, playstation, ps3, warren-spector, wii, xbox

Reader Comments (56)

This makes me want to cry I hope the economy gets better ;~(

@JnRx
I really don't think it's the economy, I think Disney just decided games aren't instantly profitable like they thought they would be and decided to give up. I really hope Black Rock gets a chance to be picked up by someone else, though. I also hope they get to keep making kick ass games like Split/Second.

@BizarroPunisher This is because Disney prefer little girls with microphones near their open mouths as they look submissively into the camera... you know it's true

@BizarroPunisher It didn't work for Bizarre, so don't get your hopes up. :(

Damn it!

I hope everything goes ok. They left Split Second with a cliffhanger ending!

Huge shame. Split/Second and Epic Mickey, barring a few issues here and there, were quality games that deserve(d) more attention than they got.

Here's hoping we see more out of both development teams somehow...

nnooooooo. i loved split/second! i was hoping for a sequel.

All remaining resources are being diverted to Club Penguin as we speak.

Guess we won't be seeing that Song of the South game after all...

@ReginaldFish For a Mickey Mouse game? I seriously would have considered anything less than 5 million a failure. That is Disney's biggest license and they dole him very rarely. Its their most protected property.

FYI Mickey Mouse is a much more known character than Mario, even in the video game realm.

i love how sympathetic the comments get, lets slap the name Activision or EA and you see hatred and rage blaming everyone for this...why not hate for Disney?

@PR0F3TA
Disney hasn't really done nothing wrong to the gaming industry like Activision or EA.

@PR0F3TA
Uh... Yeah. It's pretty much a given a lot of people hate Disney, dude.

@PR0F3TA I dont see $15 Mini Mouse DLC.
Thats why I have no hate.

@PR0F3TA

None of us grew up watching EA or Activision movies, THAT'S why.

@PR0F3TA

Actually, I think Disney has horribly mismanaged their properties in terms of gaming and have handled their internal studios even worse. I have no sympathy for the company, but I do for the people losing their jobs.

Sometimes it blows my mind that major companies can manage to so poorly capitalize on the assets they have.

@PR0F3TA Disney is one of the best companies to work for, visit and use media for?

Epic Mickey has sold 1.7 million copies according to VG chartz. Doesn't sound too bad?

@Pure Black World Tendency

It depends. There's been a ton of advertising, so maybe they expected more sales with the amount they spent on it. Although, i have to say a Wii game 1million+ on a non-Nintendo franchise is pretty damn good. I still think the lack of a PS3/360 version hurt the sales a bit, given how well the 360 sold this holiday.

@DangerMouse001

That's kind of the elephant in the room, isn't it? Spector wanted to do PS3 and 360 as the primary consoles for Mickey. He said that Wii might not even be practical, since downgrading would basically involve making a whole new game. Disney, wanting a Wii version, pushed him into just doing a Wii version.

The powers that be at Disney had a cursory understanding of the gaming industry. They knew that the Wii had the biggest install base and, since the demographics for the console also skew younger, they thought it was the perfect fit. However, a greater than cursory understanding of the market would have allowed them to understand that software sales per console owners on Wii is low, third party sales are even lower, and Spector is more of a name to PS3 and 360 owners than primary Wii owners.

And Split / Second? Didn't that come a week before Blur and ModNation? How the hell did marketing let it come out that close to two other racing games?

A lot of people at Black Rock and Junction Point - people with families and mortgages - are going to lose their jobs because the highest ranking people in the Disney gaming division couldn't be bothered to learn enough about the business they were in.

I might as well get started on that Kingdom Hearts 3 grave.

@The Only Girl Square Enix owns the copyright along with Disney.

@The Only Girl

I'm pretty sure Kingdom Hearts sales-wise is too much of a sure thing to ever worry about Disney backing out of that.

@The Only Girl Actually, I'd say that there's a stronger chance of that moving forward, since Disney seems to be moving away from in-house and back to licensing everything out.

@Jack Kevorkian

In the gaming circle Mickey is bigger than Mario/Sonic? Are you serious?
Even Sackboy has more exposure to 'gamers' than Mickey Mouse.

You are deluded if you think otherwise.

I was a little worried when I saw the article bout Junction Point layoff's and was pretty bummed out. Now what....250 PEOPLE? Yeah, this is really sad...

Too bad. :o(

Split Second was ok but had lots of potential. I also wish Epic Mickey was multiplatfprm.

Turok will now forever sit at disney collecting dust.
This sucks at least sell it disney so someone else can give it a try.
I need more dinosaur games

@Jack Kevorkian Well if Mickey Mouse was actually shown on say... Disney Channel it probably would have sold way more. Kids today only know Mickey Mouse from Disney world or in a few movies. If his old shows were actually on more it would be better.

Yeah, I guess over 1 million copies in December wasn't enough. You suck, Disney. Spector is better off without your trainwreck of a game division.

@KungFuChaosNinja---Maybe Spector IS the problem? ;-) Anyway I'd bet they didn't let Warren go, just some of his peons.

@KBox

Looking at their recent problems within Disney Interactive, i.e. the closure of studios and tons of layoff, I'd say that Disney is the problem here. They're lucky to have talent like Spector in their shoddy company.

Disney is taking a freaking battle axe to their game development wing. I sure hope this doesn't spell the end to original IP's from them, they've been great so far.

@ch3burashka
I honestly expect it, but then maybe these devs can be picked up by better publishers.

@ReginaldFish

Kids these days know more about Lady Gaga than Mickey Mouse. Oddly enough, Lady Gaga has a fascination with Mickey. Mickey doesn't resonate with kids like he used to. Disney is a crappy network, which would rather pimp out their lame teen stars over their iconic cartoon characters. They're a mess.

@Jack Kevorkian Lol, not today. mario and sonic and all those guys are much more popular in the gaming industry

@Leafhopper ask any man woman or child in the world who Mickey Mouse or Superman are and they will tell you exactly what it is. Not the case with Mario. they actually did a small study on this years ago. Babe Ruth was the 3rd figure.

Mickey is an instantly recongnizable character but all humans on earth.

@Jack Kevorkian

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/07/18/books/hey-it-s-more-than-a-game.html

@A Sandwich that was a book review by the way. I know Mario is very popular and well known. Just not as well known as Mickey. Go to a small town in Zambia and ask who Mario the Plumber is. Then ask who Mickey Mouse is.

Now that Disney has the Marvel license I have a sense that there will only be movie tie-in games from their gaming studios. That's if they even decide to keep the studios rather than licensing away videogame rights

Well, I just got my copy of Epic Mickey ordered the other night. I'm hoping others do, too. If you have a Wii, there's very little reason NOT to own this game (primarily, money being an issue).

Disney has been sending off mixed messages with their approach to video games as of late. It's disheartening.

@Jack Kevorkian

I want to see a link to this "study".

Here's an idea: don't waste your money on social media game devs.

-$234M + $563M (cost of Playdom...btw, who?) = $329 million profit for the games division.

I may be simplifying it, but buying out good devs only to run them into the ground is yet another reason to hate Disney (heard about the no-longer-wandering-characters at the parks yet?).

@aristokrat

It's part of the rush to buy Social game devs after Farmville took off, really. Those and iOS development are the new fads in the industry, and just like the fad before it (making everything "casual") a few companies will get it right, but most will play copycat as they piss away money

@Jack Kevorkian
You could also ask who in the small town in Zambia has money for games, and all you'll hear are (Jiminy) crickets. It doesn't matter who in the human race knows about Mickey, it matters who in the potential game-buying public cares about Mickey (not just knows about him).

Disney may be fulling moving out of the gaming industry now, beyond licensing stuff. However, has anyone considered the possibility of them buying Capcom at some point?

They could take over the company that has traditionally done right by the Disney and Marvel licenses and that has several of their own valuable IPs, then keep the company autonomous enough to not screw up like the current setup. Plus, if they shifted most of the Marvel movie licenses from Sega to Capcom they could effectively have comic, movie, and game under one company.

I'm not saying I'd like to see this happen - there are numerous problems with the idea, to say the least - but I'd be shocked if nobody at Disney has thought about it.

I can solve all their money problems.

Make SE do KH3 and reap the benefits. Problem solved.

Disney has the same issue as Universal and Lucas Arts - they just don't know what to do with their game division.

I would have bought Epic Mickey if it had been on PS3 or 360, but don't have or want a Wii.

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Disney Interactive implements mass layoffs; status of Junction Point, Black Rock currently unknown

Reader Comments (56)

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 8:09PM JnRx said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 9:32PM BizarroPunisher said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 11:11PM Mazrael said

Posted: Jan 25th 2011 12:57AM darkinchworm said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 8:12PM Leafhopper said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 8:13PM Fallow said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 8:15PM 8bitartist said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 8:16PM Drake Lake said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 8:25PM Warden72 said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 8:29PM Jack Kevorkian said

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Posted: Jan 24th 2011 8:34PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 8:41PM Drake Lake said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 8:43PM Leafhopper said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 8:52PM The Harbinger of Pie said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 9:02PM Courtney said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 9:02PM Jack Kevorkian said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 8:33PM Pure Black World Tendency said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 9:09PM DangerMouse001 said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 10:46PM BrianReal said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 8:33PM The Only Girl said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 9:03PM Jack Kevorkian said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 10:33PM Cleric said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 10:47PM BrianReal said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 8:35PM DigitalFortress said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 8:39PM TheSonu said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 8:40PM Tuxy79 said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 8:41PM Jawmuncher said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 8:41PM Leafhopper said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 8:43PM KungFuChaosNinja said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 10:45PM KBox said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 11:13PM KungFuChaosNinja said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 8:46PM ch3burashka said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 9:26PM Jawmuncher said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 8:47PM KungFuChaosNinja said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 8:53PM TheSonu said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 9:01PM Jack Kevorkian said

Posted: Jan 24th 2011 9:03PM A Sandwich said

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