When Disney announced it would stop developing video games and return to its traditional licensing model, it felt like an admission of defeat.
Like many of its TV and movie competitors, it had discovered that making video games was simply too risky, too complicated, and frankly not worth the effort. Best to go back to what it’s good at.
But we’d underestimated just how committed Disney was to that licensing plan. Because it’s working. Granted, not every game has had the success of Spider-Man or Disney Dreamlight Valley, but we’re seeing more major games based on Disney brands than ever before. And the entertainment giant has managed to convince the likes of EA, PlayStation, Bethesda, Ubisoft, Square Enix, Gameloft, Xbox and Take-Two to make them.