Epic Mickey sales "strong" - Disney

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 9 February, 2011

Revenues rise following layoffs.

Disney Interactive and Warren Spector's studio Junction Point suffered severe layoffs in recent months, but Wii-exclusive adventure game Disney Epic Mickey did the business.

The giant company's Interactive Media division saw revenues of $349 million during the first quarter – up by 58 per cent.

It said it saw gains in console game sales, and "strong performance" from Epic Mickey and Toy Story 3.

However, the division made a $13 million loss due to the acquisition of Playdom, the online game company Disney bought for an eye-watering $763 million in late July.

Last month Disney confirmed a "restructuring process" at the Interactive Media Group – owner of Junction Point and Split/Second maker Black Rock - that marked its transition from a boxed game publisher to a digital publisher.

Half of Disney Interactive Studios' 700 staff were reported to have been cut.

The cuts followed the cancellation of in-development Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned, which Disney had invested millions of dollars in. Propaganda, the developer behind it, was later closed.

Movie tie-in Tron: Evolution flopped and Wii-exclusive Epic Mickey, which sold 1.3 million units in December 2010 in the US, was reported to have performed below expectations. According to Disney's latest financials, however, it appears to have brought success. Will we see a sequel?

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (19) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Tyronne #1 1 year ago

    Releasing it on more than one console may have generated more money (or am I the only one who thought this??)

  • darkmorgado #2 1 year ago

    Company in "cashflow increases after sacking half their staff" shocker!

  • Murton #3 1 year ago

    I'm sure those 300+ people currently on consultation for redundancy are really proud of the latest figures.

  • kosigan #4 1 year ago

    " Your game did great, thanks. Here's your P45."

    Glad I'm not a game developer.

  • Lunastra78 #5 1 year ago

    UKRAINE IS STRONG!

  • thesombrerokid #6 1 year ago

    Layoffs at Junction Point were reported to be minimal, not severe.

    I'd rather Warren Spector gets back to being ambitious, Epic Mickey proves he's really capable of making a game like that imo.

  • StooMonster #7 1 year ago

    My kids still want to get this, after heavy promotion on the Disney tv channels.

    I'm up for it, but keep pointing them to the massive pile of Wii games they've yet to spend much time with, and the Xbox games (e.g. Lego Harry Potter) that remain barely touched.

    They're still spending most of the gaming playing Flash games rather than consoles. :|

  • Bradach #8 1 year ago

    I think the sub title should be 'profits rise following layoffs'. There should be no link between revenues and layoffs

  • ToAks #9 1 year ago

    i expected far more from Toy Story3 , i found it rather shallow when it became open, so i decided not to get TRON ...i'll get it eventually i guess but i am in no rush at all oh and i see its half price too now :D

  • reelbigkris #10 1 year ago

    I wish there was a way to obtain demos for the wii. I've been looking forward to epic mickey but have been holding off to purchase games that I'd know I would enjoy.With the wii's controls it's always possible that the developers have trouble getting the game to notice your actions perfectly.

    I would rent, but blockbuster have an agreement with Disney to not make that title available to rent.

  • Triggerhappytel #11 1 year ago

    @Breach - their profits did not rise; they still made a loss. Revenue was up though and it's because they bought Playdom that they're still in the red.

    Anyway, I would still like to see Epic Mickey get a PS3 Move port if they can take a bit of time to address its issues.

  • chrisjm #12 1 year ago

    revenue falls following lack of games next year due to no staff to make them...

  • Machetazo #13 1 year ago

    I don't care about their Mickey Mouse sales! The thing I care about, as far as Disney is concerned is the ridiculous decision and situation that saw PoTC: Armada of the Damned, buried, in favour of supporting the Tron game. It was a piece of crap decision, and if there's any creative sense evident at Disney, it should be readdressed, and REVERSED!
    Without that, I couldn't feel confident in purchasing future Disney games.

  • Machetazo #14 1 year ago

    Further, it's disappointing that the developers' side, and the story regarding Armada of the Damned, has so far yet to be given visibility, by and from, the media.
    Edited by Machetazo at 09/02/11 @ 11:11

  • kangarootoo #15 1 year ago

    So Disney Interactive lay out a load of people, because they are refocussing on online. Their traditional, non-online division is responsible for a revenue increase of 58%, but they have negative profits to show for it because they have spunked all their money on a vastly overvalued online developer...


    Good luck with that one.

  • spekkeh #16 1 year ago

    revenue falls following lack of games next year due to no staff to make them...

    Oh they'll hire new staff. Say that their product 'scores below expectations', and immediately sack them again. Saves paying for pensions and ensuring quality of life for their employers and all that nonsense..

  • arcam #17 1 year ago

    the division made a $13 million loss due to the acquisition of Playdom, the online game company Disney bought for an eye-watering $763 million in late July

    Are these companies seriously worth three quarters of a billion dollars? I can't help thinking they'd be better off using that cash to get some more staff for their existing studios and maybe give pay raises to the best performing staff. 3/4 of a billion goes a long way.

  • makeamazing #18 1 year ago

    I think for that kind of money, they would be better off making their own brands/technology... $700 would buy alot of tech/dev/IP/web stuff...but guess they dont want to do any work. I still think alot of these companies havent learnt from the last dot.com bubble bursting.

  • kangarootoo #19 1 year ago

    @arcam

    "3/4 of a billion goes a long way."

    I thought so too, but I learned today whilst looking into this that the "Disney bought Pixar" deal cost Disney $7.4billion! I mean Pixar is a gold mine, but how many years will that purchase take to break even?

    Its a different world man.