Why Disney closed Black Rock

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 8 July, 2011

"No longer sees console as a priority."

Analysts have suggested the closure of Pure and Split/Second developer Black Rock had more to do with owner Disney's desire to get out of console game development than any deficiencies at the Brighton-based studio.

"Disney has consciously stated that it no longer sees console as a priority," Nicholas Lovell of GAMESbrief told Eurogamer.

"I'm completely unsurprised that they shut down the studio, when they are no longer focused on console."

Last Friday Eurogamer broke the news that Disney was shutting Black Rock down.

Disney blamed the decision on the cancellation of Black Rock's then in-development secret project, which Eurogamer subsequently discovered was a free-to-play game provisionally titled Champions Alliance.

But according to Wedbush Securities' Michael Pachter, Black Rock's fate was sealed by Disney's new focus on social games and cutting costs, implemented months ago.

"The new management of Disney Interactive is under a lot of pressure to become profitable, and they are looking for any way to cut costs," he told us.

"I can't say that closing Black Rock is the most expedient way to cut costs, but the leadership of Disney Interactive comes from internet backgrounds, and they seem pretty focused on social games rather than on packaged products.

"Accordingly, it appears to me that they are more inclined to cut costs on the packaged goods side than on the social games side, and I think this is evidence of that inclination."

In May Disney reduced its Black Rock workforce, putting around 100 jobs at risk. Aborted projects included a sequel to 2008 quad-bike racer Pure and a follow-up to last year's Split/Second.

"After SS wrapped, we started work on SS2 pre-prod which was cancelled last December due to DIS's new management and their changing priorities (the push towards freemium etc) - SS2 didn't really fit in with that (despite some efforts to shoehorn it in)," a source told us.

"In short, Disney is a family company," Lovell continued. "Families now look as if they are playing away from core consoles and on Facebook, mobile and tablets. Therefore Disney moving away from console is not surprising, it's inevitable."

EEDAR's Jesse Divnich believes no-one is to blame for the Black Rock closure.

Instead, it's yet another example of an increasingly competitive AAA video game market.

"Over the last five years we've seen many media conglomerates attempt to build internal studios and talent to self-develop and publish AAA video games (Viacom/MTV, Warner, Disney, etc.) he said.

"Unlike the movie industry, where nearly every blockbuster movie is backed by some form of alternate financing, the video game industry has yet to open themselves up it, which results in companies having to sink all of their own capital into these AAA video games that often take two to three years before revenue can be recovered.

"There is an enormous amount of risk that goes with creating a AAA new intellectual property, and I believe a lot of companies have simply just realised the risk isn't worth the reward. This is especially true when one looks at emerging markets such as mobile, social and free-to-play where the cost of capital required for entrance is minimal and could potentially have a broader reach.

"What occurred with Black Rock is saddening, and I don't think anyone is at fault; rather, it simply is just an extremely competitive market to create a top 20 AAA product."

While Black Rock is no more, its spirit lives on.

From the ashes of the racing game developer three studios have emerged: Roundcube Entertainment, lead by Split/Second director Nick Baynes; ShortRound Games, formed by a quartet of previous Black Rock department directors; and BossAlien, fronted by Pure director Jason Avent.

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 (56) Latest comment 11 months ago

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

  • FogHeart #1 11 months ago

    This is crazy...Black Rock was closed because Disney wanted to focus on social/mobile/tablet games....and the studios that form from the 'ashes' of these developers declare that they'll be developing for....social, mobile and tablet platforms!

  • telboy007 #2 11 months ago

    But there a Disney Kinect game. Not developed by them, but its a game connected to Disney on a console. Unless they're just going to licence out "Disney" to people who want it? What about Kingdom Hearts? Won't somebody think of the children!

  • riceNpea #3 11 months ago

    if they really want to save money they should close down Euro Disney. 2 reasons ; it's not really Disney World unless you go to Florida and it's full of french people.


    Edit: ty Ranconteur
    Edited by riceNpea at 08/07/11 @ 21:17

  • fabiosooner #4 11 months ago

    I kinda wish they didn't split into various studios but instead get in touch with the crew from Bizarre to form a super-studio of great, mid-level racing games split between pure sim and pure arcade (puns intended).

    I'd rather have a great racing game pulling stuff from Pure, Blur and Split/Second than another Need for Speed or Gran Turismo.

  • TomDent93 #5 11 months ago

    Split/Second was good.

    Thought I would enlighten you all with my opinion.

  • dr_zoidthrob #6 11 months ago

    What cocks.

  • HyperTails #7 11 months ago

    Of course Disney would want to go into the social games business, what with how shite that company actually is. Probably Hannah Montana social games galore. But then, shit happens when Disney gets their claws into something... Alice In Wonderland still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Somehow Pixar have survived the taint though, and the Pirates movies (well, the first 2) were awesome because of Depp and co, not Disney.

    I swear Walt Disney must be turning in his grave to see what the house of mouse has become.

    Oh yeah, and I guess that means i'll never be seeing Epic Mickey ported to PS3 then. *sigh*

  • homerramone #8 11 months ago

    Why dont we get patcher to say that we are all going to live long and prosper ?

    Everything he says has to be correct.. seems simple to me :-)

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #9 11 months ago

    Got the be bollox, they wouldn't of shut it down if it was profitable, they would of just sold it surely?
    Surely no company shuts down a profitable arm of the business, just cos there a bit bored with what they make?

  • Quixz #10 11 months ago

    LOL bullshit, If the games sold like COD they would be very much into consoles!

  • LOLLERS #11 11 months ago

    Of course Disney's desire to get out of console game development largely stemmed from the fact that it's studios were making massive losses and that at least partly must be down to deficiencies in the studios themselves.

    It's not really fair to say Disney's new management woke up one morning and just decided they didn't want to make AAA games any more so it's all their fault.
    Edited by LOLLERS at 08/07/11 @ 16:59

  • clarkwgriswold #12 11 months ago

    Disney haven't got a clue

  • Collymilad #13 11 months ago

    I'm sad they closed black rock because people lost their jobs.

    However, the games industry can do without you Disney, good riddance.

  • Shotofen #14 11 months ago

    Warner Bros. Interactive is succeeding where Disney Interactive failed. Just sayin'.

  • The-Bodybuilder #15 11 months ago

    ""Families now look as if they are playing away from core consoles and on Facebook, mobile and tablets. Therefore Disney moving away from console is not surprising, it's inevitable.""

    So......someone explain to me why I should like these casual and social games again?

    Even then I don't particularly blame Disney. This is why I don't want a new generation of more uber-powerful consoles which in turn causes uber-development costs and uber-financing, leading to uber-risks.

  • pinchofsalt #16 11 months ago

    Analysts stating the friggin obvious again.
    How *do* they do it?

  • BuddyChrist #17 11 months ago

    The games Market is becoming progressively diverse, not as easy as it used to be to sell to kids. They cba

  • fiery_jackass #18 11 months ago

    I hope someone buys Disney and installs a fucking jukebox

  • alcides #19 11 months ago

    Disney aren't really good at anything. Except for making money, perhaps.

  • Subdominator #20 11 months ago

    Considering how many Marvel Universe games are out there and that Marvel belongs to Disney I'd say it is a pretty bold assumption that Disney wants to get out of console gaming. They just don't want to create new IPs anymore.

  • miiiguel #21 11 months ago

    Warner Bros. Interactive is succeeding where Disney Interactive failed. Just sayin'.

    I'm not sure about that..., take Green Lantern, the game, for instance, it's not a bad game, it's not X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but it's not bad at all, though, you cant' find it anywhere, it's like they don't even care.

  • jefranklin18 #22 11 months ago

    GamesProgrammer: Got the be bollox, they wouldn't of shut it down if it was profitable, they would of just sold it surely?
    Surely no company shuts down a profitable arm of the business, just cos there a bit bored with what they make?

    Sadly they will dispense of anything they consider to be outside the "core" of their business. In this case, as the target demographic is likely to be younger generation that are into Facebook games, then they would ditch them. As a similar example, Ford had to stem their losses and the way the proceeded to do this was to flog off Aston Martin & Jaguar/Land Rover - just about the only profitable parts of the business.

    I still stand by my belief that the whole social gaming phenomena is a bubble that is going to burst. Venture capitalists are pumping in loads of money off the success of games such Angry Birds & Farmville. Thing is they expect a return, but not everything that gets published will garner the same success.

  • O11Y #23 11 months ago

    Neg me all you want but I find some of these comments a little absurd. The console market is ruthless, and becoming more so every year with experienced publishers like THQ already floundering. Why should a company like Disney, who is hardly well known for their extensive list of AAA heavyweight titles, throw good money after bad trying to compete in an area where they are considerably out of their depth?

    I feel very sorry for Black Rock and everyone who worked there, but bashing Disney and bemoaning the closure is a little ignorant. The developers at Black Rock will start again somewhere new and Disney will move back into an area where it's more comfortable. That's business folks, plain and simple.

  • MasterOfTheStick #24 11 months ago

    Disney just can't compete in the console space. This is a bad excuse. Well more room for better publishers I guess.

  • el_pollo_diablo #25 11 months ago

    It's not for me to tell Mousevitz how to run their business, but they could have issued a statement publicly saying how awesome the games were.

    Split Second was fantastic.

  • Buran #26 11 months ago

    Consoles doomed.

  • Jon1292 #27 11 months ago

    It'd be cool to see Disney Interactive Merge with Square Enix. There's much bad blood with SE at the moment, but as far as their Disney colaborations go, everything so far has been epic, whether its been a spin-off or not.

    Thats just my wild suggestion for today, I'll just go put my straight jacket back on now.

  • Raconteur #28 11 months ago

    riceNpea:"it's not really Disneyland unless you go to Florida"

    They moved Disneyland from California to Florida! What happened to Disney World? Is it still in Florida?


  • Smoped #29 11 months ago

    Well, I thought Disney was probably not seeing the console business as a priority, but if Pachter also thinks so, I must have been seriously mistaken.

  • natureboy #30 11 months ago

    Why then did they waste their time on Epic Mickey

  • IronCladChicken #31 11 months ago

    An analyst huh? - They are always so reliable too.

    Isn't posting a story from an analysts comment about as valid as posting a story based on the 'suggestions' from a random EG commenter?

  • RobTheBuilder #32 11 months ago

    "We closed Black Rock because we failed to market either of their two games properly and then wondered why they didn't sell very well. We also buy all of the hype surrounding the death of consoles and therefore have developed extreme tunnel vision where mobile and social gaming is the only avenue in existence."

    Stupid business decisions, stupid company.

  • riceNpea #33 11 months ago

    ' They moved Disneyland from California to Florida! What happened to Disney World? Is it still in Florida? '

    thanks. i've been to Florida and tbh i didn't really notice what they called it. actually i didn't even know there was one in California!
    why did they have to put Euro Disney in Paris? who wants to go to see Disney in the rain?

  • dagas #34 11 months ago

    Yeah there's no money in consoles...wait, what?!

  • Scoops #35 11 months ago

    The console Market seems absolutely ruthless right now and I don't see how that is going to change, especially for the next gen whenever that arrives. On a slighter happier note if any ex-devs from Black Rock are reading - Split/Second is a cracking game, thanks.

  • Sgt_Petter #36 11 months ago

    First Bizarre, and then Black Rock. Whatever the reasons for the shutdowns are, they're certainly not about the quality of the games, rather poor luck.

  • RobTheBuilder #37 11 months ago

    @PS_2010 Pure was a brilliant game, deserving of far better sales and exposure.

  • swisstony #38 11 months ago

    First off the analyst may be speaking out of turn if Disney's announcement is actually that it is undergoing a 'consultation' process with Black Rock. The analyst is saying what we're all thinking but legally speaking he doesn't sound like he's speculating about the outcome, like he should be, legally :) perhaps he knows something that the employees at black rock don't and their management aren't telling?

    Secondly, their products and people are AAA.

    Third, Black Rock weren't working on a console title and haven't been for over a year. The analyst knows fuck all. Black Rock were fully re-steered to the requirements of Disney's games focus.

    When you look at the metacritic, Black Rock delivered Disney's best games, so quality isn't what they need clearly, despite the studio seemingly proving it could adapt output to meet any 'market'. Ask Pixar, it's all about good people right? Wrong, it's about good people so long as they're able to make a shedload of money. Quality is not enough.

    Their head, John Pleasants, announced on his coronation that DIMG would become profitable within a year of his joining. Anyone surprised that shortly after games were getting canned, studios closed and loads of redundancies? You don't make a profit in a year except by cutting costs, ask any management consultant.

    The writing was on the wall for a lot of their studios. But come on, I'm in the industry and I haven't worked in a studio that didn't have excellent people looking to work their nuts off on something very cool, and all capable of bringing a lot to the table creatively.

    Decisions about products are made based partly on the input of marketing and sales people who don't get innovation in the gaming space because they're not gamers.

    Any surprises the startups and independents break through time after time while the corporates struggle? Do you think Disney could have greenlit Little Big Planet, or Sony? They can only buy that excellence in, their 'milestone checkins' would have been full of people asking Alex and Mark how they could prove they could make a profit when the only P+ L figures they could get wouldn't work out because there is no prequel to base it off. It is in a new space...it's too risky.

    Mirror's Edge, Dead Space and Battlefield Heroes are 3 EA titles that long after the initial disappointing turnout in sales are hugged close to Riccietello's chest as examples of the creative risks they're taking. The BF Heroes franchise was given random teams, until recently when the freemium model was showing that for it's cost it is making highly respectable revenue.

    I was in EA at the time those titles were being released and there were no obvious and public statements of pride, internally or externally from the exec regarding those titles because they weren't doing Tiger's or Madden's numbers. Burnout remains in the doldrums, despite it being part of the reason Criterion were originally bought.

    Time and again the marketers and publishers don't get core gamers, or how to speak to them.

    And let's also remember that this whole 'rising out of the ashes' thing with Black Rock is a nice line, but it accounts for about 20 of the 140 made redundant because of the profit commitment made by a guy who made a fortune off shit facebook games and is looking at Playdom's market share dissipating as the market is growing wise to the Facebook pay or grind con.

    Yet at the same time he's sacking hundreds and hundreds of developers of good console and other titles who could take the freemium model to the next level for Disney..AAA production values in freemium products. Good luck John, but your empire is crumbling while the bulk of the profits at Disney still come from the consumer products, tv, film and resorts. They don't give a shit about you because you will never do a Pixar with your gaming division. How could you when the best people have all gone?

  • CARL05 #39 11 months ago

    I fail to understand that if it is to do with saving money, then why not sell Black Rock and the IPs? They would be free of proper gaming, as they desire, and have got some of their money back from acquiring them in the first place?

    It's a shame that the Government aren't doing anything to protect this industry, we could be the Hollywood of the gaming industry with the talent that is displayed in all these companies that are getting shut down by stupid yanks.

  • StooMonster #40 11 months ago

    riceNpea: thanks. i've been to Florida and tbh i didn't really notice what they called it. actually i didn't even know there was one in California!

    The original Disney theme park is in LA, as is Universal Studios where you can actual tour the studios. Which is why your comment about Disneyland Paris and "not really Disney unless you go to Florida" reminded me that I prefer LA one, although saying that they are all ghastly but in different ways.

    why did they have to put Euro Disney in Paris? who wants to go to see Disney in the rain?

    That's easy, Disney had originally planned to build EuroDisney (as it was called way back when, you seem to have problems with the names of Disney's parks) in Barcelona, in the sunshine. But the French government offered them tax breaks, cheap land, and a high speed rail link with a story that a central rather than southern European location would attract more Brits and Germans, who come come by train. This was of course before the rise of low-cost airlines.

  • O11Y #41 11 months ago

    @swisstony

    Good post, although it sounds to me like you're looking at developers through somewhat rose tinted spectacles. I don't work in the industry myself but I have several close friends that do, and they would agree that it is sometimes "the evil suited businessman" who ground an idea but that is by no means always the case. Many studios, and talented developers who have produced brilliant games in the past can turn around and produce a turkey. It happens, that's life.

    When a product fails in most businesses it's not the end of the world but in the video game industry it can often close a studio and leave a large dent in a publisher's ledger. The bottom line is that console video games are becoming prohibitively expensive to produce, generating greater risk to the investor, and dwarfing the figures seen in the motion picture industry (which once upon a time was seen as a "risky" investment area). That is the reason why the big boys like EA are constantly trying to minimize their exposure (with franchises, etc.) and why companies which have the ability to move away from the market are considering whether to do so. Why should Disney risk a few 100 million trying to develop a game when they could just license their IP and have someone else put their money on line? Someone who has more experience delivering console games to the marketplace than they do.

    I love to see innovative, disruptive new titles as much as the next gamer, and I'm sure that they will continue to be produced. But I also think it's naive to ignore the fact that making video games is still a business, and that business needs to remain solvent. Hearing about a studio closure - especially in this country - is horrible thing, but at least if a studio is closed then everyone gets paid. Bankruptcy is a whole different story.

  • swisstony #42 11 months ago

    Disney greenlit Split/Second, then released it at a terrible time, the dev is hardly to blame. But also the dev has since moved out of the console space, at Disney's behest, and has, by all accounts, done everything asked of them with regard to developing new IP, which they're of course good at, but with the model that Disney value. Like I said, it didn't matter to Pleasants really, going by his strategy. Black Rock couldn't have done anything to save themselves, despite trying.

    Split wasn't a turkey. In the same way that Burnout titles weren't turkeys but were unfavourably compared to NFS sales internally to EA and then binned.

    I agree with you that Disney don't get core gamers and the console space.

    I can only also speak for the devs I've worked at, I'm sure there are devteams that are led creatively into directions that lead to turkeys. Weak preproduction and concept is usually the culprit.

  • djreplay #43 11 months ago

    And I wanted Pure 2!

  • f01re #44 11 months ago

    With Black Rock gone and Criterion doing dull 30 fps NFS to pay the rent arcade racing is in a poor state :(

  • menage #45 11 months ago

    What about that Kinect game and that LBP ripoff?

  • cyber_nicco #46 11 months ago

    @theBodyBuilder

    "Even then I don't particularly blame Disney. This is why I don't want a new generation of more uber-powerful consoles which in turn causes uber-development costs and uber-financing, leading to uber-risks."

    Not to be argumentative, but more powerful consoles should, in concept, ease development costs - not raise them. It's true, that new architectures cause an expensive development curve, a more powerful system on the same architecture should make it easier to hit performance targets and lessen the need for optimisation.

    I know it's not as simple as this, as expectations seem to grow with potential, but when all the hardware can easily render everything you want on-screen at 1080p (that's 60fps) with tons of processing for AI, etc., then it really becomes more about the art assets, story, direction, etc...
    Edited by cyber_nicco at 09/07/11 @ 19:20

  • fr05t #47 11 months ago

    i wonder if any one will buy the Split/Second franchise? it showed a lot of promise

  • OliverH #48 11 months ago

    @swisstony

    "Decisions about products are made based partly on the input of marketing and sales people who don't get innovation in the gaming space because they're not gamers. "

    Actually, it's the job of marketing people to know their markets. While I don't think it's impossible, in the video game business, I'd be very surprised of marketing people NOT actually being gamers EXCEPT if we're talking the top level marketing people at Disney or some other company that has a large portfolio beyond games

  • darkmorgado #49 11 months ago

    "In short, Disney is a family company,"

    Yeah, I'm sure the families of the Black Rock employees are really comforted by that statement.

  • djed #50 11 months ago

    Sounds like the analyst also has an "internet background". Families moving away from consoles to farmville? I'm pretty sure more people than ever are enjoying consoles/pc gaming. Maybe they are all just solitary freaks, then.

  • optimusprym8 #51 11 months ago

    "Decisions about products are made based partly on the input of marketing and sales people who don't get innovation in the gaming space because they're not gamers."

    ^^ this

  • StooMonster #52 11 months ago

    I'm sorry, it's my fault. I pay Club Penguin subscriptions for my children.

  • PlugMonkey #53 11 months ago

    Actually, it's the job of marketing people to know their markets. While I don't think it's impossible, in the video game business, I'd be very surprised of marketing people NOT actually being gamers EXCEPT if we're talking the top level marketing people at Disney or some other company that has a large portfolio beyond games

    @ OliverH

    Well, prepare yourself to be very surprised. There are tonnes of them. Not only are they not gamers, they generally don't come into the studio to actually meet the team making the game, or see the game that they're marketing.

    Generally, they're people like my sister in law, who used to work in marketing for a major publisher. She just had a great track record in marketing. She's never played a game in her life.

    That's just how marketing works. It's not generally enthusiasts for the product, or you wouldn't get many applicants for marketing laxatives or incontinence pads. I don't think enthusiasm for the product even enters into consideration when hiring for a position. That's not how people in marketing think about marketing.

  • jimr9999us #54 11 months ago

    Bah, who needs Black Rock when I can play Cars2 on my xbox?

  • Matfink #55 11 months ago

    Long live social gaming!

    /sarcasm off

  • scuffpuppies #56 11 months ago

    @HyperTails "I swear Walt Disney must be turning in his grave to see what the house of mouse has become."
    ______________________________

    I think Walt Disney might be a little too preoccupied after realising eternity in Hell really is a long time.