Disney Gaming Vice President Comments on Gaming Partnerships, Acquisition Rumors, and the KOTOR Remake
In a newsletter published by Axios, the Senior Vice President of Gaming at Disney, Sean Shoptaw, spoke about many pressing topics related to Disney’s games, including the state of Disney’s partnerships, rumors of acquisitions, and the state of the Knights of the Old Republic remake. While Disney does not currently develop any of its games internally, Shoptaw’s recent interview highlights the company’s current outlook and strategy for the gaming market.
In regards to Disney’s tactic of outsourcing game development to other publishers and developers, Shoptaw said that Disney is “just starting.” It’s a strategy that has borne a lot of acclaimed products over the years, including the Star Wars Jedi series from Respawn Entertainment. But not all of them have been critical/commercial successes. Yet, that doesn’t seem to be discouraging Shoptaw. He emphasized how difficult video game development can be and added, “It’s not just this easy assumption to say, ‘Well, Disney could do that in-house.'”
Shoptaw also indirectly addressed rumors of Disney purchasing a big-name gaming publisher like EA. In a recent report by Bloomberg, it was suggested that Disney CEO Bob Iger was pressured to buy a gaming company like EA to have a larger presence in gaming. Shoptaw declined to address this rumor directly but did state the following:
“There’s a lot of conversation around: ‘Disney should go do this,’ and a lot of that’s tied to big acquisitions and things …
We’re very happy with where we are now strategically in the work that we’re doing.”
In regards to the more-than-troubled Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake, Shoptaw didn’t have much to say other than that he still believes there is a demand for it. Last month, video game insiders Jason Schrier and Jeff Grubb both had conflicting reports about how development was progressing. But Shoptaw’s comments seem to suggest Disney at least has an interest in eventually releasing a Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) remake:
“Not a lot I can say on that point for some hopefully obvious reasons, but KOTOR is obviously an incredibly popular game, one that we are incredibly proud of and think that there’s still a lot of demand for. I’ll leave it there.”
Disney does have several upcoming games on its slate, including Star Wars: Outlaws which will be released next year. Outside of Star Wars, there is also the Indiana Jones game being made by Machine Games, and the recently announced Blade game in the works by Arkane Lyon.
Born and raised in Hawaii, Jay Goodearl runs the YouTube Gaming channel “Good Games, Dude” His channel aims to open up video games to beginners and immediate players and help them understand what makes games the art form that it is.
