Disney-owned gaming company works on Marvel character project
Fri, 13 Aug 2010
Once online gamers find a Marvel alternative, will it be hard to keep ’em down on the FarmVille?
It was only last month that Disney purchased game-maker Playdom for more than $760 million. But already the game company, which is a prominent game provider on Facebook and MySpace, is at work on a potentially lucrative project that involves the popular Marvel brand, which Disney acquired almost a year ago this month.
Disney’s recent purchase of the San Francisco-area company came amid speculation that the House of Mouse was moving even farther into the popular and profitable gaming arena of the Internet marketplace, especially after Disney’s July purchase of Palo Alto, Calif., game-maker Tapulous for anywhere from an estimated $22 million to $50 million. [Disney would not disclose the purchase price.]
Now, a couple of reports say Playdom already is working on a social-media game based on Marvel characters. During Disney CEO Robert Iger’s recent earnings call, the project was announced with few details except for Iger saying that Playdom would create the game with Marvel’s intellectual property.
Also in the call, Iger reflected that, of the half billion people on Facebook, about 40 percent are playing games, such as Zynga’s FarmVille or Mafia Wars. Clearly, Disney sees a choice opportunity in expanding its social-gaming efforts, too.
According to the transcript of the call posted by Seeking Alpha, Iger laid out Disney’s vision of that opportunity in social gaming, saying that the “customer base is pretty diverse from 18 to post-50” and includes an attraction for both men and women. That isn’t always the case with male-dominated console games, of course, yet Iger did say that Disney remains committed to that gaming platform, as well.
So, will a future Facebook game involve Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four or even the Hulk?
This probably is welcome news for social-media gamers, given the popularity of Marvel characters and the inherent creativity of the Disney brand. Now, it’s just a matter of awaiting the fruition of Playdom’s Marvel project to find out what the game will be and which character or characters will populate it.
Captain America eagerly awaits the news.
Steven Ford, Orlando Sentinel
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