Disney and Nintendo potentially making a deal together? Makes sense because both have lost their touch with the gaming industry.
We can start with Disney. After a delightful couple gaming generations with hits such as DuckTales, Aladdin, the handheld/console Mickey platformers, and Lion King, the Disney brand disappeared a bit during the Fifth Generation. After the Playstation Generation, besides Kingdom Hearts and Epic Mickey, Disney hasn’t really connected with gamers in spite of the sheer entourage of franchises and licenses it owns.
Disney Infinity has sold 7 million as a franchise overall, but I am sure after the company saw the 40 million pulled by Grand Theft Auto V alone they might be a bit disappointed that they couldn’t pull off more. But it’s not just on this front where Disney hasn’t fully connected with gamers, there’s also the ridiculous DisneyQuest that never quite took off closing down very soon.
DisneyQuest was a quiet disaster hidden underneath the financial success stories within the House of Mouse. After a slow start, Disney let the interactive park slowly die while they tried finding a solution to ease the bleeding. Despite the incredible amount of potential (especially considering the sheer amount of space), Disney just didn’t see that the park was already five steps behind the gaming industry. And in 2015, DisneyQuest still lacks: gaming tournaments, professional gamers competing, gaming conferences, new ways to play games, exclusive arcade games, ability to play seventh/eighth generation games, and much more.
Rest in peace DisneyQuest, you deserved much better. But the House of Mouse remains rather ignorant of the ever-growing and ever-expanding industry that hasn’t quite gotten much attention from Disney. So now they are turning to Nintendo to try to sort out the disconnect.
Nintendo however…..they are also disconnecting from the gamers.
The WiiU is a wreck. The rumored NX is scaring gamers away. The latest E3 was a disaster. Nintendo’s reputation is nearly as low as during the late N64 days. They are losing third-party companies, they are losing hardcore fans, and it’s the mammoth success of the 3DS keeping them afloat. So I am sure they could use whatever help they could possibly get.
That being said, does anybody even win with this partnership? We both know that Disney and Nintendo are downright hostile towards their IPs and would refuse to share them unless the deal was good. It will take everything Disney has to convince Nintendo to make a Mickey/Super Mario game. It will take forever for the Amiibos to become part of the Disney Infinity crew. Even though both companies could use the help, unless they put down their defenses I doubt much can come out of it. Disney will still be extremely restrictive, and Nintendo’s deal with Disney won’t exactly draw any new hardcore gamers unless they pull a Kingdom Hearts-like franchise.
We might see a Disney movie with Mario, and we might see some Disney figurines in future Nintendo games. But until both truly realize that they must change----let’s not get too excited. The deal won’t be that extensive, and won’t rock the gaming industry like it should.
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