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“Cars 2: The Game” made even less of an impression than the film
As much as I’m a big Disney fan and a big video game fan, I’m not into Disney Interactive. That’s the company’s video game arm. So when a Business Insider article reveals that CFO Jay Rasulo hints that 2013 is going to see two big titles come out in the first half of the year, my response is a resounding “meh.”
The first title is “Epic Mickey 2,” due out at the beginning of 2013. I enjoyed “Epic Mickey” and the details I’ve seen for its sequel haven’t looked bad. I just didn’t enjoy the game enough to have any interest in playing the sequel. I certainly don’t want to get it right away; I waited a year to purchase “Epic Mickey,” so I only had to pay $20 for it instead of $60. Maybe if “Epic Mickey 2” is reviewed well, I’ll consider playing it once it drops in price. But I can’t say I’m terribly optimistic.
The other big title that Rasulo’s teasing at is a secret. I honestly can’t think of anything; Disney has several movies coming out in the next 12 months that could all translate into video games, “Wreck-It Ralph” being the most obvious (though the second game mentioned by Rasulo isn’t due out until the middle of 2013, so a “Wreck-It Ralph” tie-in is unlikely, given that the movie’s coming out in November). I honestly can’t fathom a movie-video game tie-in as being that big of a release; within the video gaming community, few, if any, games based on movies are considered any good.
Business Insider’s guess is “Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX,” which was announced at the Tokyo Game Show. The game will be a compilation of the first full-length PlayStation 2 “Kingdom Hearts,” as well as “Chain of Memories,” a DS release that bridged the two PlayStation games, and “Kingdom Hearts 385/2 Days,” a Japanese Nintendo DS game in the series, all playable on the PlayStation 3.
Could that be what Rasulo is referring to? I’m of mixed opinion on this. First, I can’t get that excited for the release, because I don’t really care about games being retrofitted for new systems. I’d rather get a “Kingdom Hearts 3.” Mostly, I’m wondering how Rasulo can consider anything “Kingdom Hearts” a win for Disney Interactive. Because Disney Interactive doesn’t make “Kingdom Hearts,” Japanese gaming company Square Enix does.
I’m positive Disney sees money for “Kingdom Hearts,” but does that money specifically go to Disney Interactive, or does it go to the company at large? Either way, Disney Interactive can’t really take that much credit for anything “Kingdom Hearts,” and I would be supremely distrustful of any “Kingdom Hearts” game made by them, given their poor track record.
Disney Interactive is the only branch of Walt Disney Co. that has a year-after-year decline in revenue. They have access to some of the richest fantasy worlds in the American consciousness, and so far they’ve never done anything of note with them (because, again, I don’t count “Kingdom Hearts” for Disney Interactive). They really need to step up their game, pun intended.
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*(The above image by popculturegeek is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)