disney-interactive posts

Disney Interactive Studios suffered through some mass layoffs earlier this year that caused about 200 or so team members to lose their jobs along with the shutdown of one of its development teams, Propoganda Games. Now Paidcontent.org is reporting that another, smaller, wave of layoffs has hit the division.

According to the story, another 80 team members are now looking for work. Disney Interactive sent out a statement admitting to "targeted" layoffs. The story claims that this latest round will be the last as the division's new co-presidents, John Pleasants and Jimmy Pitaro, try to boost revenues at Disney Interactive.

Publisher Disney Interactive Studios has been going through a lot lately. The division of Disney shut down a major game development studio, Propaganda Games, earlier this month and this week a large amount of the company's team was laid off. Now comes word that there is a new person in charge of Disney's internal game studios.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Alex Seropian, who previously founded Bungie, will now oversee Disney Interactive's game development as well as be in charge of its many internal developers, including Junction Point Studios and Black Rock Studios. Seropian came into the Disney Interactive family when the division acquired Seropain's Wideload game development studio in 2009. Meanwhile the article claims that the many layoffs at Disney Interactive are just the first wave in a series. Disney Interactive's execs are looking to cut costs and that may mean more people could lose their jobs in the coming months.

Earlier this week, it was reported that massive layoffs had occured at publisher Disney Interactive Studios. Some of the internet reports, which used unnamed sources, said as much as half of the company's 700 team members had been cut. Now a Disney rep has told IndustryGamers that while there were layoffs at the division this week it was not as brutal as first reported.

According to the story, the rep would not give out an exact number of team members that were given their walking papers this week but did say that the numbers were "significantly less than 50 (percent)." It is known that the company shut down one game studio, Propaganda Games, earlier this month and that another dev team, Junction Point Studios, reportedly had a "minimal" amount of layoffs this week.

Publisher Disney Interactive is in the middle of a large layoff but the company is being silent on exactly how large the company's restructuring will be like. Reports on the net, including our sister site Joystiq, suggest that the company could be cutting as much as half of its team members.

The company has a number of in-house game developers and already one of them, Propaganda Games, has been closed. Another online report suggests that Junction Point Studios, founded by industry legend Warren Spector, have had "minimal" numbers of layoffs in this restructuring. The fate of Disney's other in-house developers, including Black Rock Studios (makers of last year's racing game Split/Second) remains unknown at this time.

Yet another major game developer with PC ties is closing its doors. Our sister site Joystiq confirmed today with publisher Disney Interactive Studios that it was closing its in-house development team at Vancouver-based Propaganda Games.

Formed in 2005, the developer only released two games, both of which were released to the PC platform; the 2008 first person shooter revival of the Turok franchise and Tron Evolution, the movie-based third person action game that was released just last December to poor reviews and sales. The writing was on the wall last fall when Disney Interactive cut half of the studio's staff and canceled another long-in-development game, Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned.

A few things become painfully apparent soon after starting Tron: Evolution. First and foremost being that trying to dodge target seeking discs is an exercise in futility. Another is that players should be prepared to plummet to their doom... a lot. The game tells an original story that sets up the events of the upcoming movie. Players take the role of the System Monitor, a security program written by Kevin Flynn to help preserve order in the Tron world. In doing so, the character uncovers a conspiracy to exterminate a group of sentient programs and take over the entire computer world known as the Grid.

Check out all Tron: Evolution downloads

As we get closer to the release of Tron Evolution, the movie-based third person action game is already prepping for extra downloadable content. IGN reports that the Propaganda Games-developed title will have a code in the retail game box that will enable players to download free extras when the game ships on December 7.

On that date, two new multiplayer maps (Codestream Nexus and User's Plaza) will be available for download via the retail code. That will increase the total number of multiplayer maps in the game from four to six levels. In addition the code will give folks a way to grab a new multiplayer skin that looks like Sam Flynn, the lead character of the upcoming movie Tron Legacy.That will be made available the week of December 13.

Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game, the latest Lego-based game in the long-running franchise from developer TT Games, has just been announced by its publisher Disney Interactive. The game is due out in May 2011 for the PC and other platforms around the same time Disney releases the fourth movie in the hugely popular Pirates of the Caribbean series.

The game will incorporate storylines from all four movies as well as over 70 of the movie's characters as they explore and battle through 20 levels. Like most of the other Lego games, this new entry will also have support for two player co-op mode.

Disney Interactive recently decided to cancel plans to release the long-in-development RPG Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned. The cancellation of that game also caused mass layoffs at its developer Propaganda Games.

In the next couple of months we will be bombarded with tons of tie-ins for the upcoming movie Tron Legacy. The long awaited sequel to Disney's Tron about living and playing inside a computer world is due out in mid-December (along with a prequel game, Tron Evolution).. But in November and December the Tron digital universe will invade another well known pop culture universe.

Marvel Comics, which was acquired by Disney about a year ago, will have Tron-inspired variant covers for 10 of its comic books that will ship to comic book shops in November and December. Yes, you will be able to see Tron-ified versions of Spider-Man, Wolverine and Iron Man, among other characters, on some of your favorite comics. Keep in mind that these are variant covers which means they won't actually tie into the storylines inside the comics. They will likely also be harder to get a hold of than the normal issues. Our sister site Comics Alliance has images of all 10 of the Tron variants along with issue numbers and release dates. It's not a full blast Marvel-Tron crossover but it's still pretty cool.

It's not a good day at Propaganda Games. The Vancouver-based development studio owned by Disney Interactive is experiencing mass layoffs following the cancellation of one of the studio's two games, the movie-based RPG Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned. The game was first announced back in May 2009 and was due for release sometime in 2011 until today's cancellation announcement.

According to Kotaku, as many as 100 people have been let go at Propaganda Games this week. While not stating exact numbers, Disney Interactive did confirm that the company's development teams have been consolidated from two teams to just one. The remaining team members are completing work on the upcoming Tron Evolution which is still scheduled to be released on December 7.