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Disney CEO Bob Iger: Licensing is the best model for Disney in games

Boss calls out its partners in the space, including EA, but fails to mention Star Wars Battlefront II launch PR disaster

Disney CEO Bob Iger: Licensing is the best model for Disney in games

The CEO of Walt Disney has said what we've been thinking for years - the House of Mouse isn't great at making video games.

Asked on an investor call - as transcribed by Seeking Alpha - about where games sit in Disney's business moving forwards, CEO Robert Iger says that its skills don't lie in the self-publishing side of things. Rather, what works for the entertainment giant is licensing.

The top exec mentions EA as one of the partners that it has a great relationship in the games space. What is omitted from this answer is the controversy at the end of 2017, which saw Disney - maybe even Iger himself, depending who you believe - calling up EA's CEO Andrew Wilson to discuss the PR disaster that was Star Wars Battlefront II's launch and aggressive monetisation strategy. This saw the game drop its loot box business model at launch, with a revised version of this returning later in 2018.

"We're obviously mindful of the size of [the video game] business," Iger said

"But over the years, as you know, we've tried our hand in self-publishing. We've bought companies. We've sold companies. We've bought developers. We've closed developers."

Our sister-site PCGamesInsider.biz has the full story.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.