Disney Selling XR Studio Foxnet Games, No Longer Interested in Developing Games
In spite of its huge presence in the entertainment industry, Disney has been shy about plunging into gaming. The entertainment giant has published some games and even tried having its in-house game developers. However, the company has always ended up farming out its licenses to other random game development companies.
With Disney’s $71 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox in March this year, the company also got control of Foxnet Games, the Fox division that is dedicated to the development and publishing of video games.
A Bloomberg report now have it that Disney CEO has given the go-ahead for the sale of Foxnet Games. Foxnet was founded in 2017 and has worked on a number of projects among them a location-based VR attraction based in the alien universe which it did for the LBE arcade service The Void. Foxnet Games also worked on the VR alien film The Covenant and collaborated with Imaginati Studios for the launch of Crisis on the Planet of the Apes VR, a playable virtual reality spinoff of the new hit movie trilogy Planet of the Apes. The Fox development studio is also developing the profitable mobile game Marvel Strike Force which features some of the Marvel superheroes that Disney owns.
According to the Bloomberg report, Disney is no longer interested in building games and is keen on offloading the XR division. This decision is based on Disney’s strategic decision to leave the game market altogether. It will now focus on licensing its own brands or titles to other developer studios and publishers.
Disney boss Bob Iger is reportedly personally invested in the sale although there are some in the entertainment giant who would prefer to keep Foxnet within the company’s portfolio. Iger has been critical and skeptical of virtual reality technology in the past. A few months ago, he has stated that Disney’s employees shouldn’t even think of adding virtual reality attractions in Disneyland as these experiences would “destroy reality”. Iger instead prefers augmented reality which overlays digital content on the real world and would go nicely with Disney’s real fantasy worlds.
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https://virtualrealitytimes.com/2019/09/14/disney-selling-xr-studio-foxnet-games-no-longer-interested-in-developing-games/https://www.xrcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/disney-selling-xr-studio-foxnet-games-no-longer-interested-in-developing-games-4.jpghttps://virtualrealitytimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Crisis-in-the-Planet-of-the-Apes-150×90.jpgBusinessIn spite of its huge presence in the entertainment industry, Disney has been shy about plunging into gaming. The entertainment giant has published some games and even tried having its in-house game developers. However, the company has always ended up farming out its licenses to other random game development…Sam OchanjiSam Ochanjisochanji@yahoo.comAdministratorVirtual Reality Times
