Video Games

Disney’s Iger reportedly being pushed towards EA acquisition

CEO’s deputies want their boss to transform Disney into a gaming powerhouse

Marco Wutz

Disney’s Iger reportedly being pushed towards EA acquisition
Disney’s Iger reportedly being pushed towards EA acquisition /

According to a Bloomberg report, Disney CEO Bob Iger is being pressured by his deputies to make a strong push into the video games industry through a big acquisition – something like Electronic Arts (EA). Their goal is apparently to transform Disney into a gaming powerhouse in its own right and step away from being a mere licensee. Iger, so far, has not committed to such a move, the report states.

EA is certainly one of the biggest and most attractive targets for an acquisition from the options that remain on the market – that is, if Microsoft’s plans of closing the Activision Blizzard deal on Friday pan out. Disney and EA are working together on several projects at the moment, such as the Star Wars Jedi series and the Marvel’s Iron Man and Black Panther games.

Star Wars Jedi Survivor Boba Fett and Cal Kestis
The Star Wars Jedi series has been a big success for EA and Disney / Respawn Entertainment

Titles based on Disney IP are generally pretty popular, though, which especially goes for Star Wars. The life sim adventure game Disney Dreamlight Valley, which brings together characters from all sorts of Disney and Pixar movies, started into Early Access in 2022 and has been quite successful as well. Developer Gameloft’s title was even nominated for several awards. Previous attempts by Disney to get involved in the space more actively had mixed results – in fact, Disney retreated from those attempts exactly because the associated risks were deemed too high.

In that light, Iger’s hesitancy makes a lot of sense: Being a top dog in gaming requires tons of investment and even high-budget titles have the potential to fall flat entirely, as failures like Redfall or Marvel’s Avengers have shown. Pair that with Disney’s debt numbers and you have a good argument against such a step.

These Star Wars games are being developed in 2023

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Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg

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