Speaking at the DICE Summit 2010 in Las Vegas, Disney Interactive Media Group president Steve Wadsworth talked about the future for the House of Mouse. He discussed the challenges stemming from a "an unprecedented slowdown" in the console market, but saw the upside in games on the iPhone, Facebook, online toys and interactive Blu-ray discs.
"There's never been a better time to be a consumer of any type, but particularly interactive entertainment," said Wadsworth [thanks Gamasutra].
Wadsworth sees these changes as unique and compelling because they're "driven by consumer behavior and adoption.” Consumers can seek entertainment from sources that cost little to no money, and they will often pay on the back end for services, making finding an audience difficult.
To attract this wandering consumer, Wadsworth pointed to upcoming console games Pirates Of The Caribbean: Armada Of The Damned, the Tron 2.0 game, and Epic Mickey, which is "going to create a whole new story about Mickey Mouse and the deep history of Disney characters over the years." He also mentioned how important Marvel will be with its "over 7,000 characters with related stories."
Turning to Disney's primary demographic, children, he talked about Disney's push for kid-friendly MMO titles like ToonTown Online, Pixie Hollow, Club Penguin, and the upcoming World Of Cars Online. Wadsworth noted that today's children expect easy, cross-media support and how vital those options are for succeeding in the market.
Citing Club Penguin, Wadsworth talked about the necessity of taking feeback from the consumer. As a large corporation, Disney tends to be nonabsorbent to unsolicited ideas, and ran ToonTown Online that way. "We were essentially telling our customers that we didn't want to hear what they had to say," noted Wadsworth, but he says that Disney takes feedback more seriously now.
As an example of cross-media experiences, he mentioned the Club Penguin DS title which allows users to put virtual coins back into the PC version. The DS title has sold over 1.5 million copies, and has seen over a billion downloads to the PC version; Wadsworth announced that they are putting out a sequel Club Penguin: Herbert's Revenge that will connect with its online equivalent.
Wadsworth concluded with a question about Facebook, saying that branded experiences don't seem to favor social networks. While the executive noted that Disney hasn't seen social network games as vital for the short term, he added, "Will we be there eventually? Probably."
