The mouse ears sees future opportunity and plans to ramp up involvement to capitalize on it.
Disney spent $100 million on making games in 2006. This year it will increase that spending to $130 million. Five years from now, Disney is planning to spend $350 million a year making games.
Such an large increase in spending wouldn't come if the company didn't think there was that much money to be made. Disney CFO Tom Staggs thinks there is. "It is a market where there is real opportunity," he said during a press event in London. Most of the extra money will be put into making games for handhelds and consoles, though Disney will have a presence on PCs, too.
The ramp up will include more emphasis on internal development. Disney also wants to spend some resources creating new intellectual properties, so it won't all be licensed games. "What we are doing is trying very deliberately to develop our core capabilities in video games content development, leveraging what already exists in the Disney brand," Staggs said.
