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Disney adds a little originality with Toy Story: Smash It
Last time I spoke with Disney's Bart Decrem, I asked him about the company's plans to put out original mobile games. Lately, they've been on a bender of rebranded iOS hits, including Temple Run Brave, Monsters Inc. Run, and Where's My Perry?, which is a branded remix of Disney's own original Where's My Water? title. Decrem told me that the team had plans for original titles, but that when they had a hit franchise, "you invest in them aggressively and you evolve them aggressively." The team's latest iOS release, Toy Story: Smash It, is actually a pretty good compromise. Yes, the game is based on the popular Pixar series, and yes, it eagerly reuses characters, art and music from the three Toy Story movies. But unlike Disney's rebranded titles, Smash It isn't based on any game I've heard of, even if the gameplay is reminiscent of other catapult-style games like Catapult King and the old Wii title Boom Blox. As the various Toy Story characters, you hurl projectiles at other characters perched on block-based structures, trying to take as many down as possible. In the sense that it's not based on an existing game, it's kind of original, I guess? I'd still like to see Disney mix up their gameplay even more -- the company had such a big hit with Where's My Water? because they tried something completely new, and I haven't seen Decrem and company take a risk like that since. Meanwhile, if you want to play Toy Story: Smash It for yourself, it's out on the App Store now for US$0.99.
Disney's Bart Decrem on the holiday lineup: Monster's Inc Run, and new Avengers and Wreck-It content
Disney's mobile game division has had one heck of a year. "I feel in general that we're executing very nicely on the vision we laid out a year ago," senior vice president Bart Decrem told TUAW this week. "Among media companies, we are maybe the most successful on the App Store and Android. I really feel like we are winning, and our vision and our strategy is working." It's hard to argue with that. The company has had quite a few number one games on the App Store this year, between the enormously popular Where's My Water, the Disney cartoon spinoff Where's My Perry, Decrem's own Tap Tap Revenge series, and the popular Wreck-It Ralph movie-tie in title. Disney's mobile division was already growing last year around this time, and Decrem says it's still growing, with the company seeing a peak daily user number of around 6 million. The company's found a formula for its popular characters and quality titles that's apparently working, and it's not slowing down anytime soon. Decrem filled us in on a ton of new content that's set to arrive on the App Store from the House of Mouse this holiday season: The company is putting out four major content updates and three new titles, all set to arrive by the end of the year. Content updates first: Wreck-It Ralph is getting a fourth game added to the trio of titles already included in the app. Turbo Time (as you'll know if you've seen the movie) is a retro racing title that got supplanted by newer games in the old arcade, and it'll be another minigame added to the current offerings. Both Temple Run Brave and Where's My Perry are getting new content as well. Temple Run Brave (which of course is based on a mashup between Imangi Studios' Temple Run and the recent Pixar flick) is getting a new in-app purchased character in the form of King Fergus, Merida's father, and a new mechanic to play with as well. And Where's My Perry is getting Dr. Doofenschmirtz as a playable character via IAP, and a number of new levels for free as well. Finally, Avengers Initiative (which is a Marvel game developed by Disney's internal Wideload Studios) is finally getting its first big content update, featuring none other than Captain America. The game, which uses Infinity Blade-style mechanics to tell an original Avengers story, has only featured the Hulk so far, and debuted to less-than-impressive numbers. But Decrem says Disney is supporting the title. "We believe in the game, it's a great game," he says. "We think we have a plan for getting millions of users into the game" in the next few months, including a major upcoming marketing plan that we can look for soon. Disney's also got three new titles incoming. The first is a Finding Nemo-related "reef builder" called Nemo's Reef, which sounds like a free-to-play Farmville-style game featuring those familiar fish. That one will be out for iOS and Android within the next week or so, so we'll look for it then. The second game is Where's My Holiday, a special holiday themed version of the popular series, which will connect the crocodile Swampy with the cartoon character Perry in the same game, and offer a combination of levels from the two big games. And finally, the other new title is called Monster's Inc Run. Disney has teamed up with Get Set Games in the same way it did with Imangi Studios, and has combined the Monster's Inc. movies (which are about to be rereleased in 3D) with the popular app Mega Run. This will be a 99 cent title, and will aim to share the Monster's Inc brand with the already huge Mega Run audience in the way Temple Run Brave combined a Disney property with that app's user base. So that's what Disney's planning for the rest of this year. As you can tell, Disney's strategy is clear: It's leveraging its most popular brands as much as possible. Decrem agrees that his division is definitely leaning hard on Where's My Water, but he says that "when you have a big hit like Where's My Water, you have a holy obligation to make the most of it." Yes, Disney is spending a lot of time reworking its hit titles to try and make more hits, but Decrem says it's being done in a very strategic way. "We're not just doing reskins or franchise plays," he says, "but when you've got them, you invest in them aggressively and you evolve them aggressively." And the company is definitely doing that. The ironic part, of course, is that much of Disney's mobile success came from the originality of Where's My Water, and it's used that success to make sure that there are now three games almost exactly like it on the App Store. But Decrem says Disney still appreciates original titles -- the Where's My Water team has mostly been working on levels for Where's My Perry, but he says they're still around, and we should see new games from them soon. Not to mention that because of all of this commercial success, future original games should be even better served. "It's a huge priority for us," says Decrem, "and I feel like we're getting more organized so that we can go do that." There was one more pressing question for Decrem and his games: How about that Star Wars acquisition? Decrem laughs and points out that the acquisition hasn't been approved just yet, so no one in Disney games has any Star Wars projects in the pipeline just yet. "But we're super super excited about the Star Wars universe and all of these characters," he tells us, "and we'll jump in as soon as the acquisition is completed." In that case, we'll keep an eye out for Where's My Watto coming out as soon as possible.
Tiesto tracks released inside Tap Tap music game
Disney's always had kind of an identity complex with Tap Tap Revenge. The brand is one of the oldest on the App Store -- it was originally called Tap Tap Revolution, and was eventually picked up by Tapulous and turned into Tap Tap Revenge, a sort of DDR-style music game. Then, of course, Tapulous was bought by Disney, and its CEO, Bart Decrem, was put in charge of Disney's entire mobile division, where they've had significant success with other titles and brands. But Tap Tap has always been an interesting one. It has definitely benefited from Disney's ties to the music industry, and there's no question that the in-app purchases of popular songs help the app's profitability. But at the same time, it seems Disney isn't quite sure what to do with Tap Tap. The company, along with Decrem's insight, keeps coming up with different ways to try to tie together the relatively ancient Tap Tap gameplay with the Disney empire at large. And here's another one. DJ Tiesto is planning to release a new album, called Club Mix: Volume Two Miami, and he's signed a deal with Disney to debut it in the Tap Tap Revenge app itself. Starting today, fans will be able to download certain tracks from the album for free in Tap Tap Revenge, and then over a two-week period, various songs will be available to play for a limited time, allowing for a preview of the entire album. Disney's also giving away copies of the album in the game itself, and the two brands are just generally promoting the heck out of each other. It's not a bad idea at all, and it'll probably work. Tiesto's audience probably lines right up with the people playing this game, and spinning an album for the first time through an app is an intriguing strategy. But it definitely feels like Disney is poking around for something that works with Tap Tap Revenge, and if this doesn't, they'll have to dream up something else.
Disney reports 40% jump in iOS downloads from holiday 2010
Disney is the latest company to announce some crazy numbers from last year's holiday season (with Rovio having announced big numbers earlier this week, and the App Store overall seeing a big boost in sales over the holiday). The biggest title in the company's catalog was Where's My Water, which saw more than 6 million downloads over the holiday week, across both iOS and Android. And Disney Mobile saw a 40% increase in iOS downloads overall, as compared to the same period last year. TUAW previously spoke with the creator of Where's My Water, who started out as a QA tester at Disney and moved up the ranks to create hit iPhone games. This time around, we heard from Bart Decrem, Disney Mobile GM (and former CEO of Tapulous, the company that Disney acquired a few years ago). He says that "freemium" is the current word in mobile gaming: "2012 will see freemium models around many types of gameplay -- as is already being shown by the success of Temple Run." Temple Run isn't a Disney Mobile game -- it's created by a two person husband and wife team at Imangi Studios, and despite its relatively humble origins, it recently landed on the top grossing pile over this past holiday season. So if Decrem is right, we'll see more titles like it; games that intelligently combine solid gameplay with a very lucrative in-app purchase system. Disney itself says more updates are planned for Where's My Water and its other titles, and we'll have to wait and see what else the House of Mouse has up its sleeve for iOS this coming year.
GDC 2011: The latest from Disney Mobile
Disney's mobile gaming division had a table claimed in the company's hotel suit during GDC 2011, and I stopped by to see Disney's Jeff Nuzzi and check out the company's latest offerings. There were a few titles on display to be revealed later this year, but the current focus was on JellyCar 3, the latest in Disney Mobile's most popular line of casual gaming apps. The game (the original version of which was designed by a Disney developer in his spare time) is due for an update very soon, which will add new cars, the ability to import your own pictures for cars and a new level pack called "Time and Space" to play around with. Nuzzi also talked to me about the Tron app (released with the movie last year) and how the company's general strategy around iOS apps is going. Read on for more.
Bart Decrem on Tap Tap Revenge 4 and the Disney acquisition of Tapulous
Tapulous (purchased by Disney earlier this year) has released Tap Tap Revenge 4, the fourth iteration of the extremely popular iOS music game, and the new version brings a whole lot of new features to the series. The game is now compatible with the Retina Display, includes Game Center integration, and has quite a few new social modes that let you "like" various songs, as well as see which of your friends have also "liked" that same music. Like Tap Tap 3, it's a free app that sells music packs and avatars as in-app purchases, with music from artists in all genres, from Linkin Park to Rihanna, The Killers, and quite a few more. Earlier this week, TUAW sat down to chat with Tapulous CEO Bart Decrem about the new game, and how his company has changed since it was not only acquired by Disney, but since he was placed in charge of the entire Disney Mobile operation. Read on to find out just how well Tap Tap Revenge 4 is doing (it's showing "the biggest download numbers ever," according to Decrem), and how he sees Disney's future in the mobile app space.
