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Closure for Spector: 'Junction Point had a good eight year run'
In an interview with GI.biz, Warren Spector says he has no regrets in the decision to sell his Junction Point studio to Disney in 2007. "Being part of Disney had its ups and downs – what doesn't? – but the last seven years gave me the very best experiences of my professional Life. Seriously. The very, very best. The opposite is true, too, but let's not go there. I want to remember only the good times."As for the studio's eventual closure and uneven commercial success, Spector had this to say: "I don't really understand it, but it is what it is. Junction Point had a good eight year run. We built a great team. We worked on a bunch of cool stuff, even if a lot of it didn't see the light of day (Sleeping Giants... Ninja Gold... some other stuff I can't talk about). And we shipped two triple-A titles which, Metacritic notwithstanding, sold better than any games I've ever worked on and about which I received more – and more heartfelt – fan mail than I've ever received. I'm good with all that."Spector founded Junction Point Studios in 2005. It's best known for producing two Epic Mickey games, the most recent release selling 529,000 copies in the US according to NDP data released in late-January 2013. On the same day the aforementioned sales figures were revealed, Disney shuttered the studio.
Disney Interactive was Disney's least profitable branch in Q1 2013
Despite revenues of $291 million during the three month period ending December 29, 2012, Disney Interactive's remaining $9 million in operating revenue (read: pre-tax profit) made it the entertainment giant's least profitable division during the first quarter of the fiscal 2013.Still, this was a marked increase over Disney Interactive's Q1 2012 performance, where it posted a loss of $28 million. Being back in black is even more impressive when you consider Interactive's reported an operating loss of $42 million just last August, making it Disney's only unprofitable sector at the time. Disney attributes this year's growth to improved performance in its social gaming businesses in the Japanese market, where a new licensing agreement has increased the amount of Disney-branded hardware and software.Of course, Disney's financial report made no mention of Junction Point or its sordid fate, but that's to be expected since the studio's closure technically happened during the second quarter of fiscal 2013. We may gain some new insight into that situation during the next round of quarterlies, but for now, all we've got to go on is Mickey's increasing popularity in the Land of the Rising Sun.
Report: Disney video game division lays off 50 employees
Separate from the closure of Warren Spector's Junction Point Studios, the developers of the Epic Mickey series, 50 more employees reportedly lost their jobs at Disney Interactive yesterday, according to the LA Times. The paper's source is "a knowledgeable person not authorized to discuss the matter publicly."Disney Interactive Studios endured huge layoffs across 2011, including the closure of Split/Second developer Black Rock. We've reached out to Disney Interactive Studios for comment on today's report.We learned yesterday Epic Mickey 2 sold 529,000 copies in the US during 2012, with that return on investment certainly sealing the deal on Junction Point's closure. Since then, Epic Mickey creator and Junction Point founder Warren Spector posted a public goodbye to his studio on Facebook, which we've printed in full after the break.Spector was effusive in his farewell to Junction Point, saying he's rarely worked with a "team more dedicated or harder working." While he noted the games "polarized" critics and fans, Spector said he's never been part of anything as deeply touching as his Epic Mickey series.Will the man behind Deus Ex be back? "Let just say, now it's time to move to the next adventure," Spector wrote. "I honestly don't know what that will be yet, so don't ask."
Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two life-to-date sales 529K in US
Disney's multiplatform Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two sold 529,000 units over November and December of 2012 in the United States, according to new data provided by the NPD group. Joystiq was also informed that sales of Epic Mickey 2, plus Nintendo 3DS title Disney Epic Mickey: The Power of Illusion, across North America reached 695,000 units over the same period. An unconfirmed report previously pegged Epic Mickey 2's sales at 270,000 copies.Disney Epic Mickey developer Junction Point Studios was closed today, with the House of Mouse noting it was due to an ongoing effort to address fast-evolving gaming platforms and the marketplace.Junction Point was the last studio standing of Disney's previous attempt to break into the triple-A "core" market, with many studios lost along the way, including the critically acclaimed Pure and Split/Second developer Black Rock Studios. Disney has readjusted its sights and is now developing Disney Infinity.
Disney closes Epic Mickey developer Junction Point
Warren Spector's Junction Point studio, developer of Epic Mickey and Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, was shuttered today by Disney. In a statement provided to Joystiq, Disney states that the move is part of its ongoing effort to address the fast-evolving gaming platforms and marketplace."It was with much sadness that we informed our teams today of changes to our Games organization, which include the closure of Junction Point Studios," a Disney spokesperson informed us. "We're extremely grateful to Warren Spector and the Junction Point team for their creative contributions to Disney with Disney Epic Mickey and Disney Epic Mickey 2."Disney's Epic Mickey 2 was a critical and commercial failure for the company, reportedly selling 270,000 copies in North America by the end of last year.Update: New information provided places Epic Mickey 2 sales at 529,000 copies in US since November 2012 launch.
Rumor: Disney shutters Epic Mickey developer Junction Point
Warren Spector's Junction Point studio has reportedly been shut down by Disney. The word comes from Austin-neighbor Roberts Space Industries, who tweeted, "Second 21 gun salute for a studio in 7 days. Fare-the-well Junction Point! We hope that you all find new studios soon!"We've reached out to Disney for an official statement.Industry veteran George Broussard notes, "The Junction Point rumors have been circulating a while. Warning signs when you give employees 2 months off after shipping."Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two was not a critical nor financial win for Disney, reportedly selling 270,000 copies in North America by the end of 2012.Update: Roberts Space Industries has deleted its previous tweet stating it has "no insider info" on Junction Point's status. Oddly, the site it sources as having provided the info links back to the exact same tweet from RSI regarding the shut down. Disney corporate communications has still not responded to numerous requests for comment.Update 2: Disney confirms closure.
Hit List Q&A: Warren Spector, Creative Director and Founder of Junction Point
In the "Hit List" from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the video game industry's top talents describe their current gaming addictions, their most anticipated releases and more. This week: Junction Point's Warren Spector. Warren Spector, veteran electronic game designer/producer, heads up video game developer Junction Point Studios, a division of Disney Interactive. Warren has worked in the game industry since 1983. After six years at Steve Jackson Games and TSR, creating pen-and-paper games, he joined computer game developer Origin Systems where he produced several games including Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, Ultima Underworld 2: Labyrinth of Worlds, System Shock, Ultima VII: Part 2, Serpent Isle, Wings of Glory, Bad Blood, Ultima Worlds of Adventure: Martian Dreams, Cybermage and others.After seven years with Origin, Warren did a brief stint with LookingGlass Technologies before founding Ion Storm's Austin, Texas studio in 1997. At Ion Storm, he produced and directed the award-winning, genre-bending Deus Ex. He later oversaw development of Deus Ex: Invisible War, released in 2003, and Thief: Deadly Shadows, released in 2004. That year, he left Ion Storm to found Junction Point Studios, developing concepts for a variety of video game and motion picture partners before being acquired, in 2007, by The Walt Disney Company. There he directed Disney Epic Mickey, released in 2010. A sequel, Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, was released in November 2012.In his forthcoming 2013 D.I.C.E. Summit session, Warren will be speaking on "Hey, You kids! Get Outta My Yard! or The Graying of Gaming.""Used to be, games were largely the domain of youngsters - kids played them and 'kids' (relatively speaking) made them," Spector says. "Nowadays, things are different. Gamers are everywhere, coming in all ages and genders, and developers have grown up, too. In this talk, I will address the impact of aging on gamers, on developers and on our medium. How does the graying of gaming affect Game Content, Player Commitment, Design Philosophy, Gaming Platforms, Mainstream Media Interactions and, generally speaking, The Future. This talk will be a personal look backwards and forwards that will, I hope, offer something for kids and adults, boys and girls, men and women, whatever their relationship may be with games as pastime, as art or as business."
A better way to store media on Microsoft Surface RT: SD cards, junction points and the command prompt
Expandable storage is a wonderful thing, but its implementation can sometimes leave something to be desired. Take Windows 8, for instance -- its photo, movie and music apps leverage Windows libraries to access users' media collections, but won't allow users to include removable storage in the app-accessed party of indexed folders. Sure, you can keep all your media on one device, but half it will need to be accessed in a slightly roundabout way. This simply wasn't good enough for Toni Fowlie, who wanted all of her media -- from both her Surface's local storage and its microSD card -- to appear in the same library. She used an old NTFS feature to trick Windows into thinking her microSD was part of her device's local storage, and her efforts are worth sharing.
Spector still wants Epic Mickey HD, needs your help
Warren Spector, long-term industry survivor and creative director of Disney's Junction Point Studios, still wants to do a high definition version of Wii-exclusive Epic Mickey for other consoles."It's been about four or five days since I've asked to get that project greenlit. It's not my call to make. I can't even tell you how much I want to see the first game with all the enhancements and improvements we've made on Xbox 360 and PS3," Spector told us today at Gamescom. "Just have all of your readers send emails to Disney corporation and say: 'Warren should make this game.'"Spector told us there are two things he very much wants: "I want to make a duck game and I want to see Epic Mickey on next-gen platforms."But this is Warren Spector we're talking about. Can't he just wave a magical paintbrush and make his dreams come true? He may not have his duck game, but he's got his duck comic."There's only so much clout," he admitted. "When you're talking about the kind of money games cost now, there's only so much you can do."Well, what we can do is just slide the Disney Twitter over to you fine folks reading and you can decide whether to let them know if you want Epic Mickey on HD consoles.
Epic Mickey 2 dev diary illustrates the power of characters
Oswald isn't just a lucky rabbit in Epic Mickey 2 – he owns one of the best inventions we've ever seen, a remote control that turns foe into friend. If only we had that back in middle school! We could've avoided so many swirlies.
Disney Interactive is only division running at a loss
The Walt Disney Company saw the largest earnings in the company's history for the quarter ending June 30, which is all sunshine and lollipops until you get down to the interactive (games) division. A year after gutting nearly all its core projects – and shuttering all core studios except Epic Mickey studio Junction Point (under the protection of Warren Spector) – the interactive division is the only part of the conglomerate operating at a loss.Sales during the quarter were down 22 percent from the same period last year to $196 million, with an operating loss of $42 million, which is better than the $86 million loss last year. The improvement is thanks to social games. The company is still in an "ongoing shift from console games to social and other interactive platforms."There is one exception to that: Junction Point's Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, which will be available this November. Hopefully, sales of the sequel will let the House of Mouse continue to show leniency toward Junction Point.
Epic Mickey 2 and 'The Power of Next Gen'
Epic Mickey's first foray was a Wii-exclusive affair. This time around, Junction Point is bringing Mickey's epic-ness to what it's calling "next-gen consoles." We might call them "7-year-old consoles," but, well, Mickey's best bud is from 1920, so we can appreciate the anachronism at play here.
Report: Epic Mickey 2 making a splash on PC and Mac
In addition to debuts on the Xbox 360 and PS3, and a 3DS spinoff, Epic Mickey: The Power of Two is apparently taking a steamboat ride to the PC and Mac. During a London preview event, Junction Point representatives told GameSpy that PC and Mac versions were planned.We were able to check out the upcoming sequel at a recent Disney event -- all of our coverage can be seen through this handy link. We suggest you check out the prototype Wii controllers because oh man they are so adorable!We've contacted Disney to confirm the PC and Mac ports. Stay tuned.
See Epic Mickey 2 in motion and in Warren Spector's words
In the foreground of this video, you see Warren Spector talking about Oswald's role in Epic Mickey 2, and his enthusiasm for musicals; in the background, you can see footage of the new game for the first time. The two elements cooperate, just like Mickey and Oswald.
'Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two' coming to Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360
Yes, there's a sequel to Disney Epic Mickey. A tweet from Geoff Keighley first confirmed the title (of a game his show will reveal on TV as a "world premiere") as Disney Epic Mickey (2): The Power of Two. Then a piece from the AP went ahead and confirmed everything else.It's coming out for Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360, and features drop-in, drop-out co-op play with Mickey Mouse and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Oswald is AI-controlled when another person is not around, and can be controlled at any time by a second player, who then wields Oswald's "remote" ability to control electricity.Other new developments for this now-official game include full voice acting, including the first voice work for Oswald in Disney history. That voice acting will be used to make the game a for-real musical. "I'm such a geek about musicals," Junction Point studio head Warren Spector told the AP. "I love the co-op and next-gen stuff, but for me, when a character breaks into song, which they do on a regular basis in this game, it's magic."[Image: the original Epic Mickey]
Rumor: Epic Mickey 2 coming to 3DS, along with 'classic' 2D game
Some kind of "presentation" of Epic Mickey 2 will occur next week, according to a tweet from France's Nintendo Magazine. Being a Nintendo magazine, the publication specifically highlights a 3DS version called "Power of Illusion" – a name that recalls classic Mickey games like World of Illusion and Castle of Illusion. The tweet also points to a "classic" 2D game that will be shown during next week's event, but stops short of providing any actual details.A sequel to 2010's Epic Mickey has been rumored for some time, to the extent that box art for the game has even been bandied about by a marketing survey. Warren Spector's Junction Point Studios, the development house behind Epic Mickey, was hit by layoffs last January after the Wii-exclusive title launched, likely due to massive losses in Disney's interactive (read: games) department.Update: Disney Interactive declined to comment, saying it had "no information to share at this time."
Disney Interactive implements mass layoffs; status of Junction Point, Black Rock currently unknown
Beyond Disney Interactive's layoffs today at Junction Point and last week's closure of Propaganda Games, sources tell Joystiq that the division's job cuts go much deeper. We've been informed in this "first round" of layoffs that 250 people have been let go. Numerous attempts to obtain an official statement from Disney have gone unanswered. There is currently no word on the overall status of Split/Second developer Black Rock Studios nor Warren Spector's Junction Point, which recently released Disney Epic Mickey, a title we've been told has not sold as well as expected. Sources also tell us that the fate of Spector could be separate from that of the studio. Massive changes at the division have come at a steady clip ever since Disney bought social game developer Playdom for upwards of $563.2 million. Then there was the double-barreled resignation of longtime boss Graham Hopper and bigwig Steve Wadsworth. It is currently the era of James Pitaro and former Playdom CEO John Pleasants, who are seeking not to repeat the division's $234 million loss this fiscal year. Update: Disney's terse official statement: "As part of setting a strategic direction for future success in the digital media space, the Disney Interactive Media Group today began a restructuring process"
Source: Epic Mickey dev suffering layoffs
Despite a number six debut on December's NPD charts, Epic Mickey apparently can't save Junction Point Studios from post-launch staff cuts. Sources speaking with Joystiq confirm that Disney Interactive issued layoffs at the Warren Spector-helmed studio today, though exact numbers are unknown -- we've contacted Disney for comment, but we imagine those plans for sequels to Epic Mickey aren't looking so solid right now. Following last week's closure of Disney Interactive-owned Propaganda Games, today's layoffs represent further steps back for the publisher in terms of "core" game development endeavors, and, we fear, may not be the last of Disney's cuts. Disney also owns Split/Second developer Black Rock Studios, and most recently acquired social game developer Playdom. Update: Layoffs hit entire Disney Interactive division. [Image credit: Flickr user 'junctionpoint']
Disney Epic Mickey trailer dives into the Disney archives
The latest Disney Epic Mickey trailer shows developer Junction Point diving into the Disney archives for game ideas and feeling overwhelmed by the rich content. Is this the first time we've been excited for a history lesson?
Disney Epic Mickey trailer goes behind story
Disney Epic Mickey has a heavy emphasis on storytelling. If the seven minutes of previously released cutscenes didn't already bang that over your head like an Acme anvil (mixed cartoon metaphor), here's Junction Point's Warren Spector to tell you more.
