The Walt Disney Company recently named a new CEO, Josh D'Amaro, and now it's been reported that the months-long search to find a new top executive disrupted plans for gaming.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the plans for leadership change at Disney "made it difficult to make consequential decisions about Disney's future." This apparently impacted Disney's gaming plans specifically.
"In recent months, executives have discussed potential partnerships with game companies, but shelved the topic until a new CEO started," the WSJ reported, citing a source with knowledge of the situation.
No further details were divulged, but this comes after a report from 2023 said Disney was interested in pursuing a purchase of Electronic Arts. That didn't happen, and now EA is being bought for $55 billion by a group of investors including Saudi Arabia's PIF.
D'Amaro has long been a champion of gaming within Disney. He spearheaded Disney's $1.5 billion investment into Epic Games to make a "transformational new games and entertainment universe." One of these projects is the long-in-development Fortnite x Disney project, which still remains largely mysterious. D'Amaro has spoken very enthusiastically about growing Disney's business with gaming and by taking risks.
D'Amaro currently runs Disney's vast Disney Experiences team, which operates the parks and cruise units, as well as consumer products and video games. He will officially become CEO in March.
The Disney x Fortnite project is one of the many licensing deals for games that Disney has in the works currently. The numerous upcoming Star Wars games are all being made via licensing arrangements with Disney, as are upcoming Marvel projects like the new Blade and Wolverine games.
At one point in history, Disney operated its own internal game development team with Disney Interactive Studios, but it shut down in 2016 alongside the discontinuation of Disney Infinity.
Source
The Wall Street Journal reported that the plans for leadership change at Disney "made it difficult to make consequential decisions about Disney's future." This apparently impacted Disney's gaming plans specifically.
"In recent months, executives have discussed potential partnerships with game companies, but shelved the topic until a new CEO started," the WSJ reported, citing a source with knowledge of the situation.
No further details were divulged, but this comes after a report from 2023 said Disney was interested in pursuing a purchase of Electronic Arts. That didn't happen, and now EA is being bought for $55 billion by a group of investors including Saudi Arabia's PIF.
D'Amaro has long been a champion of gaming within Disney. He spearheaded Disney's $1.5 billion investment into Epic Games to make a "transformational new games and entertainment universe." One of these projects is the long-in-development Fortnite x Disney project, which still remains largely mysterious. D'Amaro has spoken very enthusiastically about growing Disney's business with gaming and by taking risks.
D'Amaro currently runs Disney's vast Disney Experiences team, which operates the parks and cruise units, as well as consumer products and video games. He will officially become CEO in March.
The Disney x Fortnite project is one of the many licensing deals for games that Disney has in the works currently. The numerous upcoming Star Wars games are all being made via licensing arrangements with Disney, as are upcoming Marvel projects like the new Blade and Wolverine games.
At one point in history, Disney operated its own internal game development team with Disney Interactive Studios, but it shut down in 2016 alongside the discontinuation of Disney Infinity.
Source