Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

Disney closes Warren Spector’s studio after Epic Mickey 2 disappoints

Anthony John Agnello
By
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Update: Epic Mickey 2‘s sales across November and December totaled 529,000 copies according to Disney and the NPD Group.  Far more than the previously reported 270,000 copies, but still far less than the 1.3 million sold by the first Epic Mickey over the same period.

After making two games that sought to recreate Mickey Mouse for the 21st century, Disney Interactive has shut down Warren Spector’s development house, Junction Point Studios. Disney confirmed the closure to multiple outlets on Tuesday morning.

Recommended Videos

“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,” reads the statement from Disney, “These changes are part of our ongoing effort to address the fast-evolving gaming platforms and marketplace and to align resources against our key priorities. 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.”

It has been a tough week for developers. Last week saw the end of one of the oldest publishers in gaming, THQ. The the 23 year old company saw all its properties sold off, and several people were laid off, while others face uncertain futures with new publishers in charge. Prior to Disney’s confirmation that the studio had been shut down, Star Citizen studio, Roberts Space Industries, had tweeted, “Second 21 gun salute for a studio in 7 days. Fare-thee-well Junction Point! We hope that you all find new studios soon!” The tweet was swiftly removed. RSI then said that it had received news of the closure not from a studio source but from My Nintendo News. That website, though, cited RSI as the origin of its post, so it’s unclear what information was leaked when.

It’s sad to see a staff with a talent for quality close, especially one headed up by someone with as storied a career as creator Warren Spector. While the Epic Mickey series had some of the spirit of Spector’s best work like Thief and Deus Ex, neither game was of a high enough quality to make Junction Point one of the industry’s best. Neither were they major commercial hits for Disney.

The original game sold well when it released on Nintendo Wii back in 2010, moving 1.3 million copies over its first two months on shelves. A respectable performance, but perhaps tough to swallow after pouring so much investment into Junction Point; Disney bought the studio in full in 2007 and then spent three years developing Epic Mickey. Disney had also hoped that the game could breathe life into the character of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, the would-be Disney character that was one legal challenge away from being the face of Disney. After nearly 80 years, Disney finally managed to reclaim the legal rights to the character that Walt Disney co-created. 

Epic Mickey 2 sealed Junction Point’s fate. The multiplatform title was savaged by critics when it came out last fall and was completely ignored by consumers. An NPD source told the LA Times on Jan. 17 that Epic Mickey 2 had sold just 270,000 copies across Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii U.

Spector won’t stay out of development for long. His thirty-year career has taken him to a multitude of different places. After leaving Ion Storm ten years ago, he opened Junction Point “to shake things up” and was reportedly working on a new fantasy game. With his adventures in the Magic Kingdom complete, it’s high time to go back to that well.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Anthony John Agnello
Anthony John Agnello
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Anthony John Agnello is a writer living in New York. He works as the Community Manager of Joystiq.com and his writing has…
Best PS5 SSD deals: Add more storage to your PS5 from $120
A 2TB WD Black

When the PlayStation 5 was originally released, it had the option to expand its internal memory, which was quite small at the time at a little under 900GBs. Of course, the issue is that there weren't any SSDs that worked on the new standard the PS5 was using, so even if you wanted to upgrade, you couldn't. Luckily, since then, there have been a lot of great SSDs for the PS5 that have been released, and upgrading its storage is pretty easy and can be done by pretty much anybody, provided they have a screwdriver. So, whether you picked up a PS5 from one of the PS5 deals or already have a PS5 and want to upgrade, be sure to check out the SSDs that will work great for your PS5 below.
Our favorite PS5 SSD deal

It wasn't that long ago that you'd have to pay well over $100 to get an SSD for your PS5, and often, it'd be slower than the pricier alternatives. These days, you can buy a Samsung 980 Pro 1TB SSD with heatsink for just $120 from Best Buy, thereby saving $45 off the regular price of $165. The SSD offers speedy performance while also having its own nickel-coated high-end controller to help deliver effective thermal control. It means it won't overheat and performance won't be compromised. Being a PCIe Gen 4 SSD, you get twice the data transfer speed of PCIe Gen 3 which is useful. Offering maximum read speeds of 7,000 megabytes per second, it's a good upgrade to go alongside your existing hard drive with 1TB offering plenty of extra space at a shrewd price.

Read more
The Sims 5: release date speculation, trailers, gameplay, and more
sims 4 for rent expansion pack shared living the 6

It's time to brush up on your Simlish if it's rusty because the long-awaited The Sims 5, aka Project Rene, is officially on the way. This has been the longest gap between main entries since the series began, and while we did get tons of expansions for The Sims 4 to hold us over, plus the change to it becoming free to play, we're more than ready for a new entry. Each time a new game in the franchise comes out, die-hard fans always need to have a bit of skepticism about what features will be there -- both new and returning.

We can't answer all your questions yet, but here's everything we know about The Sims 5.
Release date speculation

Read more
VR headset deals: Meta Quest 2 and VIVE XR
htc vive vs pro headphones

While VR may not be as big as was predicted back in the early 2000s when the original Oculus Go was released, there is still a considerable market these days, and some great VR games like Half-Life: Alyx that you can have fun with. Of course, VR headsets remain expensive, and while options like the Meta Quest don't necessarily require a high-end gaming PC, they can still be a bit pricey for those who just want to put a foot in the hobby. Luckily, there are some good deals you can take advantage of, even on some of the best VR headsets, so be sure to check out all your options below.
Meta Quest 2 -- $199, was $200

Even though the Meta Quest 3 came out quite recently, the Meta Quest 2 is still a pretty powerful contender, especially since it has a wider library and app support than the Quest 3 currently has. Even more so, the Quest 2 is a lot cheaper than the Quest 3, and with the latest permanent discount down to just $200, that's a whole $300 or so difference from the Quest 3. Of course, the Quest 3 does have more advanced AR and slightly better performance with software and Wi-Fi, but that may not be worth the extra cost for some. Either way, be sure to check out the breakdown between Quest 2 and Quest 3 to get a better sense of what you should pick up.

Read more