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Disney Buys Wideload, Creates New Role For Seropian
by Leigh Alexander [PC, Console/PC]
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September 8, 2009
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Disney Interactive Studios has acquired Chicago-based Wideload Games, and with it has hired founder and CEO Alex Seropian, who takes the newly-created role of vice president of creative.
Seropian is likely the primary motivator of the acquisition; he's renowned as co-founder of Bungie, where he helped establish the Halo series. He'll now move to Glendale, CA and oversee creative development for all Disney's games, reporting to global product development head Jean-Marcel Nicolai.
The studio he founded in Wideload pioneered an unusual outsourcing model, by which external studios were paid for the work they contributed to a project, rather than their time.
This proved an effective method of reducing financial risk, but the company's best-known projects, Stubbs the Zombie and Hail to the Chimp, performed only modestly; the former received some critical acclaim, but the latter's reception was mixed.
The 25-member studio will remain intact in the deal, staying in its Chicago location and led by Wideload Games president Tom Kang. It will focus on creating new IP for Disney that "target a broad audience," starting with an unannounced family-friendly project aimed at a 2010 release.
The studio's "Wideload Shorts" division, which focuses specifically on smaller, casual and downloadable titles, will also continue under Disney.
"Wideload Games will be a great fit for our portfolio of internal studios, and Alex joining the global product development team provides the entire Disney game portfolio with a strong creative influence," says Disney Interactive Studios EVP Graham Hopper. "Alex’s leadership of our creative community will enhance our ability to be a magnet for the best talent in the industry and enable the company to take an even more significant role in developing industry leading products."
Seropian founded Bungie in 1991, overseeing the creation of the Marathon and Myth series. He negotiated the studio's acquisition by Microsoft in 2000, and led the launch of Halo. He founded Wideload in 2003, and since then, the studio has released Stubbs, Hail to the Chimp, Texas Cheat ’Em and Cyclomite.
"Joining Disney is an ideal next step, both for our studio and me," says Seropian. "At Wideload, we’ve conscientiously built a forward-looking approach to game development that borrows many techniques from the film industry. Now, Wideload will be a part of one of the largest, most respected entertainment companies in the world."
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The article I am referring to stated that Disney had "acquire[d] video game manufacturer Wideload Games Inc., the creator of the Halo science-fiction franchise for Microsoft's...Xbox."
Apart from their use of the term manufacturer instead of developer (which is semantics) they could have cleared up this problem by a simple visit to wideload's web page, where they clearly state that their CEO Alex Seropian helped found Bungie, the actual company that made Halo and was bought by Microsoft. Instead they decided to run with a story that sounds like Disney is trying Snipe from Microsoft.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gamehunters/post/2009/07/68495660/1
Battleswarm was in fact developed in China, and USA Today merely assumed he designed it because they didn't take the time to understand how games work (he's publishing it). Because USA Today should be considered credible, a number of others picked it up: http://kotaku.com/5326494/atari-founder-returns-to-development-with-battleswarm
there's no reason for them to think USA Today would make it up - I only know because of an interview I did with Reality Gap co-founder Mark Hood. Mainstream outlets are really the worst when it comes to game stuff, simply because they don't care. I feel like they report on it under duress in order to try to impress a more youthful audience.
Related to the story - congrats Alex!
Regarding the WSJ and like media outlets - I have a lot of respect for their business and even much of their lifestyle reporting, but they have no clue about this industry IMO.
I've read a number of articles over the last 5 years in the WSJ Online regarding our industry and nearly all of them had inaccuracies which, had they occurred in other business stories they ran, would have caused a major stir amongst their readers. Alas, the bulk of their readers seem clueless about our industry also (or maybe they just don't care), which is sad.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/disney-to-acquire-wideload-games-2009-09-08
Still a bit of a tragic goof, though.