Epic Mickey 2's poor sales have led to the closure of Disney's Junction Point Studios
Update Disney has now confirmed the studio's closure
Update (1/29/13): Official word of Junction Point's closure has come from Disney:
"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. 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 appears that forgotten Disney rabbit Oswald might be fading away once more, as solid rumors are forming about the closure of Epic Mickey developer Junction Point Studios. Epic Mickey 2, which was quite similar to its predecessor, sold a scant 270,000 copies by end-of-year 2012 -- only about a fifth of the copies Epic Mickey first sold. A tumultuous few months in Austin, with the closure of Vigil and the opening of a new Crytek studio.
The "push over the edge" for this rumor was a Tweet from small studio and developer of Star Citizen, Robert Space Industries:
"Second 21 gun salute for a studio in 7 days. Fare-the-well Junction Point! We hope that you all find new studios soon!"
It's being said that the, "second 21 gun salute," is due to the first coming when the studio was put on a two-month "vacation" after Epic Mickey 2's release. This comes from industry veteran George Broussard. If true, it's likely the studio's employees have been searching for work for some time now, the writing being on the wall.
Junction Point's head, Warren Spector, prophesied that this might be the end of Epic Mickey in late 2012, considering the sequel's poor reception. He has since remained quiet on the issue, likely due to the precarious position his studio was in. Hopefully we'll hear official word from Disney soon, as well as Warren's take on the matter.
Best wishes to all Junction Point employees who may now be looking for work. We wish you the speediest of recoveries and hope you're back to making amazing games soon.
Source: Joystiq
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"Underused" Meme FTW!
I mean, the graphics are good, the way the animation is done is great. The move-controls was neat. It's actually well written. The singing and the cutscenes are high quality, as you would expect from a Disney production, etc. The level design isn't bad either. You see a lot of clever use of camera that most games never do well - that typically studios don't deal with at all.
Then there was the co-op, which actually worked great. Not being too complicated, but not just ending up as a hurdle to get past before the cutscenes could continue. It's not a bad game by any means.
But the under and overtones, to put it like that, aren't Disney. They're too raunchy and there's too much overt sarcasm about the idealized image Wasteland has of Mickey. And they introduce concepts in the game (which is a very childish game) that makes some adult people.. nauseous.
And you can see that with how little advertisement of the title turned up. Along with the way the initial reviews doused any sort of belief in that the title would sell.
...At least, that's what I think ;3