News: The House of Mouse Picks Up Stan Lee's Company Page 1

The House of Mouse Picks Up Stan Lee's Company

31.08.2009

In what will come as one of the most unlikely pairings in the Entertainment Industry's history, Disney have purchased Marvel.

The deal, which came about via shares and cash, is estimated to be worth a tidy sum of $4 billion, or roughly £2.5 billion, and will give Disney complete control over 5,000 Marvel characters, such as Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four.

In regards as to what this would mean for Marvel's Videogames, Disney's senior vice president of investor relations, Lowell Singer, had this to say;

On the video game front, (Marvel) have some smart licensing agreements with some of the best video game manufacturers in the business. While we have been steadily moving in the direction of video game integration, we don't rule out the blend of licensing and self-produced and distributed video games. As these licensing deals expire we have the luxury of considering what's best for the company and the products.

Could we see a gaming crossover like that of Marvel vs Capcom, or maybe even Spiderman swinging into a future Kingdom Hearts?

Thanks to BBC News.

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Ikana 31.08.2009#1

Spiderman swinging into a future Kingdom Hearts?

That\'s the first thing I thought of when I read the news title. Smilie

I dunno whether this is good or bad news, I\'m not a massive fan of either company. Will be interesting to see what comes of it, if anything.

( Edited 31.08.2009 19:13 by Ikana )

JoshSL 31.08.2009#2

This is kinda random, but also quite "fun". I actually can't wait to see what comes of it, but I think it's safe to say that Disney could either ruin Marvel's franchises, or contrarily give them even bigger budgets than ever before.

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LKR000 31.08.2009#3

Lol spiderman in kingdom hearts. I can imagine a world full of marvel characters and sora, donald and goofy each become a super powered being (as if sora doesen't already have super powers.)
Would be pretty funny XD

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TruLink 31.08.2009#4

"As these licensing deals expire we have the luxury of considering what's best for the company and the products."

That quote alone has me worried that Disney will try to get greedy and take back all licenses related to Marvel characters. In other words, the crafty guys over at Activision will no longer be able to make anymore Marvel Ultimate Alliance games.

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gatotsu911 31.08.2009#5

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

jb 01.09.2009#6

Good - potential crossovers and money for franchises from both Disney and Marvel.

Bad - Disney being pretty strict and set in its ways.

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welshwuff 01.09.2009#7

smart move really, both companys are high profile, moneys always garenteed, and just because its disney now dont expect marvel to change its name or have loads of cross overs.... it will probably just become a sister company, ultimately just sharing licenses and profits but keeping an arms length from eachother. but there will more than likely be new marketing strategies and new range of toys and games.

( Edited 01.09.2009 00:27 by welshwuff )

PK Mongoose 01.09.2009#8

This may turn out great or horrible as everyone\'s said.

Either Disney\'s \"Good Side\", shown in their original game series\', will perk up, throwing out some decent stuff; or, it\'ll be ANOTHER Marvel Superhero Squad fiasco.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWw

( Edited 01.09.2009 00:28 by PK Mongoose )

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Darkflame 01.09.2009#9

Its horrifically scary just how few company's control all the worlds media.
Marvel Studios could have been a new profitable independent. Now I dought anyone could.

No offence to anyone above but I hate how so many are missing the big picture here Smilie
This is scary stuff. Especially when you factor in how powerful Disney is already. All they gota do is say "for america" and they get away with anything. Frelling up copyright lengths to the extent that their work never goes public domain. (while ignoring how hypocritical this is given how their classic movies are all based on public domain works).

This should be a massive antitrust case.
Instead people are worrying about characters getting messed up, or what crossovers to expect Smilie

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Laurelin 01.09.2009#10

Since Disney more or less produced rubbish in past years, (horrible) animated movies instead of their trademark painted ones, with only Pixar as their cash cow (which seem to thin a bit, too), this move isn't surpising. It's suprising, that they bought a company, that's kinda... undisneyish.
But they won't be mixing the two worlds together anytime, soon. This aquiring isn't because Disney and Marvel have a lot in common, but because they fit together in covering different markets of a similar kind.

I find your lack of faith disturbing!

Darkflame 01.09.2009#11

Or they bought it because Iron Man made shitloads of cash and Warner Browsers already owns DC.
--

with only Pixar as their cash cow (which seem to thin a bit, too)

Wall-E seemed pretty darn fantastic too me.

Disney have been backrupt creatively for awhile, but Pixar have produced constantly good work.
When Disney bought out Pixar they were sensible enough to put the Pixar creative folks in charge.

Dosnt stop them being an scarly large megacorp controlling a large percentage of what we watch though.

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Robertd1138 01.09.2009#12

I don't think that they will change Marvel because of the following reasons:

1. Disney was quoted as saying this was a move to appeal to the young male audience (12-24).
2. Marvel is a fairly smart company so I don't think they would have done this if they expected Disney to water down their more mature themes.

The strangest thing here in Florida is that Universal Studios has a Marvel Island with rides based on the Hulk and Spider-Man. I guess I will soon be riding the "Green Monster" and the "Adventures of Tarantula-Guy."

Also, I do agree that the quote about licensing deals expiring is code for "We will soon own all that is Marvel."

Darkflame 02.09.2009#13

Interesting point about the universal park there.
Imagine like everyone else, as soon as existing licenses are up it will go.

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