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Farrell: ‘Disney's Toy Story move is no surprise’
Tim Ingham Feb 20 2008, 1:46pm
But global THQ boss says ‘jury is out’ on whether huge media companies’ re-entry into games will be a success
THQ CEO Brian Farrell has said that the publisher anticipated Disney’s rejection of its pitch for the Toy Story 3 licence.
As reported by MCV earlier today, Disney appears to have become the first major media conglomerate to snatch back IP from established independent third-party publishers – by taking development of the Pixar franchise in-house.
But Farrell told the Wall Street Journal: "We would have loved to keep the business, but when you see a company like Disney scaling up we weren't surprised they went internal with it."
However, Farrell questioned the prospects of major media conglomerates that are upping their presence in games – such as Disney, Viacom and Warner Bros.
"I've seen this before and the jury is still out," he added.
The WSJ reports thar Pixar co-founder John Lasseter, now Disney's head of animation, opted for the in-house pitch.
