Surprising literally no one, Disney has announced that the Kingdom Hearts franchise is one of its “billion-dollar” franchises in the Disney Games Group portfolio.
In a personality-less blog post on its official website discussing how video games are helping shape “Disney’s next chapter,” Square Enix’s wacky Final Fantasy/Disney crossover series is one of nine “billion-dollar” franchises to come from collaborations with the House of Mouse. It doesn’t mention what the other eight are, though Marvel Strike Force is brought up, and the blog states more than half of these franchises have emerged in the last 12 years. Considering an attached YouTube video features shots from Alien: Isolation, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and Marvel’s Wolverine, it could even be those titles.
Sean Shoptaw, EVP of Global Games and Digital Entertainment for Disney, says in the post, “The way Disney is shaping the future of interactive entertainment through games is really acknowledging that games have become a foundational part of the broader entertainment landscape. We’ve built a really foundational footprint in games today… So, it’s about telling truly original stories that really are unique to this medium, specifically.”
I’m not entirely comfortable with Disney bringing up Lucasfilm Games, especially since it shut down LucasArts 13 years ago as the company decided to shift away from video games. It really goes to show you that Disney has no actual clue what it is doing, though surprisingly it allowed Kingdom Hearts to live on despite the protracted wait between 2 and 3 (and yes, I know spinoff games existed).
Check out more Kingdom Hearts content
Kingdom Hearts IV coming to Switch 2 along with native versions of the series’ previous entries
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
