Founded in 1923, Disney has grown exponentially over the last 100 years. What started as a relatively small animation company quickly became the number one name in the theme park industry, and soon became a brand synonymous with children's entertainment, both animation-wise and live-action. In the last two decades, Disney has only continued to expand, acquiring the Star Wars license, consuming Fox, and absorbing Marvel, among many, many others.
Though Disney has always had a consistent presence in the video game landscape, with early NES games featuring characters from TaleSpin and Duck Tales, its name is about to be plastered all over the industry. With so many licenses under its belt, even games that seemingly have nothing to do with the House of Mouse will be tied in one way or another to the brand, which is equal parts exciting and terrifying.
Every Disney Related Game In Development
Disney's near-monopoly on the entertainment industry is a bit of a divisive topic, but when it comes to game development, more money behind a project can often be a good thing, and Disney has plenty of gaming projects on the go right now. As pointed out by industry expert Benji-Sales on Twitter, Disney has an absolutely stacked slate ahead of it, with titles coming from Disney itself, Marvel, Star Wars, and even more.
Technically the only "pure" Disney games in development right now are Disney Speedstorm and Disney Dreamlight Valley. Both being developed by Gameloft, and both currently slated for a 2022 release, these titles are essentially Mario Kart and Animal Crossing clones with Disney skins. Disney Speedstorm is a cart racer in which players can race as a variety of Pixar and Disney animation characters, ranging from Sully to Captain Jack, and Disney Dreamlight Valley is a life-sim adventure game in which the player creates their own fantasy village, inhabited with some of Disney's most iconic characters. Though the quality of these games may be a little questionable, it seems as though they'll deliver bucket loads of nostalgia, an element that Disney has mastered over the years.
Next up is the current slate of Marvel video games. Though it's just been delayed, it seems as though Marvel's Midnight Suns is the next Marvel game to release. From the devs behind XCOM, Marvel's Midnight Suns is a turn-based tactics game, focusing more on the supernatural elements of the Marvel universe. After that, Insomniac has its hands full with both Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and Marvel's Wolverine. The former needs to somehow surpass the lofty heights of its predecessors, while the latter has almost as much riding on it, revolving around one of the most popular comic book characters of all time.
A new Marvel project from Amy Hennig's team over at Skydance New Media is also in the works, potentially getting a full reveal at Disney and Marvel's Games Showcase on September 9. This title will apparently focus on a Marvel "ensemble," perhaps hinting at a Fantastic Four, X-Men, or Defenders game. It's also rumored that an open-world, EA-led Black Panther game is currently in development, though the only source of information right now is industry veteran Jeff Grubb.
Perhaps the biggest line-up for Disney right now is the one for the Galaxy Far, Far Away, as there's five Star Wars games currently known to be in development. The most likely title to release first is Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, the sequel to the 2019 hit Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. With only one trailer being shown so far, fans are eagerly awaiting any morsels of information about Cal Kestis and his next space-faring adventure. Star Wars: Eclipse, a narrative-focused game set in the High Republic era and developed by Quantic Dream, has also been officially announced, though some industry insiders have speculated that it will not release anytime soon.
On top of the Star Wars projects fully revealed, a few more have been officially announced, though hardly any information is available on each. There's a Star Wars first-person shooter in the works, being developed by Respawn, an open-world Star Wars game being developed by Ubisoft, and a real-time strategy Star Wars game being worked on by Bit Reactor.
While Star Wars and Marvel are the two big ticket attractions for Disney right now, the Disney brand now stretches across all corners of the entertainment industry, and there are one or two big games currently in development that are technically owned by the company. The upcoming Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, a sprawling open-world Ubisoft game, is one, and Bethesda's Indiana Jones title is another.