Sunday, October 17, 2010
Disney Interactive cuts Vancouver staff, kills Pirates of Caribbean game
Disney Interactive Studios has laid off staff and cancelled the much-anticipated game Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned at its
Vancouver studio Propaganda Games.
A laid-off employee, who wished to be anonymous, said that close to 100 people lost their jobs Thursday. Calls and e-mails to Disney Interactive were
not returned, but web magazine Kotaku quoted Angela Emery, Disney Interactive Studios vice-president of communications, as saying the studio’s big
title for 2011 is off the books.
“Disney Interactive Studios confirms the cancellation of the Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned video game, which was scheduled to be
released in 2011,” Emery said. “As a result of this decision, Disney Interactive Studios completed a restructuring of Propaganda Games, its
Vancouver, B.C., internal studio, affecting one of the studio’s two development teams.”
“Restructuring” means lost jobs, and the laid-off employee said close to half the workforce is gone.
The company still plans a Dec. 7 release of Tron: Evolution, another Propaganda game tied to a Disney movie release, the shot-in-Vancouver Tron:
Legacy.
Cancellation of the Pirates game comes as a surprise, because it was timed to coincide with the 2011 release by Walt Disney Pictures of the fourth
film in the franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. But the game had nothing to do with the 2011 film, and was more closely tied to the
first Pirates movie.
Disney Interactive cuts Vancouver staff, kills Pirates of Caribbean game
Disney Interactive Studios has laid off staff and cancelled the much-anticipated game Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned at its
Vancouver studio Propaganda Games.
A laid-off employee, who wished to be anonymous, said that close to 100 people lost their jobs Thursday. Calls and e-mails to Disney Interactive were
not returned, but web magazine Kotaku quoted Angela Emery, Disney Interactive Studios vice-president of communications, as saying the studio’s big
title for 2011 is off the books.
“Disney Interactive Studios confirms the cancellation of the Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned video game, which was scheduled to be
released in 2011,” Emery said. “As a result of this decision, Disney Interactive Studios completed a restructuring of Propaganda Games, its
Vancouver, B.C., internal studio, affecting one of the studio’s two development teams.”
“Restructuring” means lost jobs, and the laid-off employee said close to half the workforce is gone.
The company still plans a Dec. 7 release of Tron: Evolution, another Propaganda game tied to a Disney movie release, the shot-in-Vancouver Tron:
Legacy.
Cancellation of the Pirates game comes as a surprise, because it was timed to coincide with the 2011 release by Walt Disney Pictures of the fourth
film in the franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. But the game had nothing to do with the 2011 film, and was more closely tied to the
first Pirates movie.
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