Reuters Posted online: Monday, November 08, 2004 at 1542 hours IST
New York, November 8: Walt Disney Co is looking to increase its investment in the development of games for hand-held devices, and plans to look for acquisitions of small game publishers and developers, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
Andy Mooney, chairman of Disney's consumer-products unit, told the Journal that Disney is interested in the hand-held market because it skews younger than video-console games -- thus complementing the target audience for many Disney products.
Mooney added that Disney plans to devote an additional $40 million a year to develop new titles based on such properties as last year's movie Pirates of the Caribbean or The Chronicles of Narnia, a new movie franchise that Disney will launch next year based on the books by C.S. Lewis.
The company already publishes or licenses a set of games for hand-held devices.
Mooney told the newspaper that Disney hopes its interactive-gaming unit can develop new characters that can migrate to other media such as TV and movies. In order to get more growth, Disney will eye buying opportunities at small-to-midsize game publishers, he added.
The report also said Disney had considered a bid for Activision Inc, which Mooney says has become too expensive for the company to contemplate.
Mooney added that Disney would not make "any acquisitions in this space that are going to be dilutive to earnings."
