Today, The Walt Disney Company has
announced that it has agreed to acquire Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion in stock and cash. Yes, Marvel, the comic book folks.
That Marvel.
The deal means that Disney is now the proud owner of Marvel's 5,000 some-odd characters. Wolverine, Spider-Man, The Punisher... maybe even
Fat Momma.
"This is an unparalleled opportuinty for Marvel to build upon its vibrant brand and character properties by accessing Disney's tremendous global organization and infrastructure around the world," said Marvel's CEO, Ike Perlmutter, in a press release today.
Tremendous indeed, including its own videogame publishing arm, Disney Interactive Studios, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. How this will affect in the long run current Marvel game licenses, which are spread all over the industry from Activision to THQ to Sega, remains to be seen.
But we have wonder: How long will it be before Spider-Man appears in a Kindgom Hearts game?
[Update: In a conference call with investors discussing the detail today, Disney's senior vice president of investor relations, Lowell Singer, directly addressed the videogame issue. He mentioned Marvel's "smart licensing agreements with some of the best videogame manufacturers in the business" before adding that they're not rulling out "the blend of licensing and self-produced and distributed videogames."
"As these licensing deals expire, we have the luxury of considering what's best for the company and the products," he mentioned, referring to the previously mentioned deals with THQ, Activision, and Sega, as well as Gazillion, many of which won't expire until nearly 2020. If changes are coming, it's likely we won't see them for quite some time.]
Contest:
9:40 AM on 08.31.2009
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They will make the X-Men into the Jonas Brothers.
It's Marvel, BEH-BAYYYYY!
This certainly is an odd acquisition, to say the least... Though, I guess Disney also owns the "Power Rangers" franchise now, too.
I believe I just sensed a million nerds suddenly cry out and then were suddenly silenced.
http://io9.com/5348876/what-is-this-strange-dystopian-disneyversese
The real loser? Universal, whose Orlando theme park has a Marvel section. Will they just pack it up and move it across town to Disney now, or what?
Guess I am getting ultimate alliance 2, might be the last decent marvel anything in a loooooong time.
That's what I was thinking, Marvel Island of Adventure was awesome when I went all those years ago.
Not surprisingly, Gizmoduck is anti-registration.
I love Disney for their amazing animating skills. The ONLY plus I see to this is improvement in their animated movies...but that's a maybe. Aside from this...
Joe Casada made a deal with the devil. IMO.
Marvel DOES NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO ALL OF THEIR FILM CHARACTERS. X-men, Fantastic Four, and Daredevil are held up by Fox, Spider-Man is held up by Colombia/Sony.
Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk were done by Marvel Independent. Iron Man was fantastic, and Incredible Hulk was better than it should have been. Also, they CROSSED-OVER THE TWO FILMS.
With Disney at their back, Marvel can probably buy back the characters from the other companies.
This means that Spider-Man and Wolverine may actually be able to be in the proper Avengers movie that's set for 2011, or Reed Richards can be in Captain America.
Disney is NOT going to screw up Marvel. They've probably just saved it. There's finally going to be somebody telling Joe Quesada to sit down and think long-and-hard before pulling One More Day-caliber bullshit.
...all of your arguments just went to shit in one fell swoop.
Are we doing one of these again?
:P
So Marvel literally took you for a ride?
Marvel vs Capcom vs Disney.
Or, The Suite Life of Zack, Cody and The Juggernaut, Bitch. That's a show I'd Tivo.
ALSO TO THE HATERS:
MARVEL AND PIXAR.
Did anyone see the suite life episode where Zack was mysteriously mutated, gained superpowers then whined about it for the next 15 minutes?
In The Juggernaut Bitch 3, Colossus is singing the Chip N' Dale: Rescue Rangers theme when he's introduced.
Now it all makes sense.
You forgot the part where he rode off on the Captain American Dragon.
Uncle Scrooge subsequently gains 300 pounds and shaves the feathers off the top of his head.
This is HORRIBLE!