Go to the profile of Jorge Hurtado
Jorge Hurtado
from Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Disney’s missing piece of the puzzle

Last year, M.G. Siegler wrote an article about how profitable the Star Wars acquisition was probably going to be for Disney. In the post, he analyzed the company’s biggest acquisitions in the past decade, and picked up somewhat of a pattern. Since 2006, every 3 years Disney had bought a major company: Pixar Studios (2006), Marvel Comics (2009) and Lucas Film (2012). If they followed the pattern, 2015 was supposed to be year of the next big purchase. Although nothing really happened, after reading the article, I immediately thought of a company that would make a perfect fit for Disney. I haven’t stopped thinking about it ever since.

First, some context

It’s hard to argue that each of the acquisitions have proven to be a valuable addition to the company’s creative portfolio. I’m no financial analyst, and won’t pretend to be, but Disney’s business comes down to exploiting as creatively and effectively as possible all the characters and their worlds. The more powerful those worlds are, the more Disney can do with them. Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars bring to the table exactly that. Worlds Disney can explore (or exploit, which ever you prefer). That’s what I mean with creative portfolio.

There’s a reason Mickey Mouse, Buzz, Ironman and Hansolo have a bunch of friends and live in fantastic worlds. The characters are just a door into a world that once you’re inside, you will not want to get out of. And Disney is very good (but not great, more on that later) at throwing stuff at you so you stay entertained.

The movies are obviously the start of everything. Then come the TV shows, toys, amusement parks, apps, stores, and pretty much anything that can take the shape of a mouse’s ears. And although Disney is not the leader on every turf, it is a big player on some key parts of the puzzle.

However, there is one area where Disney plays but is not a big enough player: the video game industry. Yes, there’s Disney Infinity, as well as some good licensing deals, but Disney is not a major player and not even close to being a leader in an industry that plays a significant role in kids and teens lives. And that should worry them. And they should probably do something (big) about it.

Nintendo, the missing piece

Hold off your arguments against this and let’s dream about it for a second:

  • Welcome to Nintendoland in Orlando, Florida. Just picture the sign outside of the theme park and imagine what can be inside. Don’t get me wrong, I love Magic Kingdom, but I think we would all prefer Real Mario Karting instead of those boring and painful-to-watch karts. Who wouldn’t skip Splash Mountain for a change and get on the Donkey Kong Mountain. Who wouldn’t visit Luigi’s Mansion instead of going to the same old Haunted House. It’s a no-brainer, right? Well, Universal Studios already thought of it. In fact, the first Nintendo theme park rides are already in development. To ride them, you just have to wait until 2020. Oh, and fly to Osaka, Japan.
  • Lots and lots of games. Nintendo is incredibly talented at making amazing games, but it is also very slow and irregular at it. Disney could change that, and we could explore Mario, Link and Donkey Kong’s worlds more often. Also, just think about what Nintendo’s creative teams could do with all of Disney’s characters.
  • Interactive theme parks. This may begin to change soon, but it’s taking forever. Kids don’t want to be just spectators anymore (nor their parents). We want to interact with the rides. Nintendo has innovation around gaming at its heart and it could bring a lot to the table for all of Disney’s amusement parks.
  • The Legend of Zelda, the movie. Correction: The Legend of Zelda, tons of movies. In a few years, following their current formula (Sleeping Beaty-Maleficent, 101 Dalmatians-Cruela) they can even make the Ganondorf spinoff.
  • Mario & Luigi, by Pixar. Mario & Luigi are just a small example, but they would have dozens of amazing characters at their hands and could make as many movies as they can think of. Anybody remembers the Super Mario Bros. Super Show? It was a terrible show, but I loved it (please, enjoy). I’m confident Pixar can do a better job at bringing these characters to life.
  • Star Fox Adventures, on iOS. Nintendo is beginning to explore possibilities on mobile, but at their own pace (meaning painfully slow). Pokemon Go is perhaps an exception, but it’s still far from what is expected from their huge portfolio of handheld games (Gameboy, Nintendo DS, etc.). If they decided to bring all their experience with handheld devices to other platforms, they would dominate the App Store. And the “Games 1” folder on my iPhone.
  • Super Smash Brother, featuring Darth Vader. The best fighting franchise of all time could add one of the best villains to its roster. Again, a small example, but consider all the superheroes, living toys, talking ducks and princesses that could pick a fight on Nintendo’s game.
  • I know you thought of something cooler. Please share on the comment section. Btw, this is not some lame call to action to increase interaction. I really want to know. Believe me, I want to live in this dream as long as possible.

Ok, back to reality. The chances of this happening are extremely small. First of all, it would be a very expensive move. Nintendo is worth more than Pixar, Marvel and LucasFilm combined. But more importantly, it is an extremely conservative company, deeply-rooted in Japan, and selling to Disney would probably be seen as treason to some of its most loyal fans and investors . In fact, as a long time Nintendo fan, I would also be worried about the future of the company. I wouldn’t know which side to support. I’m sure a similar dilemma crossed the minds of hard core Star Wars fans.

But on the other hand, who cares. Last time I checked I was not writing for BusinessWeek or the Wall Street Journal. The fact is that although it may not be possible because of financial, cultural and who knows what other kind of factors, it would certainly make a lot of sense in terms of Disney’s creative portfolio. It’s almost a perfect match, full of unexplored opportunities that Disney’s and Nintendo’s followers are certainly eager to experience.

One more thing…

Doing some research for this article I found out something interesting about Shigeru Miyamoto. In case you are not familiar with him, he is the game-designer and producer of some of the best-selling game franchises of all time (Mario and Zelda, to name a couple) and probably the most admired Nintendo executive. He is often referred to as the — wait for it — modern-day Walt Disney.