Disney opens games studio with Nintendo focus

Walt Disney is creating a new games studio to make titles exclusively for Nintendo games systems. It will include the Wii console (pictured), which launches in the UK next month.

The new studio is called Fall Line and will sit within Disney’s Buena Vista Games division. It will develop games based on existing Disney characters and television shows as well as creating new intellectual properties for the Nintendo DS and Wii platforms.

Scott Novis will take over the role of vice-president and general manager of Fall Line Studio. Novis led the team behind the recently launched Cars game, based on the Pixar film of the same name.

Disney is keen to develop more games in house rather than licensing out its characters as part of a move to develop new revenue streams.

The company is believed to be half way through a $400m (£209.32m)investment programme in buying or setting up new games studios. Its other games studios include Climax Racing, based in Brighton, and Propaganda Games and Avalanche Software in North America.