By Michael Beckwith on May 24, 2016 at 5:10am
About a week ago, Disney decided to drop out of the gaming market, meaning they will no longer be publishing video games as well as discontinuing their toys-to-life title "Disney Infinity." This new has naturally turned a lot of heads, including certain game developers, like Ron Gilbert who spies an opportunity to be taken.
See, when Disney bought out LucasArts, they also essentially acquired the rights to some of Gilbert's projects; specifically the adventure games "Monkey Island" and "Maniac Mansion." With Disney now out of the gaming business, Gilbert has actually offered to purchase the rights back.
In a Tweet to Disney, he said "[N]ow that you're not making games, please sell me my Monkey Island and Mansion Mansion IP. I'll pay real actual money for them." Hopefully, Disney won't immediately dismiss the proposal because he spelled "Maniac Mansion" wrong.
He's not the only either. "Deus Ex" developer Warren Spector has also tweeted at Disney, asking if he can have the IP he created at Junction Point back. He's most likely referring "Epic Mickey," a series that marked the return of Disney relic Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.
Whether Disney will consider selling off IPs back to their original owners remains to be seen. All we do know is that, while they won't publish or develop their own games, that won't stop third-party studios from creating titles for the House of Mouse (we've still got "Kingdom Hearts III" to go!).
