Disney Unveils New 'Star Wars' Game for Mobile Devices

LOS ANGELES - Disney's 20-month effort to integrate 'Star Wars' into its Magic Kingdom appears to be hitting light speed.


Disney Interactive on Thursday announced Star Wars: Commander, a free-to-play game for mobile devices. The Disney Channel on Tuesday said it would unveil a new animated movie, 'Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion,' on Oct. 3. Disney XD, a separate channel, will roll out the related 'Star Wars Rebels' series on Oct. 13.


Construction plans are progressing at multiple Disney theme parks for 'Star Wars'-themed 'lands.' (The model is Cars Land, a successful two-year-old addition to the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, Calif.) Disney Stores recently added 'Star Wars' merchandise to shelves for the first time; new non-toy products - in particular 'Star Wars'-licensed food - begin to reach retail aisles starting this week.


The Walt Disney Company bought Lucasfilm, the boutique 'Star Wars' studio, for $4.05 billion in October 2012. As the two-year anniversary of the acquisition approaches, Disney executives are eager to show integration results. The promise of 'Star Wars' - once plugged into Disney's vaunted franchise management system - is one reason Disney's stock price has climbed 18 percent this year, to about $90.



Disney is also facing pressure from Lucasfilm fans, some of whom have been increasingly impatient about the arrival of fresh 'Star Wars' content. The last theatrically released film, 'Revenge of the Sith,' came in 2005. The last new television show, 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars,' arrived in 2008.


'The natives are getting very restless,' said Brander Roullett, 44, a longtime 'Star Wars' devotee, in an interview last month at the Comic-Con International fan convention in San Diego. 'What's taking so long?'


Because of Disney's intricate cross-departmental approach to mining entertainment brands, integration efforts tend to move gradually - at least from the outside looking in. It took Disney more than two years to demonstrate significant synergies with Marvel Entertainment, which was acquired in 2009 for $4 billion.


With Lucasfilm, Disney's first priority was setting up a new big-budget 'Star Wars' movie. Production on 'Star Wars: Episode 7' is now underway, with a release scheduled for December 2015. 'The footage we have seen so far is spectacular, certainly worthy of the fan frenzy and excitement this movie is generating around the world,' Robert A. Iger, Disney's chief executive, told analysts this month.


The new video game announced on Thursday is particularly notable. Disney Interactive - home to gaming, Disney.com and, as of last month, StarWars.com - has struggled with layoffs and retrenchments, not to mention financial losses. With the release last year of Disney Infinity, a video game and action figure initiative, the division has finally strung together four profitable quarters in a row, but the hope is that Lucasfilm properties will bolster operations even further.


(Disney Infinity 2.0: Marvel Super Heroes arrives in stores on Sept. 23. A 'Star Wars' version is expected late next year.)


Developed internally, Commander is a free-to-play combat strategy game aimed at what the entertainment industry calls 'mid-core' players - people interested in a more in-depth experience than offered by a Candy Crush Saga but less time-consuming and expensive than a Call of Duty. Commander, initially available exclusively on Apple devices, features an array of classic 'Star Wars' vehicles and characters, from Chewbacca to TIE Fighters.


'We're being very careful about where we choose to invest our resources,' said James A. Pitaro, Disney Interactive's president, 'and 'Star Wars' is a huge priority.'


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