Two worlds collide
The acquisition of mobile gaming developer Tapulous by content giant Disney is a classic illustration of the way media is evolving.
We all know Disney has been around for decades and consider it synonymous with feature-length cartoons and the consequent, aggressively ubiquitous merchandising.
On top of that it owns film studios, TV networks and acquired superhero comic outfit Marvel at the start of this year. Disney is keen to extract maximum value from its many brands and it, like everyone else, is focusing on the mobile platform.
"Mobile gaming is seeing unprecedented growth and this is the right time to invest to strengthen our position in the mobile business," said Steve Wadsworth, president of Disney Interactive, which Tapulous will now be incorporated into. "In a short time, Bart and Andrew have built Tapulous into a successful and accomplished mobile games developer that's emerged as one of the most successful companies in the industry."
But amid all this talk about mobile gaming, not stated is that the focus of Tapulous is specifically on the iPhone. It's best known game - Tap Tap Revenge - is a sort of mobile version of Guitar Hero. "We started Tapulous because we love the iPhone," gushed Tapulous founder Bart Decrem in a blog post. "We believed it would change everything, and we wanted to build fun, beautiful apps that tapped into its incredible entertainment power. And we did..."
We have to assume that Apple boss and Disney board-member Steve Jobs is happy with this deal.
