The Disney Game Franchise You Don’t Remember, part 2

The previous blog highlighted the origins of Kingdom Hearts. It was the model for a perfect video game launch title. The core of its success was the alignment of three separate companies; Square Enix, Sony and Disney. The trio came together to deliver an experience that no studio could have created alone. The right animators, designers, programmers, developers and producers from Japan and the USA all worked on an untested idea: Create a role-playing adventure that combined classic Disney characters and modern Square Enix characters. Allow these characters to travel between the various properties and tie the story together by introducing new villains. It was a risky gambit but the reward was worth it. Being at the right place at the right time had a lot to do with why Kingdom Hearts was a hit.

There was actually another franchise that was released at the same time, with almost the same variables, yet it didn’t go as far. The major players were all there; Nintendo, Disney, and Konami instead of Square Enix. They were collaborating for the release of the Nintendo GameCube. Where Square Enix succeeded on the Playstation 2 while Konami failed on the other console could be attributed to many things. The short answer was that Konami was too ambitious. Square Enix was working with Disney Interactive on one game but Konami was working with Disney on six games for two different consoles; the GameCube and Game Boy Advance. This might have not been a problem if Konami were a larger company or if they had more time. Unfortunately they stretched their talent pool very thin. Chief Director: Masahiro Yamamoto managed a team of about 50 people for each game. There were about six times more people working on Kingdom Hearts than working on any one of the Disney games for Konami. This didn’t include all of the Disney voice actors reprising their roles. Despite the failure of their franchise Konami managed to deliver something unique. They left a template that other publishers could and did learn from.

Konami had been in business longer than Square and had been developing video games for as long as Nintendo. The publisher became famous during the golden age of arcade games. One of their first hits was Frogger, way back in 1981. But they also released other popular games like Time Pilot (1982), Gyruss (1983), Track and Field (1983) and Circus Charlie (1984). They were also influential in the development of entirely new genres. Rush’n Attack (1985) was the godfather to the run-and-gun, think of games like Metal Slug (SNK) and Gunstar Heroes (Treasure). Konami also developed Yie Ar Kung Fu (1985), considered to be the godfather of the modern fighting game, predating both Street Fighter (Capcom) and Mortal Kombat (Midway). It was the diversity of experiences that put them on the map. In the early ’80s Konami was flourishing while Square was struggling. A few of the senior people working at Konami had earned patents in programming and game design. To say that they helped build the industry would be an understatement. Their talent pool was not only deep but insanely talented. They were able to focus on console game development in parallel with each arcade release. The NES was the home of many Konami arcade and console hits. Titles like Castelvania (1986), Double Dribble (1987) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1989) showed their versatility with original as well as licensed content. As the game industry rose and fell Konami always seemed to weather the storm. Part of the reason they endured was because of their deep library of hits, but the other reason was because of shrewd licensing deals.

Konami could combine an arcade game and license to turn it into a console hit. One example happened with the Dance Dance Revolution series. Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) was a popular arcade title where players danced on an electronic pad instead of using a joystick. It was such a popular game that it ended up in documentaries, in movies and TV. The company released a home version of the pad for different consoles and published dozens of licensed versions of the game. Pop singers in Japan, the US and U.K. would try to appear in each arcade and console update; it guaranteed that they could reach a wider audience. Disney was just one of the companies that Konami worked with. Dance Dance Revolution Disney’s Rave was released in 2000, followed by DDR Disney Dancing Museum (2000), DDR Dancing Stage Disney Mix (2001) and DDR Disney Grooves (2009). The studio had a lot of practice working with the Disney company and their famous characters. In the first few releases, they were testing the water for something bigger.

Aside from successful licensing Konami was good at developing its own game engines. You may not know it but many of the early arcade and console developers had to create their own programs and tools. Companies like Nintendo, Square and Konami couldn’t go to the store to buy game-creating software. They had to build their own from scratch. To put it in context think about Pixar. The animation studio created the software for Lucasfilm, and Industrial Lights & Magic to put special effects into their movies. Pixar created programs like RenderMan to help animators work in 3D.

The studio created software that allowed 3D models to stretch and squash like old hand-drawn cartoons. They created software to make models look as if they were covered in fur, slime or fire. A huge animation studio could write their own tools with the help of internal research and development teams, but a smaller company could buy the Pixar programs, hire talented animators and compete against those big studios. The same basic principle applied to game developers. They created their own software tools so that designers could build games. Some studios, like Unreal, licensed their development tools to publishers. Square Enix used a version of the Unreal Engine for Kingdom Hearts III. Arc System Works also used a version of the Unreal Engine for Guilty Gear Xrd. At one point Sega had more than six R&D studios that built their own software and kept their programs in-house.

Konami developed their own game engines as well. They would spend years and millions of dollars creating and maintaining an engine. To recoup their investment they would then use this engine to build as many games as they could. Some engines happened to be optimized for certain consoles and others could be used to build cross-platform games. At the end of the ’90s a new console war was about to start. Konami began working on development kits for the Playstation 2 and Nintendo GameCube consoles. They invested a large portion of their development team building an engine that would be used for Metal Gear Solid 2 (2001). The previous Metal Gear Solid (MGS) game was a runaway success on the original Playstation in 1998.

Designer Hideo Kojima was known for squeezing every ounce of processing power out of the consoles he worked with. Konami made sure that each MGS engine was visually unparalleled. They wanted the “next-generation” game to have more advanced models, textures, lighting and environmental effects. They took what they learned and applied it to an entirely new franchise. The publisher began building a collection of ESPN sport games for Sony’s Playstation 2 using the MGS engine. It was during this transition period, 1999-2000 when the stars aligned with Disney and Nintendo.

Konami established a relationship with Disney relatively late in the evolution of the game industry. They had not developed a Disney game for the 8-bit or 16-bit consoles, missing out on the booms of the ’80s and ’90s. When they finally started working together, they demonstrated that they could be very profitable by licensing Disney characters for the DDR games. But they wanted to do so much more with the cartoon characters. They approached Disney and had them agree on an entirely new franchise. It was an original idea like Kingdom Hearts; it would also require the help of Disney Interactive and the Disney voice cast as well. Unlike Kingdom Hearts, however, Konami wanted to have six games in the franchise ready and released within a few years. They also wanted these titles on two different Nintendo consoles. Based on Konami’s incredibly talented employees, solid business model and long development history it stood to reason that they could deliver. The issues of launching a new franchise turned out to be far more complex.

Konami wanted to create a literal Disney Sports Network. This was not simply a series of sports games featuring the characters but a living, breathing universe through which they could travel and take part in competitions. The goal was to have an annual franchise across multiple disciplines. When one sporting season ended, another would begin. The studio was planning on releasing a new title every couple of months over a year. As soon as audiences had finished one title, they could move onto the next. There would be consistency within this sporting universe. Characters had the same teams, same logos and even home stadiums to visit. Every year entirely new sports would be added to the franchise. In due time online matchmaking and cross-platform play was proposed for the series. The seeds of this idea were planted at the end of the ’90s, well before any other studio had even predicted an explosion in online gaming. 

Before the DDR music games, Konami had worked with Disney on licensing ESPN for a series of sports games. The cable sports network was synonymous with athletics (at least in the USA) and Konami was hoping to turn that name recognition into a profitable business model. The studio announced that they would release a half-dozen ESPN labeled games for the PC and consoles in 2000. These titles included traditional sports: baseball, basketball and football, as well as track and field and even bass fishing. Konami was firing a shot across the bow of Electronic Arts (EA). They were the developers of the largest sports franchises in the USA. At the time sports video games were generating about $800 million dollars a year. That number was expected to climb exponentially. Konami did not want a part of the market, they wanted all of it. To show how serious they were Konami targeted all of the major sports and also included action sports in their plans.

They had an X-Games Skateboarding title as well as Snowboarding game in their initial lineup. The reason for branching out to action sports was obvious to game players. The Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series by Activision (disclosure: the author of this piece consulted on the series – ed.) was young, yet it had already made publisher hundreds of millions of dollars. It was expected to be on par with the biggest sporting franchises ever. The skateboarding game did this without requiring expensive team and league licensing deals. Konami wasn’t the only company paying attention to the trend. Other publishers began signing their own motocross, skateboarding, snowboarding, bmx and surfing athletes. Of course the ESPN and Disney names were huge and could attract talent. All of the big-name athletes and trendsetters were expected to align themselves with Disney / ESPN rather than EA or Activision.

Konami hoped to get a jump start on EA by taking their patented technology and applying it to multiple disciplines. Konami’s Metal Gear Solid 2 engine had all of the features that a AAA title could be built on. It had the ability to generate highly detailed 3D models, render brilliant graphic effects, solid physics, smooth animation, realistic lighting and even incorporate weather elements. This engine was expected to handle any sport they could throw at it. Baseball, basketball, skateboarding, you name it and the engine was ready to go. As they were developing the ESPN / X-Games series they were learning what they needed to do with the Disney Sports Network as well.

This new Disney franchise would make its debut on the Nintendo GameCube as opposed to the Playstation 2. By developing two franchises in parallel Konami could maximize the return on their engines. Sony would get a series of sport and action sport titles marketed towards teens and Nintendo would get a more family-oriented series. The formula was in place, the developers were ready to go, the marketing team was running in overdrive and Disney was on board. The first game they released was head-and-shoulders above any other character sports title ever published. It was a taste of the greatness that Konami had planned. Electronic Arts had a reason to be nervous. John Madden was a household name in the USA but could never hope to eclipse Mickey Mouse on the global stage. We will look at this revolutionary title on the next entry. Until then please leave a comment or question and I’ll try to get back to you.

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