Jam City, the mobile game studio started by MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe, is taking over some Walt Disney Co. mobile game operations in a multiyear partnership that will involve licensing additional characters and stories.
The studio is gaining the Disney Emoji Blitz matching game through the development partnership, Jam City said in a statement Wednesday, without disclosing terms. Fewer than 50 employees working for Disney in Glendale, California, will be hired by Jam City under the deal, said a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the information is private.
Some of the Disney employees to be brought into Jam City under the partnership were responsible for hits such as the Where’s My Water? puzzle game, DeWolfe said in an interview. As part of the deal, Jam City is planning a game based on the upcoming Disney animated film “Frozen 2,” according to the statement.
Mobile titles, among the fastest growing video games, are typically free to play and earn money based on in-game purchases and advertising. Culver City, California-based Jam City has grown quickly, launching original titles such as Cookie Jam and more recently licensing entertainment properties such as Peanuts and Harry Potter. Such brands travel very quickly all over the world, DeWolfe said.
“We learned a lot from Harry Potter,” he said.
Disney, the world’s largest entertainment company, has been getting out of the business of building video games in recent years, preferring instead to license its characters to other game designers, such as Electronic Arts Inc.and Zynga Inc.
Jam city 将制作Frozen2手游