In 2016, Disney announced it was ceasing its video game publishing activities, wiping out all projects in development. Among them was “Epic Donald”. Brief previously unseen images of this title have just surfaced.
In the mid-2000s, Disney Interactive began buying out development studios, including Junction Point, created by video game legend Warren Spector. The first game developed in-house, Epic Mickey became the best-selling game on the Wii console and even the biggest success in Disney Interactive history with over 4 million copies sold.
Sales of its sequel Epic Mickey: Return of the Heroes were considered too disappointing, with only 529,000 copies sold in the US. The game may well continue a reasonable exploration of Disney’s rich catalog, but the guillotine ax fell cleanly: Junction Point closed its doors in January 2013.
Epic Donald nipped in the bud
In 2016, Disney announced that it would stop publishing video games entirely. The big-eared firm has never ceased to give the impression that it doesn’t know which foot to take in terms of video game development strategy.
With a combined loss of $1.3 billion since 2008, the video game and internet division has opted to stop spending. We returned here for a long time after this cruel halt.
However, this decision inevitably led to the shutdown of all projects in development. Among them is a game called Epic Donald. According to website Nintendo Allpreviously unreleased footage of this canceled game has just surfaced.
Only a few seconds are available, but that’s always good. This can be seen in the video below, from 18”41. What a waste though…