Disney’s New Take On App Development
The top 3 paid apps in the Apple App Store are all Disney titles. If you take a closer look, #1 Where’s My Perry? and #3 Where’s My Water? are essentially the same app. And #2 Temple Run: Brave has a title that sounds awfully familiar. None of these are sequels. Where’s My Water is the only un-branded, original app. Disney’s latest mobile trend has been to skin/brand existing popular titles and market it along their upcoming tv/movie titles. Granted, Where’s My Water is already a Disney app, the take on Temple Run has you wondering when to expect Doodle Jump: Toy Story or Fruit Ninja: Pirates of the Caribbean, which I would absolutely play. But by dipping their toes in this new method of “app development,” game devs everywhere now have another method to monitization: build games, gain traction, and eventually team with a media studio to replace characters and scenery with characters that are more popular and mainstream. Not only that, they’ll be able to capture an entirely new user base and audience. Those who haven’t heard of Temple Run might see an ad for Temple Run: Brave at the end of a trailer and install. Children watching Phineas and Ferb (target demographic: boys, ages 6-14) on the Disney Channel might see a commercial for a new game featuring Agent P. Being able to tap a new audience is great for any product. There’s no doubt that Disney or any large media company will promote the hell out of it throughout their available channels and properties. On top of that, Disney is charging $0.99, so they’re clearly expecting some return (rev share w/ the game publisher?), and the fact that they own the top two paid apps now is an early indication that it’s working. Don’t be surprised to see more apps in the future do the same. In a little more time, other media properties will see that it’s a great strategy and start doing the same.
