City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

Call to action: convince Disney that CoX is worth buying

blackjak

By blackjak,
Posted on: 2012-10-10 13:12 in CoH and CoV General Discussions

 

Posted

Ah Disney owns Marvel. Marvel has it's own MMO or two. Why would they want competition?

Just pointing out the obvious flaws.

Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components

Tempus unum hominem manet

 

Posted

Disney has broadly been in the process of shutting down its computer game divisions and focusing on buying IPs that they can create movie / TV content out of. CoH did have its movie rights floating around already, but we haven't heard anything about that in years.

And as Father Xmas points out, they own Marvel (and more recently LucasArts).

In the area of "who buys CoH/V?", the answer isn't Disney.

I'd be interested in seeing the pitch though.

EDIT: Oh, and I believe the Head of Marvel Video Games is ex-Cryptic / Champions Online Bill Roper. Should this pitch be considered, there's a chance he'd be brought in as part of the evaluation process.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Father Xmas View Post
Ah Disney owns Marvel. Marvel has it's own MMO or two. Why would they want competition?

Just pointing out the obvious flaws.
I thought about that too, but if its all under the same owner is it still competition?

Everyone has a different taste, would it hurt to introduce a new flavor?

Of the Marvel MMOs I know of are Marvel Heroes (which could have easily been a single-player game) and Superhero Squad (which is aimed at children, not a full-blown MMO for an older audience) neither something I took a whole lot of interest in.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Father Xmas View Post
Ah Disney owns Marvel. Marvel has it's own MMO or two. Why would they want competition?

Just pointing out the obvious flaws.
Ever play a game of chess with yourself? If black wins, you win. If white wins, you also win.

Also, nothing Marvel is doing is ANYTHING like CoH, including their current "non-MMO."

So... what competition?

 

Posted

I really do hate acknowledging the grimy side of the coin sometimes but this crossed my mind...

Say they did buy CoX but decided to shut it down somewhere down the line, would we be in an even worse situation with freeing up the IP and code?

Disney isn't one to let go of things and can be pretty brutal when it comes to unofficial reproductions.

Boycotting disney would accomplish absolutely nothing, they're an invincible beast. Of course they would probably give it a more dignified death than NCSoft did, resulting in little backlash.

 

Posted

This really seems like an idea that's not going to work, even a little.

 

Posted

I thought we had already established that other parties had expressed interest in buying CoH, and that NCSoft is unwilling to sell it. What exactly do you expect Disney to do that the other groups haven't already done? This idea sounds really half-baked to me.

 

Posted

According to two separate sources, NCSoft is unwilling to sell before November 30th (due to being overcautious about legal entanglements). After that date, it's said they'll be lowering their asking price dramatically.

And Disney is... Disney. One of the largest most well-known companies in the world, with billions of dollars to toss around.

Nobody's pretending this is a sure thing; quite the opposite. This is the longest of longshots.

But it's better than sitting on our thumbs.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Xieveral View Post
I really do hate acknowledging the grimy side of the coin sometimes but this crossed my mind...

Say they did buy CoX but decided to shut it down somewhere down the line, would we be in an even worse situation with freeing up the IP and code?

Disney isn't one to let go of things and can be pretty brutal when it comes to unofficial reproductions.

Boycotting disney would accomplish absolutely nothing, they're an invincible beast. Of course they would probably give it a more dignified death than NCSoft did, resulting in little backlash.
Boycotting Disney would be *very* interesting for Americans... have you *seen* how many fingers they have in the TV/Movie/Entertainment industry pie?

 

Posted

.. so about the same effect as boycotting NCSoft then.

@SteelRat; @SteelRat2
"Angelina my love, I'm a genius!"
"Of course you are darling, that's why I married you. Physically, you're rather unattractive"
http://faces.cohtitan.com/profile/SteelRat

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by SteelRat View Post
.. so about the same effect as boycotting NCSoft then.
Several stages worse actually:

Disney-ABC Television Group, ESPN Inc. (80%), ABC Owned Television Stations, Radio Disney,Disney Interactive Studios, Disney Online, Disney Online Studios, Disney Mobile, Playdom, Buena Vista, Buena Vista International France, Buena Vista International India, Buena Vista International Italy, Hulu (27%), Marvel Entertainment, The Muppets Studio, UTV Software Communications, Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, Disneynature, Disney Music Group, Disney Theatrical Group, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.

LOTS of fingers in pies here, even some that you might not have been aware of.

Would like to point out that they *did* own Miramax Films up till 2010 when they sold it to Filmyard Holdings.

 

Posted

My point being that boycotting either NCSoft or Disney will have the same net effect; zero.

@SteelRat; @SteelRat2
"Angelina my love, I'm a genius!"
"Of course you are darling, that's why I married you. Physically, you're rather unattractive"
http://faces.cohtitan.com/profile/SteelRat

 

Posted

Does this mean Statesman's going to start singing?

"We could be heroes, just for one day!"

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gangrel_EU View Post
Several stages worse actually:

Disney-ABC Television Group, ESPN Inc. (80%), ABC Owned Television Stations, Radio Disney,Disney Interactive Studios, Disney Online, Disney Online Studios, Disney Mobile, Playdom, Buena Vista, Buena Vista International France, Buena Vista International India, Buena Vista International Italy, Hulu (27%), Marvel Entertainment, The Muppets Studio, UTV Software Communications, Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, Disneynature, Disney Music Group, Disney Theatrical Group, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.

LOTS of fingers in pies here, even some that you might not have been aware of.

Would like to point out that they *did* own Miramax Films up till 2010 when they sold it to Filmyard Holdings.
Don't forget Lucasilm and Skywalker in there now.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by blackjak View Post
Don't forget Lucasilm and Skywalker in there now.
Yep, I forgot about those... (well, just forgot to mention them... i was typing this up before i had to dive out for a meeting)

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Thunder Knight View Post
According to two separate sources, NCSoft is unwilling to sell before November 30th (due to being overcautious about legal entanglements). After that date, it's said they'll be lowering their asking price dramatically....
So I hope this also means that whomever (Brian Clayton with private backers/Valve/etc.) had previously offered for CoH will feel compelled to try once again, then!

If only it were all this simple. Did NCSoft *really* hold out for some exorbitant sum mainly because of potential legalities before closure? And if so, then why wouldn't they just have told all those who put up offers initially to come back post-closure and make more bids then? Instead they posted the "FAGHETABOUTIT AND SHUT UP NOW" nonsense on the launcher and website, making it sound like they weren't going to sell, ever.

In any case, I don't particularly hold a lot of hope for Disney, but I'm willing to take the ten minutes required to type up some letters and send them off. After all, we don't need specific legaleze, we just need to tell them what the game and its potential continuation means to us.

But I truly hope Brian Clayton and what is left of PS hasn't given up on making another bid, if this admittedly shaky view of NCSoft only becoming willing to sell post-closure actually holds any truth to it.

 

Posted

Disney buying CoH? They're so big, they could easily buy NCSoft.

 

Posted

I'd be interested to see this 31 page proposal.