Junction Point, the developer of the Epic Mickey games, has been shuttered today by Disney following the failure of the recent release Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two.
The Austin-based company who employed 160 people, including Warren Spector (best known for System Shock and Deus Ex), had been on leave since the games release in November but today were only told this morning that the studio would be closing.
Epic Mickey 2 experienced disappointing sales, selling only 529,000 copies since launch, clearly not good enough for a 160 man studio.
“It was with much sadness that we informed our teams today of changes to our Games organization, which include the closure of Junction Point Studios,” a Disney spokesperson told Joystiq. “We’re extremely grateful to Warren Spector and the Junction Point team for their creative contributions to Disney with Disney Epic Mickey and Disney Epic Mickey 2.”
Hopefully the newly unemployed get back on their feet soon as it is always sad when a big studio closes. Maybe Disney has learned a lesson from this, that Mickey Mouse is not relevant these days, and maybe it’s time to move on to something else.
What are your feelings on Junction Point’s closure? Did you play Epic Mickey 2? Let me know in the comments below.
