Disney Mobile has had an incredible year when it comes to hits. All five of its major releases have gone to No. 1 in the Apple iTunes App Store in the past year. And now it’s launching three new games for the holidays and releasing four major updates for existing titles.

And it’s now getting enough games into the market to cross-promote them with great results, resulting in a network effect that helps the games spread. That’s a pretty good track record, considering that most of the game publishing giants and entertainment companies haven’t figured out mobile games yet. Don’t be surprised if Disney Mobile triples or quadruples downloads in the last two weeks of the year.

“I feel we are the most successful of the traditional companies on the App Store,” said Bart Decrem, the senior vice president and general manager of Disney Mobile, at a press event in San Francisco. “We found a formula in leveraging what Disney does best. Our mission statement is to bring the magic of Disney to mobile.”

The new titles include Monster’s Inc. Run. Like Temple Run: Brave, this takes an existing game, Get Set’s Mega Run, and makes a new game out of it. It’s a side-scrolling platformer (pictured right) featuring characters from the Monster’s Inc. In the game, Sulley, Mike, and other characters have to save the little girl, Boo. It debuts on iOS on Thursday.

Another new game is Nemo’s Reef, which you might consider to be a relaxation game. In it, you build a reef, decorate it, and collect a bunch of different tropical fish. It features Nemo and the cast from Finding Nemo. It debuts on iOS and Android on Dec. 20.

The third new game is Where’s My Holiday?, a brand-new holiday-themed “Where’s My…” title featuring the characters Swampy and Perry. The game will debut on iOS and Android on Dec. 20.

Decrem said that Disney’s overall strategy in social and mobile games has set up the success. The entertainment giant acquired social game publisher Playdom and Decrem’s mobile game studio Tapulous. Then it put outsider entrepreneurs (who understand modern apps and free-to-play business models) in charge of the whole game business. Decrem waxes poetic on how mobile is changing entertainment.

“If John Lassiter were starting Pixar today, would he choose mobile as his platform?” he asked. “And we are now creating characters in digital form that will become part of Disney’s larger business.”

John Pleasants, the former head of Playdom, runs Disney’s overall game business, while Decrem runs all of Disney’s mobile games. But with each new gaming acquisition — such as Studio Ex in Korea this week and the LucasArts game division (along with all of Lucasfilm in a $4 billion deal) — Disney tries to run the businesses in a decentralized manner and allows the creative talent to keep doing what they do.

Decrem says that Disney is taking established brands and putting them into mobile games. It is also taking new hit entertainment and transporting it into games (Wreck-It Ralph, which got more than 10 million users). It takes successful mobile games made by indie entrepreneurs and then creates a Disney-branded version of that game, as with Temple Run: Brave. Disney is also creating its own new digital characters that appear first in games and then, if successful, make their way into video entertainment and toys (Where’s My Water? and Where’s My Perry?). And it is extending the game franchises that it has acquired, as with Tap Tap Revenge: Tour.

The numbers are impressive. Where’s My Water? is the biggest hit, with more than 100 million downloads. Disney Mobile Games’ peak daily active user (DAU) count has grown six-fold over the past 18 months to 6.1 million DAU, up from 1 million DAU in June 2011. Disney has made Swampy character videos, dubbed Swampy’s Underground Adventures, that have gotten more than 10 million views on YouTube.

“That’s exciting for me,” Decrem said.

Decrem says the holidays will likely be huge as consumers unwrap their prepaid iTunes gift cards and their new iPhone 5s and iPad Minis. Typically, the last two weeks of the year are huge. In 2010, game app installs grew 421 percent from Dec. 20 to Jan. 3 compared to the prior two weeks. In 2011, game installs grew 301 percent during Dec. 20 to Jan. 3, compared to the two weeks prior. And installs grew 40 percent from 2010 to 2011.

Now the company plans to leverage its existing games with significant updates. Where’s My Perry?, a game where you control the flow of water to make things happen, will have 40 new levels and a new character in Dr. Doofenschmirtz. The update will sell for 99 cents as an in-app purchase. The game will also have 20 new free levels.

With Temple Run: Brave, Disney Mobile is adding a new character, King Fergus (Merida’s Father), for a cost of in-game currency of 500,000 coins. The game will also feature a new game mechanic, dubbed the “second shot.”

For Wreck-It Ralph, the company is creating a whole new mini-game in the arcade, Turbo Time, an arcade racing game (pictured at top).

And the Marvel Avengers Initiative will see its second episode launch with Captain America. The app will also be supported with a major holiday marketing push.

All of the updates come out on Thursday. Once they come out, Disney will market them through various channels, from Disney.com to the Disney Channel. Disney is building “connective tissue” to cross-promote all of the games. It has a common technology platform with features such as Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) compliance and analytics.

As for 2013, Decrem says there could be a dozen new games coming from Disney Mobile. And those games will have more and more connectivity and social play features.

“We’re going to push social and mobile gaming pretty hard next year,” he said.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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This week, THQ reported less than stellar numbers and hired a firm to “evaluate strategic alternatives,” Rockstar revealed details about Grand Theft Auto V, and the Wreck It Ralph film crew discusses movie development.

You’ll also find reviews for Halo 4, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, and LittleBigPlanet Karting.

News:

• October NPD: Dishonored charts high while XCOM fails to chart at all
• The good and, yes, the bad from today’s Grand Theft Auto V reveal
• Nexon to publish Dota 2 in Japan and Korea
• Mechs never looked so pretty as AirMech launches open beta on Steam
• Get BioShock for free on GameFly’s just released PC client
• This week in the Nintendo Download: Paper Mario, Epic Mickey, and a Pokédex
• You can live stream Call of Duty: Black Ops II directly to YouTube from your console
• Activision: ‘Spectacular innovation’ will prevent Skylanders from fizzling like Guitar Hero
• What’s in the box? Nintendo Wii U Deluxe Edition and Pro Controller
• The Wii U’s online service is an ‘empathy network’ — what the heck is that?
• PlayStation 3 passes Chinese bureaucratic inspection but ban on consoles remains
• Give Epic Mickey 2 a whirl in Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 demo
• The Last Guardian developer still has ‘nothing concrete’EA celebrates Battlefield 1942′s 10th anniversary by giving it away for free

MMO news:

• Star Wars: The Old Republic set for free-to-play debut
• First gameplay footage of The Elder Scrolls Online
• World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria sees 1 million concurrent players in China
• Jordan Mechner launches Karateka remake on digital gaming platforms
• DeNA invests in its golden goose, taking 20 percent stake in Cygames for $92M
• Obama is the overwhelming favorite in Nexon’s MapleStory online game (exclusive)

Mobile news:

• Yahoo and Japan’s DeNA expand PC social gaming alliance to mobile devices
• Nvidia CEO: Consumers realize a great tablet is better than a cheap PC
• Sword & Sworcery EP finally comes to Android in the latest Humble Bundle
• Angry Birds Star Wars is out now, and it’s kinda cool
• Once focused on 2D mobile games, Machine Zone hires a 3D graphics expert
• Best day to launch your mobile game? Chartboost says it’s Monday through Wednesday
• Kabam launches The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth mobile game
• Execution Labs raises $1.4M to incubate indie mobile game studios in Canada
• Budge makes a mobile game out of charitable giving
• New mobile game hopes to trick players into learning an anti-drug lesson
• Mobile games winning the war for your attention
• Apple still hasn’t made Game Center interesting
• Fourth-generation iPad smashes PlayStation Vita in raw graphics power
• Microsoft rolls out new Xbox SmartGlass iOS app
• The hidden truth of enigmatic experimental game Curiosity
• Xbox Surface: Microsoft’s 7-inch gaming tablet is still happening

Earnings:

• Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard beats earnings estimates and raises guidance
• Ubisoft posts a six-month loss — but Assassin’s Creed is riding to the rescue
• THQ’s stock crashes 47 percent as it faces cash crunch
• Mobile gaming has its giant: DeNA posts $627M in quarterly revenue
• Desperate for cash, THQ hires firm to ‘evaluate strategic alternatives’ (It’s up for sale)
• THQ reports smaller loss than expected but pushes back South Park, Metro, and Company of Heroes 2

Interviews:

• Is Gree really spending money on user acquisition like there’s no tomorrow? (interview)
• Wreck-It Ralph’s film crew discusses bad guys, cameos, and portals inside toilets (interview)
• Why Ubisoft has eight games coming for the Wii U (interview)
• Silent Hill: Revelations 3D director on respecting the source material, immersion, and secret UFO endings (exclusive)
• Guitar Hero co-creator unveils startup with a plan to mobilize the living room (exclusive interview)
• Tapjoy’s ad network now reaches a billion mobile devices (interview)

Reviews:

• What’s in the box?! Ragnarok Odyssey Mercenary Edition (review)
• What’s in the box?! Halo 4 Limited Edition (review)
• Paper Mario: Sticker Star fails to justify its gimmick (review)
• LittleBigPlanet Karting shows off Sackboy’s serious driving skills (review)

Pieces of flair:

• Halo 4: Infinity Multiplayer Unlock GuideGamesBeat’s massive Street Fighter tournament: The finals

Some parts of this interview contain spoilers for the film Wreck-It Ralph.

Litwak’s Arcade is a special place. But you wouldn’t be able to tell by its aging ceramic tiles or by the missing letters in the dilapidated birthday sign posted outside. Despite all odds, the “family fun center” manages to stay profitable in a time where most standalone arcades have failed.

Strangely, it’s also a hard place to find. The TV commercials only mention that its location is off the nebulous “Route 83.” And Google results won’t return a website — much less a phone number. So how do you get there?

Unfortunately, you can’t. Litwak’s Arcade doesn’t actually exist.

It’s merely the setting for Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph, an animated film about video games that opened nationwide in theaters last week. Packed with characters from real electronic entertainment titles — along with a slew of other references that’ll have you freeze-framing every second when it’s out on DVD — the movie tells a charming and surprisingly emotional adventure about its titular villain who “jumps” from one arcade game to the next to solve his mid-life crisis.

Perhaps more interesting than Wreck-It Ralph, though, is the story behind the making of the film. GamesBeat spoke with producer Clark Spencer and later to screenwriter Phil Johnston and director Rich Moore to reveal the challenges, the delightful accidents, and the insane ideas they had during the three-year-long project.

GamesBeat: Why make Ralph a video game villain as opposed to, say, a bad guy in a fairy tale?

Clark Spencer: Since Rich Moore first came to Disney, he had this idea telling the story about a guy who wakes up one day after 30 years of doing the same thing and thinks, “Isn’t there something more to life?” But he didn’t know what world he was going to set that story in, and John Lasseter, who’s our chief creative officer, said we should think about the world of video games.

But it wasn’t as much thinking of you should tell a video game story because no one’s done it. It was more that the right story and the right world came together at the right moment because … this story could be told in a lot of different worlds or universes. Video games is just one of them.

GamesBeat: What’s the role of the video game cameos? Are they just there to contextualize the film’s world?

Spencer: [Phil and Rich] wanted to make sure that, as much as possible, [the cameos] were organic and integral to the storytelling. We screen our movies a lot before we do the final version. In the first two times we screened the movie, we didn’t have that Bad Guys Anonymous scene. We had a different way of getting into it.

But it was taking us a long time to set up who Ralph was and what his problem was through a lot of dialogue. And someone came up with the idea of “What if we put him into a Bad Anon group?” Now we can actually bring video game characters in and it’s integral to the story — they’re telling us who Ralph is, and Ralph is telling us what his problem is in that world.

[And] when you see Sonic, it feels like Sonic is telling us the stakes of the world by saying if you die outside your game, you don’t ever regenerate. As much as possible, we tried to make sure we’re doing the right match up of storytelling, information that helps propel the story forward, with the right characters.

GamesBeat: Did you have a worst-case scenario plan in place if none of your requests for these characters went through?

Spencer: It was probably the thing I was the most angst-ridden about because every day, somebody would come up with some other great idea. And you think it’s going to make the movie so funny or emotional … but are we really gonna be able to pull all of this off? So what we said was, “What are the four most important characters to be in this movie?”

We decided it was Bowser, Q*bert, Clyde the ghost, and Sonic. We felt like if we can get those four, we can figure out the rest. And there was one more from Phil … he’s a huge Street Fighter fan, so Zangief was majorly important to him. [Laughs] We started out with those companies first. And [companies] were actually entertaining this idea. They weren’t saying no to us right away. They were actually listening and getting interested.

And that’s when we got a lot bigger in terms of the number of characters we were going to put into the film. But you still wonder if there’s going to be that day where someone says, “You can’t have this.” And we’ve built everything around it. We built so much around the idea that Q*bert is homeless. What happens if Sony doesn’t say yes?

[The films] Toy Story and Roger Rabbit kind of broke a lot of the ground for us. So companies were more open to it. They saw [their characters] all the way through the process.

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If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best video game stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.

This week, Zynga lost more executives but announced new games from its partners, Nintendo announced the North American price and release date for the Wii U, and Apple unveiled the iPhone 5.

You’ll also find reviews for Tekken Tag 2, Tokyo Jungle, Avengers Initiative, Joe Danger 2, Fractured Soul, and LittleBigPlanet Vita.

News:

• Obama runs presidential campaign ads in EA’s online games
• The DeanBeat: A stellar week for gamers
• Activision is finally swinging for the fences in mobile games (interview)
• Shocker! A video game trailer’s popularity foretells sales
• Startup Seeds makes a game out of microlending
• Take it to Vegas: 80M Madden 13 online games match NFL’s Week 1 results (infographic)
  
• Zynga confirms it hired real-money gambling chief
  
• Magic fingers: SoftKinetic is at the core of Intel’s ‘perceptual computing’ technology (video demo)
  
• Nvidia launches two new Kepler-based graphics chips
• 4 things gamers will appreciate in the new Wreck-It Ralph trailer
• Satirical new puzzle game brings out the fun in arguing about politics (exclusive)
• Report confirms that social casino games have hit the jackpot with $1.6B in revenue
• Clay Jam is a Michael Bay-infused explosion of color and crafts (with exclusive screens)
• Two game developers arrested in Greece under suspicion of espionage
• Half-Life remake among first batch of games cleared in Steam’s Greenlight approval program
• With Kinect-like gestures, SoftKinetic leads the way to Intel’s perceptual computing
• Coming to consoles: Dig deep and build high in the exploration game Terraria
• Everything you need to know about Planetary Annihilation, before it completes funding (Exclusive)
• Intel reinvents the PC for the age of ‘perceptual computing’
• Harvard’s ‘wise men’ tell Silicon Valley: Our country is losing its competitiveness
• Agawi to use Microsoft’s Windows Azure to bring cloud-gaming services to Windows 8
• Executive turnover continues: Zynga loses its chief marketing officer Jeff Karp
• Zynga cloud guru Allan Leinwand departs for ServiceNow
• Blast your way through Unova with the new Mythical Pokémon Genesect
• Valve launches beta for Steam’s Big Picture Mode: Now you never have to leave the couch
• Zynga launches first batch of partner games, adds nine more third-party studios

Wii U:

• Nintendo’s touchscreen TV service for the Wii U plays catch-up (hands-on video)
• Catch Mario, Bayonetta, and Sonic in these Wii U game videos
• Here are the Wii U games you’ll be playing at launch (or close to it)
• Nintendo targets the living room with Nintendo TVii
• Nintendo’s Wii U console lands in stores Nov. 18 in two flavors, base price of $300
• Nintendo announces Wii U price and launch details in Japan

Mobile news:

• BitGym brings motion gaming to mobile devices
• The iPod’s A5X vs. the iPhone 5′s A6: Does it matter for games?
• Natural Motion shows off cute Clumsy Ninja app on the iPhone 5
• iPhone 5 allows ‘ghost racing’ against another player’s best time in Real Racing 3
• In a twist, Zynga to import two mobile games from its Japan division
• From bikes to games to video games to…tablets? Toys ‘R’ Us bets on Tabeo

Interviews:

• Clumsy Ninja’s 10-year journey to make it to Apple’s iPhone 5 launch stage (video interview)
• Firefall dev discusses major gameplay changes and its Kickstarter-inspired monetization strategy (interview)

Previews:

• Guns of Icarus Online developers want to make ‘the most co-op game’ imaginable (hands-on preview)
• Contagion aims to save the zombie game genre from itself (hands-on preview)

Reviews:

• Tokyo Jungle is a comically rewarding journey through the vicious circle of life (review)
• Even with robots, dinosaurs, and tons of action, Joe Danger 2 repeats the same stunts (review)
• Touch controls make LittleBigPlanet Vita the series’s definitive entry (review)
• Fractured Soul is a clever, challenging platformer that requires all your brainpower (review)
• Tekken Tag Tournament 2 delivers entertaining yet uninspired beat downs (review)
• Avengers Initiative delivers thrilling bite-sized superhero combat but not much else (review)

Pieces of flare:

• GamesBeat’s massive 92-character Street Fighter tournament: The deadly preliminaries!
• Katamari’s Prince rises as a webcomic star
• Cool gaming demos at Intel’s developer event (gallery)

I obviously love video games (you don’t get into this field by accident), but I’m also a huge Disney geek. I’ve adorned my room with monuments and mementos plastered with Mickey’s and Donald’s likenesses. So when Disney announced it was going to make an animated movie set inside the world of gaming, I thought it sounded like pretty much the greatest thing ever. Judging from the newest trailer Disney released for Wreck-It Ralph today (embedded at the bottom of this story), well…now I really think it looks like the greatest thing ever.

The company responsible for eight decades of animated hits has packed this video with charm and humor that can appeal to anyone, but gamers will especially find a lot to like in this short preview. For instance….

Old characters get new voices

While the main characters in Wreck-It Ralph are original Disney creations, plenty of icons from gaming history litter the frame. This includes a set of villains that form a support group, including Bowser from Nintendo’s Mario series and Zangief from Capcom’s Street Fighter franchise.

While Zangief obviously has a thick Russian accent, the voice of Clyde is more amusing (he’s the orange ghost from Pac-Man). Why is his voice so funny? Well, it’s just so…normal. Like, in the way you would least expect.

I also like that Clyde looks like the leader of the villain support group. Makes sense. He has been in the bad guy game longer than just about any other character (Pac-Man’s been around since 1980). Nice touch, Disney.

Poor Q*bert is homeless

Remember Q*bert? That weird orange thing that loved to hop around those colorful squares? Well, while many of his old-school contemporaries have still kept their popularity in the modern age of gaming, poor Q*bert has found himself forgotten and homeless. Just looking at the pathetic, little guy with his dirty cardboard sign (declaring that his game is unplugged) just breaks my heart.

Forget about Bambi’s mom dying. This is the new saddest thing ever.

Call of ‘Doody’

One of the arcade games Wreck-It Ralph invades is Hero’s Duty, a clear homage to modern shooters like Call of Duty and Halo. Upon hearing this, Sarah Silverman’s character can’t help but make a joke about the word “doody,” a mockery I’m sure we’re all heard made at Call of Duty’s expense before.

It’s Sonic!

Disney previously announced that Sonic the Hedgehog would make an appearance in Wreck-It Ralph, but this new trailer gives us our first glimpse of the blue blur in the movie. Let’s hope that it does a better job of not ruining him than Sega.

You can find plenty more fun gaming tributes and cameos in the full trailer, posted below. Disney releases Wreck-It Ralph in theaters on November 2.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Steve Wiebe is no stranger to high-stake challenges. He’s the former two-time world champion of the original Donkey Kong, with his most recent score standing at 1,064,500 points. This weekend, he’s out to set a new record … only now it’s for a game that doesn’t really exist.

The mild-mannered science teacher rose to fame from his starring role in a 2007 documentary, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. The film followed the emotional and intense rivalry between Wiebe and Billy Mitchell, a cocky restaurant owner from Florida who was the incumbent champion (and a veteran of the competitive arcade scene), as they competed to set the world record for the highest score in Donkey Kong.

As the underdog, Wiebe won the hearts of gamers and non-gamers alike. In the welcome message on his website, he wrote, “The movie has definitely changed my life. I’ve been blessed by God in so many ways before, during, and after the movie.”

Even Disney’s paid attention to his celebrity status, as the house that Mickey Mouse built recruited Wiebe to help promote Wreck-It Ralph, its upcoming animated film that pays homage to the arcade games of yore.

It’s a perfect fit: Disney has brought the 8-bit Donkey Kong-inspired Fix-It Felix Jr. (pictured above) from the film to life in the form of a vintage-looking arcade cabinet. Disney will showcase the game in Seattle for the annual Penny Arcade Expo, where Wiebe will attempt to set the highest score he possibly can tomorrow afternoon from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at GameWorks.

Source: stevewiebe.com

Steve Wiebe

If you’re going to be around the area (you don’t need a PAX badge), you can challenge him, too. Whoever beats his high score by 11:59 p.m. this Sunday will win an advance 3D screening of Wreck-It Ralph.

No pressure, right?

Wiebe’s involvement is just the latest in a long string of promotions for the movie. The lovingly crafted arcade cabinets of Fix-It Felix Jr. appeared at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (in non-playable form) and at San Diego Comic-Con (where it was somewhat hidden). A Flash version of the game is also available to play on the film’s official website as well as in a free download for iOS devices on the App Store.

Featuring cameos of well-known virtual characters, like Super Mario’s Bowser and  Street Fighter’s Zangief, the movie is about Ralph, a video game villain (voiced by actor John C. Reilly) from Fix-It Felix Jr. who is having a mid-life crisis after being stuck in the same job for over 30 years. Wreck-It Ralph follows his misadventures as he hops from one game universe to the next, including a harrowing experience in Hero’s Duty, a sci-fi shooter whose name is obviously inspired by the Call of Duty franchise.

Wreck-It Ralph will be out in theaters on November 2.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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If you’re a journalist who hits enough behind-closed-doors appointments at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, someone will offer you something. Maybe just a bottled water. Possibly an art book. Almost certainly a USB hub that transforms into a USB robot (nope, not making that one up). Swag is the universal language of E3, as ubiquitous as booth babes and banner ads.

Apparel, however, rules the show. Nothing marks status like walking around the L.A. Convention Center with a fairly exclusive — and free — t-shirt nonchalantly draped over your shoulder. And these were the absolute best shirts (plus a few extras) we saw…or took home ourselves.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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