Mickey News reports in with the following:
Walt Disney Co., the second-largest U.S. media company, plans to release a video game for the Nintendo DS device that comes with coded trading cards designed to unlock hidden features.
“Spectrobes,” from Disney’s Buena Vista Games unit, will go on sale March 13 with a $29.99 retail price, Burbank, California-based Disney said today in a statement. Players can buy or trade the cards and also play each other via a Wi-Fi connection without a fee.
Chief Executive Officer Robert Iger is building a larger video game business with a focus on Kyoto, Japan-based Nintendo Co., which also targets a younger audience. Disney bought the Fall Line game studio in November and plans to increase spending on game development to $350 million annually in the next five to seven years.
“Disney and Nintendo fit together very well,” Graham Hopper, general manager of Disney’s Buena Vista Games, said in an interview. “The Disney consumer and the Nintendo DS consumer are very similar.”
Shares of Disney declined 41 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $34.94 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They have gained 37 percent in the past year.
Developed by Kyoto, Japan-based Jupiter Corp., the game follows two junior Planetary Patrol officers who must save the galaxy by awakening, training and collecting prehistoric creatures called “Spectrobes.”
Included in each game is a pack of four translucent code cards that can be collected and traded.
Players use the cards to gain access to hidden parts of the game, including different creatures and minerals. Additional trading cards will be available after the game’s release, giving Disney a potential source of additional revenue.
