Disney Interactive Sees Revenue Decrease On Poor Turok Comparisons

Disney's Interactive Media division, which handle's the media giant's video game operations, saw a 17 percent second quarter year-over-year drop in revenue to $129 million, but operating losses were relatively unchanged from last year. The group, which was merged together last year, consists of two major parts. It owns major game-related studios such as Warren Spector's Junction Point, as well as Turok developer Propaganda, and publishes the majority of Disney's console and PC game titles. The division, which also operates Disney-owned major casual/online world titles such as Club Penguin and Toontown, saw its quarterly losses increase only two percent year-over-year, from $60 million to $61 million. Focusing on Interactive Media, the revenue drop for the quarter ending March 31st, 2009 was pinned on the lack of internally-published console games like last year's Q1 release Turok. The group weathered the downturn thanks to lower marketing and administrative costs, as well as improved performance from the company's Japanese mobile services business. Interactive Media's performance contrasted that of Disney as a whole, whose quarterly revenues dropped only seven percent to $8.09 billion year-over-year, but whose net income fell by nearly half, from $1.13 billion to $613 million. President and CEO Bob Iger described Disney's circumstances as "difficult," citing "the weak economy and other factors." Its drop in income was in part due to significant restructuring expenditures in response to the economic climate. Still, the company slightly outperformed market expectation. "We remain focused on our core business strategy and believe our creativity, brands and businesses will serve us well as the economy recovers," said Iger.