Disney completing UTV acquisition

American multimedia empire Disney is wrapping up its acquisition of Indian multimedia kingdom UTV, whose videos games offerings have included developing El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron and publishing Deadly Premonition in North America.

February 2, 2012 1:30 PM3

American multimedia empire Disney is wrapping up its acquisition of Indian multimedia kingdom UTV, whose videos games offerings have included developing El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron and publishing Deadly Premonition in North America. Don’t get your hopes too high for strange and wonderful fruit to come of this coupling, though, as both companies have been winding down their AAA games development for some time.

UTV has its fingers in many media-pies, packing production and distribution divisions for television and movies, and owning six TV channels. On the gaming front, it has mobile gaming company Indiagames, publisher True Games, and developer and publisher Ignition Entertainment.

Disney already owned 50.4% of UTV, but will snap up the rest when UTV is delisted from the stock exchange. It’ll then be integrated into Disney, becoming The Walt Disney Company India. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The House of Mouse first bought a 15% stake in UTV in 2006, and has expanded that several times since.

UTV has scaled back its console gaming efforts considerably in recent years, closing several studios. Ignition is still in the publishing racket, though, bringing Quarrel to Xbox Live Arcade last month and prepping future titles including Vanillaware’s Dragon’s Crown. The eternally-in-development WarDevil is supposedly still being made, though, by outsourcers and a small internal team.

“Increasing our brand presence and reach in key international markets is a cornerstone of our growth strategy,” Walt Disney International chairman Andy Bird said in the announcement. “This acquisition expands our footprint significantly and allows us to more effectively build, monetize and brand multi-platform franchises, and deliver a rich library of content to the world’s second largest population.”