Disney confirms closure of Junction Point Studios

Disney has confirmed its closure of Epic Mickey developer Junction Point studios.

The confirmation comes after Star Citizen developer Roberts Space Industries broke the news last night on Twitter.

"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," reads a statement handed to Gamasutra. "These changes are part of our ongoing effort to address the fast-evolving gaming platforms and marketplace and to align resources against our key priorities.

"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."

Junction Point was founded in 2005 by Spector and his colleague Art Min, along with members of Ion Storm. The studio was acquired by Disney Interactive two years later, and its first title released was Epic Mickey on Wii in 2010.

Polygon reports Junction Point staff have been on leave for the two months since Epic Mickey 2 shipped, but were given no warning of the closure today. They will receive severance packages.

Has Mickey lost it?
Disney and the NPD confirmed with Joystiq that Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two managed just 529,000 units sold in the US in November and December 2012. Dreamrift-developed companion 3DS title Disney Epic Mickey: The Power of Illusion shifted about 166,000 units in the same time period.

It's unclear at this time whether Disney will retire the Epic Mickey line of games; it retains the rights, naturally, but is said to have "no plans". In 2011, the publisher announced its intention to pull back from the traditional console sphere in favour of mobile and social games, but has went on to reveal Disney Infinity, a Skylanders-like sandbox game drawing on multiple licenses.