Disney acquires majority stake in Ignition

The Walt Disney Company, parent company of Disney Interactive, now holds control over Indian firm UTV, the parent company of El Shaddai and Deadly Premonition publisher UTV Ignition.

A BBC report indicates Disney intends to delist UTV, swallowing it whole.

The acquisition was first reported in July 2011, and seems unrelated to either company's subsidiary games publishing concerns, instead presented as a foray into India by The Walt Disney Company, the world's largest media conglomerate. It is not yet clear how UTV Ignition and its properties will be affected.

Both UTV Ignition and Disney Interactive struggled in 2011. UTV Ignition gave up on internal development, shelving Project Kane (WarDevil) and Reich in the process, despite reasonable interest in El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, a product of its Japanese studio which became a local phenomenon. The publisher also battened down the hatches, closing its LA, London and Florida offices in favour of a single Texas studio.

Disney Interactive announced it would gradually restructure into a digital-only publisher, and continued to post losses, although its long-term strategy is to hit profitability in 2013.

Thanks, GameInformer.