The Walt Disney Internet Group’s new Starwave Mobile business, launching at this week’s CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment Show, will expand the organization’s play in the wireless arena.
Starwave Mobile will function as a licensing and publishing business focused on licensing content from third-party companies and non-Disney brand properties of The Walt Disney Company.
Initial licenses include Trivial Pursuit, Don Bluth’s Dragon’s Lair and Pucca characters. Starwave also will publish original game properties developed by WDIG’s development team. Publishing is scheduled to begin this fall.
“This move marks a significant shift in our wireless strategy as it is the first time we are publishing third-party content,” said Larry Shapiro, executive vice president and general manager of North American mobile for WDIG.
“It opens up a tremendous growth channel for WDIG, expanding our content line-up in key demographics,” Shapiro added. “And it provides a simple means for third-parties to get their mobile titles quickly and widely distributed.”
Disney was an early entrant in the mobile content market, starting in 1999.
