Disney: We created ‘tween’ market

Disney boss Graham Hopper has told MCV that the firm is glad other publishers are finally catching up” to the ‘tween’ market in games.

Speaking in an exclusive interview, Hopper said that Disney felt it has been part of the creation” of the market, which is driven by young female consumers.

The firm has grown to become a dominant player in the space, with recent releases such as Hannah Montana: The Movie Game (pictured).

Hopper told MCV:

I’d like to think that we were part of the creation of the tween gamer space. It was completely unattended by publishers before. We got into it slowly, with a little on GBA and then on DS, and over time have put a lot of energy into developing content girls like.

It’s not easy to do, for sure: it’s about thinking about what girls enjoy, what content they want, how they might play games differently, how the gameplay evolves and the difficulty grows. You have to talk to that audience – we have done a lot of focus testing. I’m glad other publishers are finally waking up to it and realising that there is a whole generation of gamers out there that will play provided we make games for them.”

To read MCV’s full interview with Graham Hopper, click here.