Farrell: Disney’s Toy Story move is no surprise

THQ CEO Brian Farrell has said that the publisher anticipated Disney’s rejection of its pitch for the Toy Story 3 licence.

As reported by MCV earlier today, Disney appears to have become the first major media conglomerate to snatch back IP from established independent third-party publishers – by taking development of the Pixar franchise in-house.

But Farrell told the Wall Street Journal: "We would have loved to keep the business, but when you see a company like Disney scaling up we weren’t surprised they went internal with it."

However, Farrell questioned the prospects of major media conglomerates that are upping their presence in games – such as Disney, Viacom and Warner Bros.

"I’ve seen this before and the jury is still out," he added.

The WSJ reports thar Pixar co-founder John Lasseter, now Disney’s head of animation, opted for the in-house pitch.