Disney Acquires “Studio EX” South Korean Studio to Penetrate Asian F2P Market

It seems Disney is hellbent on acquiring every media studio on the planet, as Disney Interactive has just acquired South Korean developers Studio EX to help them penetrate Asia's highly-lucrative free-to-play (F2P) gaming scene.

Studio EX, which has a number of Facebook games in development including Pantheon of Heroes and Galaxy X, will have their forthcoming games aimed at the mobile and online platforms using Disney's brands. Yep, you read that right, the studio has yet to release a single game yet, but Disney must have been impressed at what they can potentially offer for buying them this early on.

While details of the acquisition has not been disclosed, Disney did give an official statement to AllThingsD, which you can read below.

The Walt Disney Company has acquired Studio Ex, a games development studio in Korea that focuses on multiplayer, free-to-play online and mobile games. Through a stock purchase agreement, Studio Ex is now a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company reporting into Disney Interactive.

This isn't the first time Disney acquired a Korean studio or partnered with it for gaming purposes. Prior to this acquisition, Disney has already paired up with Koream firm Smilegate to develop a game based on Marvel's stable of superheros, which is also aimed at the Asian market. Aside from that, the House of Mickey also shacked up with Korean gaming developers Zipi Studio to launch Zipi Racing — massively multiplayer online racing game featuring characters from Pixar's Toy Story and Cars franchises.

Of course, this is considered a small-time deal when compared to some of Disney's previous purchases. Just a few years ago they bought Marvel and all its licenses for future use in comics, books, games and more. Most recently, the company has bought the entire Star Wars license from LucasArts, which encompasses the same deal.

While this might seem insignificant for now, can this be the first step in its move to buy out a major publisher? If so, which studio or publisher would you want to be part of Disney? 

Thanks, GamesIndustry