Disney’s move to shift some mobile game development to Jam City, marks yet another return to licensing third-party developers.

Jam City takes over the operations of Disney’s Glendale Games Studio and the development of the Disney “Emoji Blitz” title, capped a transition that also has included Zynga being licensed for Star Wars games.

Jam City also will work on a title tied to Frozen 2, the movie for which is due next year. Emoji Blitz was first released in 2016.

Glendale Games Studio was the last vestige of what had been Disney Interactive Studios, which was shut down two years ago when the Disney Infinity series was discontinued. Development of games for videogame consoles has long been with third parties, including Electronic Arts (“Star Wars”) and Square Enix (“Kingdom Hearts”).

Contact:

Disney, Kyle Laughlin, SVP Games and Interactive Experiences, kyle.Laughlin@disney.com