Kingdom Hearts Is a Billion-Dollar Franchise, Disney Declares Ahead of Hotly Anticipated D23 Panel

Kingdom Hearts is one of nine billion-dollar franchises Disney has under its video game banner. The news comes ahead of a hotly anticipated panel at D23, where Disney is expected to talk about Kingdom Hearts 4. In a blog post, Disney said its Disney Games Group portfolio “spans nine billion-dollar franchises including Kingdom Hearts and Marvel Strike Force.” More than half of these billion-dollar franchises have come out in the last 12 years. Disney games have driven an estimated $3.5 billion in consumer spend annually for the past four years — and crossed $4 billion this past fiscal year, Disney said. That includes all Marvel games, all Star Wars games, indeed all games based on any Disney IP, of which there are many. Upcoming Disney games include Marvel’s Wolverine, from Insomniac, the Iron Man game from EA’s Motive, and Star Wars Eclipse from Quantic Dream, although there is a cloud hanging over the latter. Meanwhile, Disney is also the rights holder for Respawn’s Star Wars Jedi 3, Creative Assembly’s Alien: Isolation 2, and Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra. Kingdom Hearts’ name on Disney's billion-dollar list perhaps comes as a surprise, given how few mainline entires have been relea