8 ms·

Disney stops making video games in house – insiders reveal what went wrong

129 points by nkurz 10y ago

Animats 10y ago
Acquiring and trashing companies is seriously annoying. Disney did this to about a half dozen game companies. Google is doing it to about a half dozen robotics companies. In both cases, the acquisitions were initially seen as positive. In both cases, the parent company had no clue what to do with what they bought. I have a friend who works at a company recently acquired by Microsoft, a company whose product was not Microsoft-oriented. I wrote to her "You've been acquired by the Borg - now what?" She hopes the company doesn't get trashed. Another case that irks me is QNX, the microkernel OS. They were bought by Harmon, which is mostly a car stereo company. That didn't work out, and Harmon sold them to Blackberry. Blackberry has a clue technically, but is stuck with a business model in decline. Meanwhile, a really good OS is in limbo. Not dead; many important embedded systems use QNX. The reliability is much better than either Windows or Linux, partly because the kernel is small. As a result, it's actually been debugged.
- pinewurst 10y ago
  Disney: this isn't surprising. I don't think people realize how bureaucratically corporate Disney is, almost a parody at the level of "Brazil". They are a good employer though if one finds a happy place there with excellent benefits. QNX: a lovely embedded and even service OS. I used it for encryption and stream management in a game-cartridge-over cable-TV headend. They also included a bag of chocolate chip cookies in the box. :) Microsoft: I remember the agonizing (and multiply failed) Hotmail transition from Unix to Windows after the acquisition. I was working for a vendor called in to assist and the status meetings were a slow motion car wreck.
  - kevin_thibedeau 10y ago
    > They are a good employer though if one finds a happy place there with excellent benefits. As long as you don't work in IT.
    - pinewurst 10y ago
      Not disagreeing - I interviewed for a position there and asked about the outsourcing effort and results. The senior manager was awfully defensive about it.
  - derefr 10y ago
    > game-cartridge-over cable-TV headend PlayCable or Sega Channel? :)
    - pinewurst 10y ago
      It was a dead branch in the evolution of Sega Channel relating to XBAND. I felt like I had to enter the Witness Protection Program soon after. :)
  - bluedino 10y ago
    >> the agonizing (and multiply failed) Hotmail transition from Unix to Windows Can you share more? I was fascinated by Hotmail and the documents Microsoft published about the transition made it seem like it went very well.
    - pinewurst 10y ago
      I'm afraid that I don't remember much after all this time but MS was of course lying through its collective teeth. I didn't write this, but it matches what I saw close up: http://jimbojones.livejournal.com/23143.html http://jimbojones.livejournal.com/23143.html
- xyzzy4 10y ago
  Cisco licensed QNX and turned it into a nice operating system called IOS XR.
  - Animats 10y ago
    Yes. If only they'd offer that on consumer-sized routers. Surprisingly often, you find QNX running some important piece of infrastructure which doesn't get much attention because it isn't breaking very often.
  - pinewurst 10y ago
    The most recent (>5.0) versions of IOS XR are now based on a 64-bit Linux kernel.
    - xyzzy4 10y ago
      Interesting. Even before that, you could run IOS XR with a Linux-based emulator called EnXR. It's useful for testing because you don't need to load the image onto a real router.
- gaius 10y ago
  I have been through 3 acquisitions. They always tell you that nothing will change and this isn't really a lie exactly, as the person who says it genuinely believes it. But in a year's time that person has moved on, been promoted, busy with another acquisition, whatever, and now you report to an established and powerful manager in the old company, who doesn't see why you are special or should be treated differently than his or her existing staff. In fact they probably actively resent you; the company buying you at all they take as a signal that existing staff weren't "good enough". At that point, you are screwed.
  - diogenescynic 10y ago
    >But in a year's time that person has moved on, been promoted, busy with another acquisition, whatever, and now you report to an established and powerful manager in the old company, who doesn't see why you are special or should be treated differently than his or her existing staff. In fact they probably actively resent you; the company buying you at all they take as a signal that existing staff weren't "good enough". Reading that gave me a since of deja vu. I'm going through exactly what you describe, but it only took 6 months, not a year, to get to this point. It seems like the people running the acquisition actively want to destroy the business they've acquired by making us fit into their 'box' while missing the bigger picture.
- stuaxo 10y ago
  So many times a company isn't good at something, buys someone smaller and faster that is, and then imposes their way of doing things on the acquisition killing it.
- madaxe_again 10y ago
  No buyer in an acquisition ever understands what they're buying. They believe they do, and usually the seller believes they do too. It usually takes a year post deal for everything to come out of the woodwork. Sometimes it ends happily, sometimes not. It's down to serendipity. Actually, generally, nobody has a clue what they're doing, ever, but they believe they do, and that's good enough, more often than not. Acquisition deals happen almost by accident, and for reasons which are rarely rational.
bitwize 10y ago
Disney should just let Square Enix handle their gamibg ventures. Somehow they could turn a 14-year-old girl's crossover fanfic into a phenomenal series and franchise in its own right (I of course am referring to Kingdom Hearts).
- CJKinni 10y ago
  While Square Enix may tend to make great series, their financial situation isn't all roses either. The huge production delays on their games out of Japan have made those projects huge risks. Take a look at the amazing amount of money they seem to be putting into the launch of the new Final Fantasy game to try and recoup costs. Their subsidiaries (eg IO Interactive and, Edios Montreal, and Square Enix Montreal) seem to be doing better overall.
- mhurron 10y ago
  > Disney should just let Square Enix handle their gamibg ventures. That's actually pretty funny, with SE also being a shadow of it's former self.
williesleg 10y ago
It's cheaper to buy and trash than compete.
cwilkes 10y ago
While I think it is a good idea for a company to stick to their knitting (making movies and such, not video games) I'm not sure what studio will want to work with them when Disney holds all the IP to the characters. Say a game is a hit and makes the game studio a lot of money. Disney's going to see that and demand more for licensing fees. What is the studio going to say? No? It isn't like the studio can start releasing games with those characters without Disney's blessing. Or maybe it will work, who knows. It will be interesting to watch.
- KJP191 10y ago
  Their videogame deal with Lego seems to be working out OK. And they've got loads of experience licensing out their IP for toys etc.
  - Varriount 10y ago
    Lego is likely one of the few companies with sufficient clout and experience to actually work with Disney on videogames. Not only does Lego possess a valuable product that other companies can use as promotion material, but they also possess the experience of developing videogames which use other companies' IP (or at least, the experience to mediate between whatever company they contract to develop the game and the company possessing the IP).
- deciplex 10y ago
  Studios will simply negotiate exclusive rights I guess. You, and no one else, get to make Star Wars games for the next decade. Quality will probably go to shit as a result, but who cares about that?
- csydas 10y ago
  I'd be curious to see what deals Disney had worked out for its NES era games made by Capcom. While I remember them fondly, I guess I don't really know if they were commercially successful at the time or not. If it was successful, then it just seems natural that they'd continue to license the IP out to let those who do know games do their thing with franchises, and honestly the in-house production of games for Disney always seemed off.
officemonkey 10y ago
Saddest part of the Disney Infinity debacle is the fans. DI was marketed strongly to kids based on the success of Star Wars and MCU franchises. Although game play was lackluster, the target audience (kids 4-8) didn't care. And the figurines were really very cool. When they pulled the plug on Disney Infinity, they really sent a pretty clear "we don't care" to any kid that loved those DI figurines. You don't want to send a FU to that market segment, because little boys don't forget.
- dottrap 10y ago
  Sadly, it won't matter. Here's another example of Disney neglecting successful markets they created. I just re-read this DuckTales 25th Anniversary Retrospective from a few years ago because Alan Young/Scrooge died the other day. Excerpt: But what media company has almost 4 times the market capitalization of CBS and is among the largest media conglomerates in the world? That would be Disney of course. And what is Disney doing to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of DuckTales, the most successful syndicated cartoon series in history? Absolutely nothing. I'm always quite amazed at Disney's inability to capitalize on their own successful products. http://playcontrol.net/ewing/jibberjabber/ducktales-25th-anniversary.html http://playcontrol.net/ewing/jibberjabber/ducktales-25th-ann...
  - vmarsy 10y ago
    The wiki[1] page says: On February 25, 2015, Disney XD announced it would be reviving the series for a 2017 premiere. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuckTales https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuckTales
wobbleblob 10y ago
> One of the most common refrains among ex-Disney staffers was that Disney had a strong aversion to risk. Now why does that not surprise me. Disney stopped making art somewhere in the 1940's (fantasia) and started shipping product. I didn't share people's relief that the force awakens at least didn't suck like the prequels. The writing was so derivative as to almost make it a remake. Instead of Jar Jar Binks, the comic relief was Emo-Vader, but the comic relief shouldn't be the best part of the movie, and I'm not even sure if he was meant to be funny.
- bitJericho 10y ago
  Sorry, unless you're an angsty teen, you weren't meant to relate to emo-vader, er, Kylo Ren. You were meant to relate to Han Solo. But you'd only relate if you're a parent. If not, then I guess there's always Traitor-guy. Yes the new episode is derivative. That's because it is how epics are told. It will diverge on the next two episodes from the original trilogy, unless Disney gets scared... that would be a huge disappointment...
  - wanderer2323 10y ago
    "Yes the new episode is derivative. That's because it is how epics are told" What a load of bull. It is how bad sequels are told, "more of the same".
    - abritinthebay 10y ago
      No, that's literally standard epic storytelling structure. This is Lit 101 stuff.
      - wanderer2323 10y ago
        (citation needed)
  - wobbleblob 10y ago
    > You were meant to relate to Han Solo Funny coincidence: the other day my youngest stabbed me with her light saber edit: spoiler alert. If you don't want to read spoilers, don't read the sentence above.
mullingitover 10y ago
The interactive division has burned through billions and billions of dollars since it was founded in the late 90s. It's not a big surprise that they would eventually go with a strategy of 'figure out what you're bad at, and stop doing that.' I was there from 2006 to 2015 and the layoffs were constant. Their IP is valuable but they can't execute efficiently.
acz 10y ago
And there you have Ron Gilbert asking Disney to sell him Monkey Island IP back, to proceed with a sequel: >Dear @Disney, now that you're not making games, please sell me my Monkey Island and Mansion Mansion IP. I'll pay real actual money for them. src: https://twitter.com/grumpygamer/status/734843964709175297 https://twitter.com/grumpygamer/status/734843964709175297
- molmalo 10y ago
  They may give him a license, but Disney is an IP black hole, they wont sell it back. And considering its very close to Pirates of the Caribbean, there's even less chance of that happening any time soon. In my opinion, what Disney should be doing, is contact Ron, and make Guybrush and LeChuck appear in the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie, to introduce them to a new generation who does not have any idea of who they are (Guybrush being a young naive boy again would fit pretty well for this job). After all, PotC and MI universes are pretty compatible, it should be easy to make it look like they are both in the same universe/time. Then, they could either make MI a spin-off (preferably), or make Guybrush be a new sidekick to Sparrow (but please, dont make him a silly Robin). And then, give Ron full freedom to work with that IP as he wishes... (and pay him accordingly, or better, give him a nice % of royalties). If they don't want to sell the IP, at least, this way they could make some money with it (instead of letting it rot in a drawer), without risking their PotC franchise, letting Ron continue the story, and making us fans happy in the process!!
ameen 10y ago
Out of all the titles listed on there. Split/Second suffered the worst fate. One of the best arcade racers when it released with an excellent MP (on PC at least). If managed properly, it could've ended up as popular as CoD4 or CS. Every person I know who played it loved it. It could've been the one franchise that would've unseated NFS as the undisputed champion for arcade racers and put them on the map for a new multiplayer experience. Instead, it suffered the worst possible fate for a product of its quality.
ep103 10y ago
The same company that fired all their IT people, after forcing them to train their offshore replacements, has a hard time turning a profit on quality software? Color me flabbergasted.
cableshaft 10y ago
I interviewed at Wideload in downtown Chicago when they were owned by Disney and working on that Marvel mobile game. They were located in a floor of a building that kind of looked like a huge studio apartment. The people there were nice and it looked like a fun place to work. I only went with another company because they gave me an offer first. But even though the company I went with instead proceeded to have a super rough year of losing multiple clients that ultimately resulted in my getting laid off, Disney had shuttered Wideload several months before that. It didn't make any sense to me, since these people were clearly talented (check out Guilty Party on the Wii, it's excellent). And then I saw them shut down studio after studio, and it just makes them look inept in the game space, to me. Then another Disney company contacted me last year asking me to move across the country so I could work on their mobile park app. Couldn't really trust them anymore, so I passed.

129 points by nkurz 10y ago

Acquiring and trashing companies is seriously annoying. Disney did this to about a half dozen game companies. Google is doing it to about a half dozen robotics companies. In both cases, the acquisitions were initially seen as positive. In both cases, the parent company had no clue what to do with what they bought. I have a friend who works at a company recently acquired by Microsoft, a company whose product was not Microsoft-oriented. I wrote to her "You've been acquired by the Borg - now what?" She hopes the company doesn't get trashed. Another case that irks me is QNX, the microkernel OS. They were bought by Harmon, which is mostly a car stereo company. That didn't work out, and Harmon sold them to Blackberry. Blackberry has a clue technically, but is stuck with a business model in decline. Meanwhile, a really good OS is in limbo. Not dead; many important embedded systems use QNX. The reliability is much better than either Windows or Linux, partly because the kernel is small. As a result, it's actually been debugged.

pinewurst 10y ago
Disney: this isn't surprising. I don't think people realize how bureaucratically corporate Disney is, almost a parody at the level of "Brazil". They are a good employer though if one finds a happy place there with excellent benefits. QNX: a lovely embedded and even service OS. I used it for encryption and stream management in a game-cartridge-over cable-TV headend. They also included a bag of chocolate chip cookies in the box. :) Microsoft: I remember the agonizing (and multiply failed) Hotmail transition from Unix to Windows after the acquisition. I was working for a vendor called in to assist and the status meetings were a slow motion car wreck.
- kevin_thibedeau 10y ago
  > They are a good employer though if one finds a happy place there with excellent benefits. As long as you don't work in IT.
  - pinewurst 10y ago
    Not disagreeing - I interviewed for a position there and asked about the outsourcing effort and results. The senior manager was awfully defensive about it.
- derefr 10y ago
  > game-cartridge-over cable-TV headend PlayCable or Sega Channel? :)
  - pinewurst 10y ago
    It was a dead branch in the evolution of Sega Channel relating to XBAND. I felt like I had to enter the Witness Protection Program soon after. :)
- bluedino 10y ago
  >> the agonizing (and multiply failed) Hotmail transition from Unix to Windows Can you share more? I was fascinated by Hotmail and the documents Microsoft published about the transition made it seem like it went very well.
  - pinewurst 10y ago
    I'm afraid that I don't remember much after all this time but MS was of course lying through its collective teeth. I didn't write this, but it matches what I saw close up: http://jimbojones.livejournal.com/23143.html http://jimbojones.livejournal.com/23143.html
xyzzy4 10y ago
Cisco licensed QNX and turned it into a nice operating system called IOS XR.
- Animats 10y ago
  Yes. If only they'd offer that on consumer-sized routers. Surprisingly often, you find QNX running some important piece of infrastructure which doesn't get much attention because it isn't breaking very often.
- pinewurst 10y ago
  The most recent (>5.0) versions of IOS XR are now based on a 64-bit Linux kernel.
  - xyzzy4 10y ago
    Interesting. Even before that, you could run IOS XR with a Linux-based emulator called EnXR. It's useful for testing because you don't need to load the image onto a real router.
gaius 10y ago
I have been through 3 acquisitions. They always tell you that nothing will change and this isn't really a lie exactly, as the person who says it genuinely believes it. But in a year's time that person has moved on, been promoted, busy with another acquisition, whatever, and now you report to an established and powerful manager in the old company, who doesn't see why you are special or should be treated differently than his or her existing staff. In fact they probably actively resent you; the company buying you at all they take as a signal that existing staff weren't "good enough". At that point, you are screwed.
- diogenescynic 10y ago
  >But in a year's time that person has moved on, been promoted, busy with another acquisition, whatever, and now you report to an established and powerful manager in the old company, who doesn't see why you are special or should be treated differently than his or her existing staff. In fact they probably actively resent you; the company buying you at all they take as a signal that existing staff weren't "good enough". Reading that gave me a since of deja vu. I'm going through exactly what you describe, but it only took 6 months, not a year, to get to this point. It seems like the people running the acquisition actively want to destroy the business they've acquired by making us fit into their 'box' while missing the bigger picture.
stuaxo 10y ago
So many times a company isn't good at something, buys someone smaller and faster that is, and then imposes their way of doing things on the acquisition killing it.
madaxe_again 10y ago
No buyer in an acquisition ever understands what they're buying. They believe they do, and usually the seller believes they do too. It usually takes a year post deal for everything to come out of the woodwork. Sometimes it ends happily, sometimes not. It's down to serendipity. Actually, generally, nobody has a clue what they're doing, ever, but they believe they do, and that's good enough, more often than not. Acquisition deals happen almost by accident, and for reasons which are rarely rational.

bitwize 10y ago

Disney should just let Square Enix handle their gamibg ventures. Somehow they could turn a 14-year-old girl's crossover fanfic into a phenomenal series and franchise in its own right (I of course am referring to Kingdom Hearts).

CJKinni 10y ago
While Square Enix may tend to make great series, their financial situation isn't all roses either. The huge production delays on their games out of Japan have made those projects huge risks. Take a look at the amazing amount of money they seem to be putting into the launch of the new Final Fantasy game to try and recoup costs. Their subsidiaries (eg IO Interactive and, Edios Montreal, and Square Enix Montreal) seem to be doing better overall.
mhurron 10y ago
> Disney should just let Square Enix handle their gamibg ventures. That's actually pretty funny, with SE also being a shadow of it's former self.

williesleg 10y ago

It's cheaper to buy and trash than compete.

cwilkes 10y ago

While I think it is a good idea for a company to stick to their knitting (making movies and such, not video games) I'm not sure what studio will want to work with them when Disney holds all the IP to the characters. Say a game is a hit and makes the game studio a lot of money. Disney's going to see that and demand more for licensing fees. What is the studio going to say? No? It isn't like the studio can start releasing games with those characters without Disney's blessing. Or maybe it will work, who knows. It will be interesting to watch.

KJP191 10y ago
Their videogame deal with Lego seems to be working out OK. And they've got loads of experience licensing out their IP for toys etc.
- Varriount 10y ago
  Lego is likely one of the few companies with sufficient clout and experience to actually work with Disney on videogames. Not only does Lego possess a valuable product that other companies can use as promotion material, but they also possess the experience of developing videogames which use other companies' IP (or at least, the experience to mediate between whatever company they contract to develop the game and the company possessing the IP).
deciplex 10y ago
Studios will simply negotiate exclusive rights I guess. You, and no one else, get to make Star Wars games for the next decade. Quality will probably go to shit as a result, but who cares about that?
csydas 10y ago
I'd be curious to see what deals Disney had worked out for its NES era games made by Capcom. While I remember them fondly, I guess I don't really know if they were commercially successful at the time or not. If it was successful, then it just seems natural that they'd continue to license the IP out to let those who do know games do their thing with franchises, and honestly the in-house production of games for Disney always seemed off.

officemonkey 10y ago

Saddest part of the Disney Infinity debacle is the fans. DI was marketed strongly to kids based on the success of Star Wars and MCU franchises. Although game play was lackluster, the target audience (kids 4-8) didn't care. And the figurines were really very cool. When they pulled the plug on Disney Infinity, they really sent a pretty clear "we don't care" to any kid that loved those DI figurines. You don't want to send a FU to that market segment, because little boys don't forget.

dottrap 10y ago
Sadly, it won't matter. Here's another example of Disney neglecting successful markets they created. I just re-read this DuckTales 25th Anniversary Retrospective from a few years ago because Alan Young/Scrooge died the other day. Excerpt: But what media company has almost 4 times the market capitalization of CBS and is among the largest media conglomerates in the world? That would be Disney of course. And what is Disney doing to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of DuckTales, the most successful syndicated cartoon series in history? Absolutely nothing. I'm always quite amazed at Disney's inability to capitalize on their own successful products. http://playcontrol.net/ewing/jibberjabber/ducktales-25th-anniversary.html http://playcontrol.net/ewing/jibberjabber/ducktales-25th-ann...
- vmarsy 10y ago
  The wiki[1] page says: On February 25, 2015, Disney XD announced it would be reviving the series for a 2017 premiere. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuckTales https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuckTales

wobbleblob 10y ago

> One of the most common refrains among ex-Disney staffers was that Disney had a strong aversion to risk. Now why does that not surprise me. Disney stopped making art somewhere in the 1940's (fantasia) and started shipping product. I didn't share people's relief that the force awakens at least didn't suck like the prequels. The writing was so derivative as to almost make it a remake. Instead of Jar Jar Binks, the comic relief was Emo-Vader, but the comic relief shouldn't be the best part of the movie, and I'm not even sure if he was meant to be funny.

bitJericho 10y ago
Sorry, unless you're an angsty teen, you weren't meant to relate to emo-vader, er, Kylo Ren. You were meant to relate to Han Solo. But you'd only relate if you're a parent. If not, then I guess there's always Traitor-guy. Yes the new episode is derivative. That's because it is how epics are told. It will diverge on the next two episodes from the original trilogy, unless Disney gets scared... that would be a huge disappointment...
- wanderer2323 10y ago
  "Yes the new episode is derivative. That's because it is how epics are told" What a load of bull. It is how bad sequels are told, "more of the same".
  - abritinthebay 10y ago
    No, that's literally standard epic storytelling structure. This is Lit 101 stuff.
    - wanderer2323 10y ago
      (citation needed)
- wobbleblob 10y ago
  > You were meant to relate to Han Solo Funny coincidence: the other day my youngest stabbed me with her light saber edit: spoiler alert. If you don't want to read spoilers, don't read the sentence above.

mullingitover 10y ago

The interactive division has burned through billions and billions of dollars since it was founded in the late 90s. It's not a big surprise that they would eventually go with a strategy of 'figure out what you're bad at, and stop doing that.' I was there from 2006 to 2015 and the layoffs were constant. Their IP is valuable but they can't execute efficiently.

acz 10y ago

And there you have Ron Gilbert asking Disney to sell him Monkey Island IP back, to proceed with a sequel: >Dear @Disney, now that you're not making games, please sell me my Monkey Island and Mansion Mansion IP. I'll pay real actual money for them. src: https://twitter.com/grumpygamer/status/734843964709175297 https://twitter.com/grumpygamer/status/734843964709175297

molmalo 10y ago
They may give him a license, but Disney is an IP black hole, they wont sell it back. And considering its very close to Pirates of the Caribbean, there's even less chance of that happening any time soon. In my opinion, what Disney should be doing, is contact Ron, and make Guybrush and LeChuck appear in the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie, to introduce them to a new generation who does not have any idea of who they are (Guybrush being a young naive boy again would fit pretty well for this job). After all, PotC and MI universes are pretty compatible, it should be easy to make it look like they are both in the same universe/time. Then, they could either make MI a spin-off (preferably), or make Guybrush be a new sidekick to Sparrow (but please, dont make him a silly Robin). And then, give Ron full freedom to work with that IP as he wishes... (and pay him accordingly, or better, give him a nice % of royalties). If they don't want to sell the IP, at least, this way they could make some money with it (instead of letting it rot in a drawer), without risking their PotC franchise, letting Ron continue the story, and making us fans happy in the process!!

ameen 10y ago

Out of all the titles listed on there. Split/Second suffered the worst fate. One of the best arcade racers when it released with an excellent MP (on PC at least). If managed properly, it could've ended up as popular as CoD4 or CS. Every person I know who played it loved it. It could've been the one franchise that would've unseated NFS as the undisputed champion for arcade racers and put them on the map for a new multiplayer experience. Instead, it suffered the worst possible fate for a product of its quality.

ep103 10y ago

The same company that fired all their IT people, after forcing them to train their offshore replacements, has a hard time turning a profit on quality software? Color me flabbergasted.

cableshaft 10y ago

I interviewed at Wideload in downtown Chicago when they were owned by Disney and working on that Marvel mobile game. They were located in a floor of a building that kind of looked like a huge studio apartment. The people there were nice and it looked like a fun place to work. I only went with another company because they gave me an offer first. But even though the company I went with instead proceeded to have a super rough year of losing multiple clients that ultimately resulted in my getting laid off, Disney had shuttered Wideload several months before that. It didn't make any sense to me, since these people were clearly talented (check out Guilty Party on the Wii, it's excellent). And then I saw them shut down studio after studio, and it just makes them look inept in the game space, to me. Then another Disney company contacted me last year asking me to move across the country so I could work on their mobile park app. Couldn't really trust them anymore, so I passed.