Meet one of video games' most interesting new companies… wait, Disney's former CEO said what?

July 23, 2026 - 04:26

NEW YORK -- On a sweltering afternoon in midtown Manhattan, I found myself at the Paley Center for Media, wearing a blue suit I had to retrieve from two years of dry cleaning limbo. I was there for a panel about an intriguing new video game company called Delphi Interactive, and I had low expectations for the other speaker: Michael Eisner, Disney's CEO from 1984 to 2005. As a gaming reporter, I didn't think Eisner had much to offer on the subject.

But I was wrong. Before the panel, I had one goal: ask Eisner about the time he green-lit "Kingdom Hearts," the bizarre but beloved mash-up of Final Fantasy characters with Mickey Mouse and friends. When I approached him afterward, he initially didn't remember. "You were pitched the game in Tokyo," I reminded him. "Final Fantasy plus Disney characters." He recalled the meeting but couldn't say why he approved it. I kicked myself later for not showing him concept art of Sora with a keyblade.

The real star of the event was Casper Daugaard, founder of Delphi Interactive. His company came out of nowhere to become a major force, matchmaking elite developers with big franchises. They produced the acclaimed James Bond game "007 First Light" and a simplified FIFA World Cup game for Netflix. Daugaard, who never worked in gaming before, explained that he contacted Bond rights holders after a decade of no new games. "The owners had soured on big corporations like Electronic Arts and Activision," he told the audience.

Delphi's approach is to work outside the traditional studio system. Some critics call them middlemen, but Daugaard doesn't fully disagree. He also shared how he cold-emailed FIFA after reading they were breaking up with EA, landing a deal on the strength of the Bond project.

Then Eisner stole the show with a Disney anecdote. "We learned at Walt Disney World to make our golf courses easy," he said. "Fathers come down for a week. They want to think they did well. So we don't need as many sand traps." He connected that philosophy to making games accessible. He also got blunt about Disney's failures in gaming during the 1980s, admitting the company bungled the business entirely. It was a rare, honest moment from a former media titan, and it made me realize I had underestimated him.