Warner Brothers re-opens Avalanche Software for Cars 3

Some dark cartoon necromancers have been at work. Avalanche Software, the developers who were shut down after Disney Infinity laid out its roadmap of slow death, marking an end for Disney as a games publisher, have been reopened under Warner Brothers. And they’re going to make the tie-in game for Cars 3. Why are Time Warner making Disney’s videogames for them? I don’t know. That’s just how the childhood dream barons work these days.

On the bright side, this means some jobs have been either saved or recreated (we’re not sure which), as Avalanche will now be working under Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment. They’re not alone under that bannerlord, joining LEGO magnates TT Games and Rocksteady Studios, the warlords in charge of the Batman Arkham fiefdom. It’s all very bloody and showbiz under there.

Cars 3 will be the developers’ first game since their return (here's a surprisingly serious trailer for the movie) but there’s no word of what subsequent games will be made by the studio. Will there be some ongoing deal to pump out licensed Disney trinkets, or will Warner Bros let the team go their own way? Given the Bros current license-heavy output, I’m going to predict the former, or some other plan. Again, it’s a bit odd to see two cinema giants, normally happy to savage each other for superheroes and comic book franchises, work together to make something. But stranger things have happened. The other day my cat ate a gecko. Yesterday a volcano went off 30 km from my house. Everything is covered in thin dust. I'm treating this as just another omen.