During its first quarter 2014 earnings call yesterday, Disney reported strong performance in its Interactive division. The segment was responsible for $403 million in revenue compared to $291 million during the same quarter last year.

During the earnings call, CEO Bob Iger laid out some expectations for where Interactive is heading. While he didn’t go so far as to confirm the reported Marvel and Star Wars sets, he did assure that new versions of the game will use more of the companies characters.

He also spoke about how Interactive will be fitting into the games business. “You will see more licensing rather than publishing on the console side, except for Infinity,” Iger said. “We are also basically tracking what we are seeing in the industry, doing a fair amount of work at creating efficiencies and moving off of some of the more traditional platforms into mobile-to-mobile space, mostly for social games and for other casual games.”

Iger didn’t speak specifically about staffing changes, but did suggest that there would be reductions in spending. Disney does project a loss in the second quarter for the Interactive division, but attributes that to an empty release calendar.

[Source: Seeking Alpha]

Our Take
With an projected loss in the next quarter and a desire to reduce expenses, the stage is set for layoffs at Disney Interactive. We’re hopeful that the reports from earlier in the week are incorrect, but we’re monitoring the situation.