Immediately following Disney executive Steve Wadsworth's DICE 2010 keynote, Gamasutra conducted an intereview with both him and fellow Disney exec Graham Hopper, and they spent this interview time wisely: by zeroing-in on Epic Mickey, which is slated for a Q4 2010 release.

Among other things, such as the influence Kingdom Hearts' mixed-universe canon has had on the development of Epic Mickey, Hopper addressed the game's current exclusivity to the Wii, and why the Wiimote was the primary factor in that decision, stating, "the key mechanic is an ink and paint mechanic, it seemed completely intuitive to people."

The game initially was to be a very dark take on the Disney universe, featuring a heavy steampunk motif and lots of unnervingly 'damaged' cartoon characters. The decision to lock-in motion control as a key game mechanic forced the project onto the Wii, and, due to a lack of motion controls on the systems that could have realized this dark vision, became a Wii exclusive. As a result, Epic Mickey's hard boiled visuals have been somewhat diluted to appear a little more child-friendly, not to mention less technically demanding.

But that was then. The time is now, and the Sony Motion Controller and Project Natal are not only very real but also very imminent. Will Disney adopt these free-form controls also, thus giving the world's oldest mouse a 1080p makeover? Hopper stated, "If we started it 6 months ago we would have potentially thought differently about it."

So, no high definition Epic Mickey? Perhaps not. But, folks, it's Disney. And Disney knows how to make money. As Steve Wadsworth said, "We have a very large audience base that has Wiis in their home. That's not to say we won't go to other platforms." So there you have it: Epic Mickey - confirmed for the Atari Jaguar.

For my money, the perfect scenario here would be for Epic Mickey to arrive on-time for the Wii in Q4 this year, with all it's E+ MSRB rating intact. Then Warren Spector can blow the dust off those amazing concept pieces we saw back in July of last year, spend 18 months creating an HD 'director's cut' and give XBOX 360 and PS3 owners a truly awesome, truly epic Mickey. What say you?

Source: Gamasutra