Ron Gilbert wants to make a Monkey Island game, plans to contact Disney "at some point"

We recently talked to adventure game luminary Ron Gilbert about Disney's acquisition of LucasArts, and how he felt about the rights to Monkey Island changing hands. He wasn't optimistic that he'd ever retrieve the series he created, saying that Disney seems like a company which "hoards IP." In an interview posted by Eurogamer today, however, Gilbert confirmed that he does plan to contact Disney. If he's lucky, they'll just read the interview and save him the phone call.

"I would love to contact [Disney] at some point," said Gilbert. "I haven't done anything yet but I definitely want to."

After being pressed on the subject, Gilbert added, "At some point I will," and said that getting the rights to Monkey Island would allow him to "really make the game I want to make."

So, we'll see. Will Disney abandon the franchise? Will it sell it? Will Guybrush ever have a chance to reference the situation with a witty comment? Only time and probably a lot of money will tell.

Less relevant, but amusing, is how Gilbert feels about Pirates of the Caribbean. "Pirates of the Caribbean is a rip-off of Monkey Island which is a rip-off of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride," he said. "So it's hard for me to get too mad at Disney when I ripped them off originally."

I love the admission, just as long as no one at Disney utters the word "cross-over." And Monkey Island or no Monkey Island, Gilbert's been busy: he's currently at Double Fine finishing up The Cave , a side-scrolling puzzle game releasing sometime next month.

Tyler Wilde
Executive Editor

Tyler grew up in Silicon Valley during the rise of personal computers, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on the early PCs his parents brought home. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilization, Command & Conquer, Bushido Blade (yeah, he had Bleem!), and all the shooters they call "boomer shooters" now. In 2006, Tyler wrote his first professional review of a videogame: Super Dragon Ball Z for the PS2. He thought it was OK. In 2011, he joined PC Gamer, and today he's focused on the site's news coverage. His hobbies include amateur boxing and adding to his 1,200-plus hours in Rocket League.