Disney drops game exec in wake of Disney Infinity success

At Disney Interactive, there apparently were too many cooks in the kitchen. Disney announced today that John Pleasants, co-president of the company's Disney Interactive video game division, would be resigning, effective immediately. The departure comes right after a quarter that saw profits within Disney's game division, thanks to the success of the video game-toy crossover, Disney Infinity. The game has sold over 1 million starter packs globally, Disney said. Pleasants previously was CEO of Playdom, the social game company that Disney acquired in August 2010 in an eye-popping $763 million deal that took place just before the social game space deflated. Prior to Playdom, Pleasants was COO of Electronic Arts. Jimmy Pitaro, the co-president opposite Pleasants, will take the reins of the video game division on his own. Pleasants told The New York Times that while the decision was "collaborative," he "would have also been happy to stay on. I would be misleading you if I said I wanted to leave." He'll serve as a consultant as he transitions out of his role. Disney chair Bob Iger said in a statement, "Following three years of consistent operating improvement at Disney Interactive and a great partnership between John and Jimmy, we are now in a position to fulfill our original objective to consolidate our interactive business under one Los Angeles-based leader." In that statement, Iger credited Pleasants with helping establish "tentpole products like Disney Infinity and establishing the company as a leading mobile games publisher."