Disney’s Former CEO Seems To Have No Memory Of Approving Kingdom Hearts

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Kingdom Hearts is such a significant part of many people’s lives, but for former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, greenlighting the iconic Square Enix franchise was just another Tuesday. Eisner must have taken a trip through Castle Oblivion, because he seems to have forgotten why he approved the series.

Reporter Stephen Totilo of Game File briefly had the ear of Eisner after a panel about video game company Delphi Interactive, for which Eisner is an investor. Totilo asked the 84-year-old businessman if he recalled giving the go-ahead for Kingdom Hearts, which launched on PlayStation 2 in 2002. Eisner simply responded: “No.”

Totilo says he clarified to Eisner that he was pitched the game in Tokyo and it was a crossover between Final Fantasy and Disney characters. While that jogged Eisner’s memory a bit, he failed to remember why he gave Square the thumbs-up, according to Totilo.

At least one person from that Tokyo meeting remembers how it went down–per Kingdom Hearts Insider, Shuji Utsumi, then the managing director for Disney Interactive’s Asia Pacific division, detailed that faithful day when he ran Kingdom Hearts by Eisner and over 100 members of management. Utsumi characterized Eisner’s demeanor as that of an “ancient Chinese