It's official: Disney publishing Critter Crunch for iPhone

Publisher X has confirmed that it's no longer publishing the iPhone version of Critter Crunch, with the rights having transferred to Disney's Starwave division.

The game had disappeared from the App Store, only to reappear this weekend in a new version with Starwave's name as the publisher.

"Disney and Publisher X have struck a deal for Disney to publish Critter Crunch on the iPhone moving forward," said co-founder Doug Kennedy, in a statement released to PocketGamer.biz.

"Both Disney and Publisher X are happy with the terms of the deal, and the transfer of the IP to Disney will allow the Critter Crunch franchise to flourish under Disney's watch."

Naturally, the terms of that deal have not been revealed, nor have the events leading up to it.

We're assuming there was some kind of row, since Disney was the original publisher of Critter Crunch in its Java incarnation.

Capybara Games developed both the Java and iPhone versions, but when the latter was released in July, it was published by Publisher X. Now the rights are back with Disney.

There could be a downside for players who bought the Publisher X version for iPhone, since the new Starwave version isn't recognised as an upgrade to that title. To get any future upgrades, players will have to pay again.