Days after Disney Interactive Studios launched “Spectrobes” for the Nintendo DS hand-held game system this spring, it discovered that fans had posted hacks to the video game on the Web. But instead of calling their colleagues in the legal department, the Disney executives were thrilled, the Los Angeles Times reports.

“Nobody goes to that amount of trouble to decode something unless they really liked it,” said Graham Hopper, a Walt Disney Co. executive vice president and general manager of its game studio in Glendale.

“Spectrobes” awoke Disney to the possibility that it could become a bigger force in the rapidly growing game industry, which reached $12.5 billion in U.S. revenue last year. Disney is investing $130 million in games this year and plans to nearly triple that spending in the next five to seven years.

The company is outlining its new game strategy today in Santa Monica at the E3 Media & Business Summit, the industry’s annual get-together.

This year’s affair is much smaller and more sedate than those of years past, but dozens of video game companies including Nintendo Co., Sony Corp. and Electronic Arts Inc. showed off their latest products Wednesday.

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