Disney has acquired startup iPhone app developer Tapulous, as the company continues its push into mobile games. Some of you may know Tapulous from the music game ‘Tap Tap Revenge’ which was an early hit for the iPhone.

One of Disney Interactive Media Group’s bigger upcoming releases is ‘Tron Evolution’.

Tapulous says it has more than 35 million users, and ‘Tap Tap Revenge’ has been played more than 1 billion times, while the company also makes games for the iPad. Terms of the deal were not disclosed though.

Reuters reports that Tapulous is profitable, and as of December, its sales approached $1 million (around €800,000) a month. As part of the acquisition, Tapulous founders Bart Decrem and Andrew Lacy and their development team will join the Disney Interactive Media Group (DIMG).

One of DIMG’s bigger upcoming releases is ‘Tron Evolution’ (watch the trailer here), though whether the acquisition means we’ll get a ‘Tap Tap Tron’ game in the near future, featuring the soundtrack from Daft Punk, is not really clear. How exactly Disney utilise Tapulous should be intriguing though, as they already have a small imprint in mobile gaming but obviously want a different style of product.

Anyway, Decrem and Lacy will be leading Disney’s mobile gaming business from California, where Tapulous is based. “Disney sees this (mobile gaming) as the future and so do we,” Decrem said.

For his part, DIMG president Steve Wadsworth, in a statement, “Mobile gaming is seeing unprecedented growth and this is the right time to invest to strengthen our position in the mobile business.”

He is right, mobile gaming is only getting bigger and it makes sense for Disney – which has sizable interests in nearly every sector of the entertainment industry – to increase its involvement in the area at this point.