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[Richard Kain]

And...Disney Infinity is officially cancelled.

Disney has announced that they are shutting down Avalanche Studios, and that Disney Interactive will no longer be working on any internal development. It will be 100% licensing of properties now. Basically, they're going to be extending the Star Wars/Lucas Arts model to all Disney properties when it comes to video games.

I am personally disappointed by this. I really liked the Disney Infinity games. And I really liked the figures that went along with them. They were cleaner and more elegant than a lot of the other toys-to-life efforts.

It will be interesting to see how this move affects the toys-to-life market. Infinity was one of the larger and more successful competitors in that space. They still account for a sizable chunk of shelf space. Having them bow out will make a bit more room for other multi-platform games like Skylanders and Lego Universe.

[Armageddon]

Not Avalanche Studios(Just Cause), Avalanche Software.

I also think it's pretty disappointing; The game looked good and iirc it was hugely profitable? Disney has money to burn I don't get why they'd have to shut anything down. Also didn't they make a deal that EA will have exclusive rights to make any future Star Wars games? That would suck if EA had it forever.

[InfiniteStateMachine]

Just heard about this. I previously worked on Disney Infinity and it's quite surprising. Whenever I read the press they were always talking about how much money it was making.

[Photon]

Whenever I read the press they were always talking about how much money it was making.

Recent press suggests otherwise, at least for their gaming division as a whole:

Disney is reporting that due to losses in their gaming division ($147 million, in all), they are moving towards eliminating their presence as a console game publisher, and effectively shuttering Disney Infinity in the process.

Link: http://www.destructoid.com/has-the-toys-to-life-bubble-popped-disney-infinity-is-no-more-as-publisher-shutters-console-gaming-division-360392.phtml

There's also suggestions that Skylanders isn't doing too hot either, though its supposedly more rumor than anything at this point. LEGO Universe and Nintendo amiibo seem to be OK (perhaps even thriving) despite all this, however.

But I'm not much into this market myself; I only have a couple amiibo of my own. Still an interesting development though, as it seemed to really be "the thing" for awhile, especially when Skylanders hit. My first impressions of the whole thing was that it was a bit of a cash grab, but business is business. The whole concept was indeed a neat one.

[InfiniteStateMachine]

I think they might have their info wrong or else it's a huge coincidence. $147 million is how much they have to pay as penalties relating to their toy contracts. Infinity largely contributed to the interactive divisions increased profits previously.

"Igers says much of the $147M write-off for "Infinity" is related to inventory of toys" - WSJ

https://twitter.com/benfritz/status/730152822117896196 (link is a tweet but if you follow it you can get to the wsj article)

Ultimately though, my guess is compared to all their other divisions the amount of profit (if any at this point) is so minute compared to their other endeavors they figured that it isn't worth the time and furthermore they figure they can get a better return elsewhere. Just a uneducated guess though, I'm not a business person

One other thing to consider is that there is such a big physical component to these games. Making and shipping all these figurines is really expensive when compared to something you can distribute digitally.

EDIT : Another article is up http://www.polygon.com/2016/5/10/11652866/disney-infinity-ending

Sounds like it was on a very real downward trend towards real losses.

[gimymblert]

CRAZIER NINTENDO SPECULATION TIME

SO I have heard disney has been in discussion with nintendo for quite some time (among many other firms) to have a hand on it's character brand relative to their similar market overlap. Since nintendo has a "thriving" toys to life situation, could that licensing goes to nintendo as a deal between the two firm? (handling animation vs handling games).

Regards

- Nintenyearsold -

[Bakuda]

Wow....I'm really floored by this.  What a crazy decision!!!