Disney Interactive has announced that they will not be making any more base games in the Disney Infinity franchise. The company plans to release two more playset expansions and then shut down the game and its developer Avalanche Software.
“From the beginning, Disney Infinity was built for you—our fans—and I wanted to take a moment to thank you not just for your support over the years, but for creating a community that made Disney Infinity more than just a game,” said John Blackburn, senior vice president and general manager on the product. “Our goal for Disney Infinity was to bring the best of Disney storytelling to life in homes around the world, and with your support we accomplished that. We hope you had as much fun playing the game as we had making it.”
Jimmy Pitaro, chairman of consumer products and interactive media told Polygon that Disney’s approach to console gaming had changed and Disney Infinity no longer fit into that approach.
Also according to Polygon, Disney CEO Bob Iger expanded on Pitaro’s statement. “We thought we had a really good opportunity to launch our own product in that space; the console space, but also the toys to life space,” Iger said. “In fact we did quite well with the first iteration and did OK with the second, but that business is a changing business and we did not have enough confidence in the business in terms of being stable enough to stay in it.”
According to Blackburn, there will be three figures from Alice Through the Looking Glass released later this month. Then, there will be a Finding Dory playset released in June. Those will be last products in the franchise.
Disney Infinity was one of the big three toys-to-life franchises, with Skylanders and LEGO Dimensions being the other two. Disney Infinity was released shortly after Skylanders had proved the viability of the space. There will be a new Skylanders game this year, but LEGO Dimensions will get expansions rather a whole new game.
