News ► Disney Infinity is being discontinued

[Sign]

In an investors meeting held today, Jimmy Pitaro, Disney's Chairman of Consumer Products and Interactive Media, confirmed that the company will be discontinuing Disney Infinity This decision came from the struggling toys-to-life market and high development costs, leading them to make the difficult decision to cancel Infinity and shut down internal developer Avalanche Studios, thereby laying off close to 300 staff. They will take a $147 million charge with consideration for severance for employees, company assets, etc.

In doing so, they will be changing their approach to console gaming and focusing on licensing their properties to third parties, much like what they've been doing with Electronic Arts and Star Wars. This does, however, pose potential dilemmas for Kingdom Hearts. If other developers license Disney properties, Square Enix would have to pay those developers to use them, which could limit which worlds and characters can appear in future installments. 

Infinity's cancellation means that a Sora figurine will never see the light of day, but playsets for Alice: Through the Looking Glass and Finding Dory will still be released as scheduled in June.

Our best wishes to the affected staff. 

Source: VentureBeat, Ben Fritz

 

[Xickin]

Huh, I mean, I never played it, but I thought this franchise was popular enough to last a lot longer. A shame we'll never see Sora though.

 

[Alpha Baymax]

I just made a topic on this (you can delete it seeing as it's the same topic).

I wish the best of luck to all of those involved within Disney Interactive and Avalanche Studios. Disney always has a habit of shutting down their gaming divisions.

I'm concerned for the Kingdom Hearts series as Disney still owns the rights to that....

 

[Xickin]

I think Kingdom Hearts it safe for now. It's just too dang popular and there would be an uproar from the fanbase community if they ever decided to just shut them down. Plus they'd have to sever their ties with Square Enix in that department and that's just a whole other hassle.

 

[MATGSY]

*censored for consisting of nothing but expletives*

I just got Ant-Man & Black Panther today with Vision coming tomorrow. I was pondering what other marvel characters (particularly heroines that they said were coming) would come later this year.

Never will there be Sora or any other KH character in DI, never a proper King Mickey figure (Christ, that power disc is gonna skyrocket even more on EBay now), never will the 1.0 figures get the skill tree upgrades they sorely needed. & never will I probably finish that Spider-Man vs. The Sinister Sith toybox I was working on.

edit: NO GOOFY FIGURE EITHER!!!

 

[Alpha Baymax]

I think Kingdom Hearts it safe for now. It's just too dang popular and there would be an uproar from the fanbase community if they ever decided to just shut them down. Plus they'd have to sever their ties with Square Enix in that department and that's just a whole other hassle.

I've re-read the original and must have forgotten the whole "shifting to third party developers part". Safe move on Disney's part...

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

It is crazy how Disney essentially imploded their own video game development and publishing arm.

I feel terrible for Avalanche, though.

 

[gosoxtim]

i not worry about kingdom hearts if some reason disney right are gone im sure sqaure and norua can find a an other company

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

i not worry about kingdom hearts if some reason disney right are gone im sure sqaure and norua can find a an other company

Disney still owns their IPs. The problem would come with future licensing deals Disney might do with their IPs. Like if a company decided to make a Jungle Book game and licenses the IP out, SE would not only have to go to Disney but also to the company that holds the license to see if they can get permission to use it.

 

[Chuuya]

If Sora was added in Disney Infinity, that would be the only reason I'd buy it.

 

[Rydgea]

Disney still owns their IPs. The problem would come with future licensing deals Disney might do with their IPs. Like if a company decided to make a Jungle Book game and licenses the IP out, SE would not only have to go to Disney but also to the company that holds the license to see if they can get permission to use it.

Ugh. Even more troublesome, time-consuming red tape / potential costs.

While it does seem tactical due to specific devisions of Disney Interactive having bled so much money that they would choose to leave development solely to third parties, it's also disheartening on another level.

I'm ambivalent to the nature of Disney Infinity, though I am glad KH did get some sort of nod in the series. It still seems like an ordeal for the company to acknowledge the series in any manner. The Launch Events have been a nice surprise, but outside of promotional campaigns..

 

[BlackOsprey]

*quietly curls into fetal position*

Y'know, I never really cared about this game, but I still wanted to see Sora and the others make it in.

What's more troubling is the effect this will have on any future Kingdom Hearts games after KH3. There's no way it could be shut down anytime soon, since KH3's already got a lot of momentum, but anything past that... I know I'd be pretty depressed if gaining rights to use a bunch of Disney properties became such a hassle that everyone just calls it quits on the franchise.

Is KH really enough of a powerhouse to deal with that kind of red tape in the future? D:

 

[MATGSY]

i not worry about kingdom hearts if some reason disney right are gone im sure sqaure and norua can find a an other company

Disney owns KH. They own Sora & heartless & keyblades & everything except for the FF characters.

 

[Elysium]

Good riddance, but I am sorry for the employees/fans.

Surely paying for copyrights wouldn't be so costly that it would jeopardize KH series? It's popular enough (and makes enough money in return) that it would be worth it anyway, wouldn't it?

 

[maryadavies]

Don't worry, I think Square is enough of a powerhouse that nothing will really happen; EXCEPT this means we def won't see Star Wars in any KH games. I understood there were licensing issues b/c EA (Boo, hiss!) has the video game rights for anything but the most casual of games for that; well, this makes Star Wars even more complicated to license.

I think the films that were originally owned and created by Disney or Pixar are prolly the easier to license, however. I could be wrong tho, say if another company gets there first. I'm sure if they plan to do licensing that they'll streamline it for those for Square. It only makes sense since Disney owns the charas, including Sora.

 

[FudgemintGuardian]

Then again I never cared for Disney Infinity, but I'm bummed that we'll never get a Sora figure now.

I feel bad for the employees

I do worry that this could harm Kingdom Hearts with in dealing future licensing deals since there's the chance of having to go through a third party.

But then again, this may work out as it may nudge SE towards other Disney properties.

 

[Knuxpyro56]

Good riddance, but I am sorry for the employees/fans.

Surely paying for copyrights wouldn't be so costly that it would jeopardize KH series? It's popular enough (and makes enough money in return) that it would be worth it anyway, wouldn't it?

What are you talking about, Disney has owned the Kingdom Hearts Franchise since day one.


Here is what lies in future of the Kingdom Hearts franchise from this. Nothing really changes. Disney Infinity combined Disney, Marvel, ABC, ESPN and Lucasfilm. That is true, however, Disney still had 3rd party deals long before Infinity even began. The EA/Lucasfilm deal, Capcom(Ducktales), Sega (Castle of Illusion) and Square Enix/Kingdom Hearts deal is a clear examples of that. Marvel still runs its own games division, which is why they still release mobile games under the Marvel brand and not the Disney Brand, and they still have the Telltale deal.

For example EA has announced that Battlefront has exceed expectation selling 14 million. Disney sees that Licensing to 3rd parties is the way to go, so deals with EA, TellTale, and Square Enix are still good to go

 

[LightUpTheSky452]

Well, this is a big and unsettling change that came out of nowhere. I feel really bad by everyone who will be effected by this:/

And here I was really looking to get into Disney Infinity, too.

Now no Kim Possible figure will ever see the light of day, like I wanted, either

I also now think that KH won't get a nod from Disney in a good and non-cringe worthy way ever again (like with the Keyblade thing that Disney Infinity did).

Anyway, I'm going to try and not get paranoid about this. At least we know KHIII is safe... But I also needs me that second saga badly. Please don't make us all lose that, Disney. I will pay you good money if I have to, to keep that from happening.

 

[Elysium]

What are you talking about, Disney has owned the Kingdom Hearts Franchise since day one.

What are you talking about? I never said Disney didn't own KH. I was reacting to what was said in the first post, in case you missed it:

This does, however, pose potential dilemmas for Kingdom Hearts. If other developers license Disney properties, Square Enix would have to pay those developers to use them, which could limit which worlds and characters can appear in future installments

 

[reimeille]

A little heartbroken. I campaigned really heavy on social media during the "Our Disney Infinity" thing for Sora. It seemed like we were really close. I wonder if they had any plans in the works, and if they will ever show us.

But I can't say it wasn't expected. Disney's gaming division has always been quite weak, their only sucessful game franchises have been ones developed by other studios (like Kingdom Hearts and Star Wars: Battlefront). As much as I did actually Infinity, it didn't look like it was going to last very long.

I'm still quite confused on what this might do to KH, but I pray this doesn't affect it too badly. I'm hoping that Kingdom Hearts's popularity is to the point where it's a priority for Disney. The only Disney game franchise that surpasses it as far as I can recall is Star Wars.