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News ► Disney Infinity is being discontinued



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Alpha Baymax

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I would imagine that Square & Disney already have a set contract for KH3 & Disney can't really tamper with that even if they wanted to.

Kingdom Hearts is such a peculiar case for Disney. It was the only means of keeping Disney Animation relevant as the early 2000's were all about Pixar. I think that Disney is thankful enough for the Kingdom Hearts series to let them have free reign. And unlike Disney INFINITY: Kingdom Hearts wasn't bandwagoning on a trend (*cough* Disney Crossy Road *cough*). There's too much already invested in Kingdom Hearts to axe it.
 

BlackOsprey

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Kingdom Hearts is such a peculiar case for Disney. It was the only means of keeping Disney Animation relevant as the early 2000's were all about Pixar. I think that Disney is thankful enough for the Kingdom Hearts series to let them have free reign. And unlike Disney INFINITY: Kingdom Hearts wasn't bandwagoning on a trend (*cough* Disney Crossy Road *cough*). There's too much already invested in Kingdom Hearts to axe it.
Ehhh... was Kingdom Hearts really the main thing that kept Disney Animation from going under?
 

reimeille

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Kingdom Hearts is such a peculiar case for Disney. It was the only means of keeping Disney Animation relevant as the early 2000's were all about Pixar. I think that Disney is thankful enough for the Kingdom Hearts series to let them have free reign. And unlike Disney INFINITY: Kingdom Hearts wasn't bandwagoning on a trend (*cough* Disney Crossy Road *cough*). There's too much already invested in Kingdom Hearts to axe it.

Are you really so sure it had a such a big effect? Where did you hear about this? Sure, at the time they weren't doing too hot (especially in 2002-2004, with the exception of Lilo and Stitch) but I don't think KH's successes actually did anything to the studio... They're two different departments of the company, aren't they?
 

Oracle Spockanort

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Are you really so sure it had a such a big effect? Where did you hear about this? Sure, at the time they weren't doing too hot (especially in 2002-2004, with the exception of Lilo and Stitch) but I don't think KH's successes actually did anything to the studio... They're two different departments of the company, aren't they?

I think the implication is that Kingdom Hearts kept Disney Animation relevant by reminding and informing people about the good films they had despite their poor offerings during the early 2000s, thus potentially leading to steady sales of those films.

There hasn't been anything to prove such a thing, though.
 

BlackOsprey

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I think the implication is that Kingdom Hearts kept Disney Animation relevant by reminding and informing people about the good films they had despite their poor offerings during the early 2000s, thus potentially leading to steady sales of those films.

There hasn't been anything to prove such a thing, though.
People remembered and bought those good films because they were... y'know, good. To the point of being memorable. Most everyone remembers and recognizes the classics and the Renaissance highlights, but most of those people aren't even gamers, let alone KH fans.
 

Oracle Spockanort

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People remembered and bought those good films because they were... y'know, good. To the point of being memorable. Most everyone remembers and recognizes the classics and the Renaissance highlights, but most of those people aren't even gamers, let alone KH fans.

Exactly. And if Kingdom Hearts had any impact on drawing people into Disney, I doubt it was a huge number of people. Most people invested in the series because they were already familiar with either Disney or Final Fantasy.
 

Chuman

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tl;dr kingdom hearts may not be the cake, but it sure as hell makes for a tasty icing.
 

BlackOsprey

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tl;dr kingdom hearts may not be the cake, but it sure as hell makes for a tasty icing.
The analogy works, alright.

It did revive my love for Disney when I thought I had gotten too old for it, so there's that.
 

Antifa Lockhart

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Exactly. And if Kingdom Hearts had any impact on drawing people into Disney, I doubt it was a huge number of people. Most people invested in the series because they were already familiar with either Disney or Final Fantasy.

To be totally fair, Kingdom Heart's release came at the tail end of that short era where it wasn't acceptable for anyone over 5 to like Disney. It was, but what I mean is there was a cultural tug against that, and millennials absolutely smashed that soon after and we've been living in the age of nostalgia ever since. This was during the experimental phase, internally called Disney's second dark age, when they kept churning out beautiful films that more or less flopped, the exception being Lilo and Stitch.

I remember there was an interview with Nomura where they were like "you made it cool for everyone to like Disney again!" and he was like "that's exactly what we wanted!" or something similar. In any case, you're right: I don't think it made an impact or was huge in contributing to that culture shift, but it's worth noting.
 

redcrown

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To be totally fair, Kingdom Heart's release came at the tail end of that short era where it wasn't acceptable for anyone over 5 to like Disney. It was, but what I mean is there was a cultural tug against that, and millennials absolutely smashed that soon after and we've been living in the age of nostalgia ever since.

What a better time to live in. I still have memories of being a kid and early teen in the cynical 2000's when it wasn't cool to like anything remotely joyful or nerdy, what a darker time.

Now I feel bad for Disney Infinity. It really did look fun and inventive. I think if any KH characters were made for it I might have bought it like a sheep and loved it.
 
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BlackOsprey

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What a better time to live in. I still have memories of being a kid and early teen in the cynical 2000's when it wasn't cool to like anything remotely joyful or nerdy, what a darker time.
Glad I was too young to remember that time at all. Now you can't walk three feet without tripping over classic Disney or running into a nostalgic 90's kid.
 

Elysium

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I was a teen in high school during that time. I remember recommending KH to a friend in passing once and they said it was stupid.... We aren't friends anymore. lol So I don't think KH really had an impact, since the people who were over Disney wouldn't have picked it up anyway.

I'll always have memories of being in elementary school during the big boom of Aladdin and The Lion King. <3
 

Knuxpyro56

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Kingdom Hearts made Disney relevant in video games. Thats it, it was one of those series that if you had a PS2, you had to have that game like Jak, Ratchet, God of War, Grand Theft Auto, Final Fantasy and Metal Gear.

If you really want to remember how Disney was in the 2000s, that was when only 3 films were stand outs Stitch, Pirates and the Emperor's New Groove. Stitch was the biggest thing at Disney, so much that at Disney World, Stitch had been overexposed to the extreme (like Stitch on Toilet Paper and the infamous Stitch's Great Escape)
 

Nazo

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Glad I was too young to remember that time at all. Now you can't walk three feet without tripping over classic Disney or running into a nostalgic 90's kid.

Wasn't just Disney, it was absolutely anything associated with nerd culture. I remember back in elementary school to early middle school, which for me would have been around 2005/2006, where if you spoke of videogames in public you were more or less branded a loser on the spot. Nowadays, nerd culture is predominant enough to the point where you can openly gush about anime in public. Such a thing was unthinkable back in the days of closeted nerd passions.
 

reimeille

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The analogy works, alright.

It did revive my love for Disney when I thought I had gotten too old for it, so there's that.

It did the same for me. I grew up obsessed with it but when I hit maybe 9 or 10 it became "for babies" (although I had already been playing KH for about a year). If it wasn't for Kingdom Hearts, I wouldn't have this embarassingly large and cutesy Disneyland, Ariel, and Rapunzel collection sitting in heavily-guarded storage (DO YOU HEAR THAT DISNEY. KINGODM HEARTS MADE YOU MORE MONEY)

Unfortunately it also made me yearn even more to have Kingdom Hearts involved with Disney's other ventures, especially Disneyland (which I grew up near). Which leads to heartbreak like with Disney Infinity... It may not have been that long awaited gateway into mainstream recognition but it would have been awesome.


Kingdom Hearts made Disney relevant in video games. Thats it, it was one of those series that if you had a PS2, you had to have that game like Jak, Ratchet, God of War, Grand Theft Auto, Final Fantasy and Metal Gear.

If you really want to remember how Disney was in the 2000s, that was when only 3 films were stand outs Stitch, Pirates and the Emperor's New Groove. Stitch was the biggest thing at Disney, so much that at Disney World, Stitch had been overexposed to the extreme (like Stitch on Toilet Paper and the infamous Stitch's Great Escape)

This is definitely true; to this day it's the only genuine Disney game franchise that actually made it very far -- and it made it super far. I'm kind of suprised that Disney never tried to emulate Square's formula, or try to talk some of their team into helping them out with other games in the years since. Clearly Square's methods work better as they develop the only surviving Disney game (not counting Lucasfilm/Marvel), so how have they not watched and learned?
 

redcrown

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I feel bad for all the negative criticism l had for it.

Well maybe sone of it was justified but still, I'm sad its gone now that I know they had bigger plans to expand its characters and lands including possibly KH
 

Chaser

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I'm even more bummed out now that they recently got the clearance to add DLC trophies / achievements to DI 3.0 and did such with Marvel Battlegrounds and Finding Dory and now everything is canned and I can't get the toys with add on trophies :( :( :(
 

Oracle Spockanort

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The female Marvel character that was to be released this year was Spider-Gwen. Literally the one I was hoping for most. Now I'm mad all over again.:mad:

GOD DAMN IT.

I love Spider-Gwen :c


It isn't shocking, but is truly baffling that Disney was unwilling to take any risks. It wasn't like it was something that was so difficult for them to do, either. They have the capitol and the IPs the the creative talent for it. Why was this so difficult?
 
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