Disney is Ending its Infinity Line, Avalanche Software Shuttered

[Lizzy Finnegan]

Disney is Ending its Infinity Line, Avalanche Software Shuttered

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"The economics of our current vertical business model no longer add up."

Disney announced today that it would be discontinuing its Infinity line and shutting down Avalanche Software, which will impact around 300 people. Disney's console gaming presence will exist "through licensing partners."

"Disney will continue to have a strong console gaming presence through licensing partners such as Electronic Arts and Square Enix, as the category provides a unique consumer experience as well as opportunity for our business," Disney's announcement reads (via Cinelinx [http://www.cinelinx.com/game-news/item/9385-disney-infinity-is-closing-shop-avalanche-software-being-closed-down.html]). "The team behind Disney Infinity created an incredible product. It was a critical success that inspired a deeply engaged community of players. But, despite Disney Infinity's quality, it has become difficult to financially justify continued investment given the lack of growth in the toys-to-life market. Coupled with high development costs, the economics of our current vertical business model no longer add up."

Per the announcement, Disney has said that it will work with employees affected by the closure in order to provide resources, support, and assistance with "potential internal opportunities."

Senior vice president and general manager of Infinity addressed the issue further on the Disney Interactive blog [http://www.disneyinteractive.com/blog/update-disney-infinity/].

"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," Blackburn wrote.

There will be two final releases: three new characters from Alice Through the Looking Glass later this month, and the Finding Dory Play Set launching in June.

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[Programmed_For_Damage]

My girls loved it when it first came out and then steadily lost interest. I've noticed the same thing with Lego Dimensions. Of course it didn't help that you had to buy new portals if you wanted to use the new figures.

I feel sorry for the guys and gals at Avalanche Software though. Hope they rebound.

 

[fix-the-spade]

So the bottom fell out of the plastic toy DRM market?
Colour me surprised.

Best of luck to the Avalanche Studios refugees, hope you all find good things to do soon.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Skylanders is what started this whole thing. I really feel that while Infinity may have been interesting and all, the attempt to capitalize on Skylanders' success was fairly short-sighted. At least though there haven't been a ton of publishers trying to cash in on the idea.

 

[thewatergamer]

Oh yeah that Disney thing that was kind of like Nintendo? Whatever, I can't say I'm torn up about it, I'd prefer if this obsession with having plastic toys that are hard to find unlocking "additional" content in games

 

[EndlessSporadic]

"Lower our budget and make engaging gameplay instead of pretty graphics? Screw that, just shut the company down."

~Every publisher ever~

 

[Stemer]

So the bottom fell out of the plastic toy DRM market?
Colour me surprised.

Has it? I though skylanders was still a mega hit and amiibos still seem to be going strong. There's still a skylanders game scheduled for autumn.

 

[P-89 Scorpion]

So the bottom fell out of the plastic toy DRM market?
Colour me surprised.

Best of luck to the Avalanche Studios refugees, hope you all find good things to do soon.

Disney expected their game to be the biggest and since it lost first to Skylanders twice and then to LEGO Dimensions with the third they have had a temper tantrum and thrown their toys out of the pram.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I got my Judy Hops and Sabine figures. I'm good. Still, it seems kind of odd that they're just shutting the whole thing down, but their figures do seem to be the ones that are left on the shelves most often.

 

[Janichsan]

Has it? I though skylanders was still a mega hit and amiibos still seem to be going strong. There's still a skylanders game scheduled for autumn.

On the other hand, LEGO Dimensions seems to have bombed quite badly. You can still get all expansion pack everywhere, even those that you could have expected to be wildly popular, like the BttF or Ghostbusters one. I guess the novelty of this concept has worn off quite quickly.

 

[Xerosch]

While I'm not interested in the Disney Infinity games, I like the design of their figurines very much. Guess I should invest in all that Marvel stuff before it's gone...

 

[Vedrenne]

Kinda weird that they would shutter it after getting Dodger, Strippin, Comicstorian and Markiplier et al to do a promo thing for the new Marvel stuff for it.

 

[Micah Weil]

Skylanders: Ready to go, right out of the box.
Dimensions: Ready to go, right out of the box.
Infinity: Build your own adventure, or pay extra for pre-made fun.

Wonder why drove the kids away...

 

[RJ 17]

I forget what the total cost was - since the last time I did the math for Infinity was back in December - of getting everything that Disney Infinity had to offer, but I do recall it being over a couple thousand dollars. For some reason I'm thinking it was closer to $4k if you wanted to buy everything you could for Infinity.

That right there might be one of the contributing factors to why this ship sunk in the harbor.

 

[hermes]

Skylanders: Ready to go, right out of the box.
Dimensions: Ready to go, right out of the box.
Infinity: Build your own adventure, or pay extra for pre-made fun.

Wonder why drove the kids away...

You are overestimating kids financial awareness.

OT: Most of all, this sucks for the people in Avalanche Software. Sounds like they made a quality product that a lot of people enjoyed and got shoved out of the door for budget reasons. Hope they have little problem finding a new job.

Am I the only one surprised at the state of the industry? It has been happening for a while now, but the cross-pollination of entertainment media has been weirdly absent for gaming. Marvel Cinematic Universe is the hottest entertainment property right now, and the only way to play anything even related to it on PC or consoles was this Infinity game (I am not counting social network or mobile games) or the long standing MMO.

 

[Denamic]

I'm not even slightly surprised. I knew this would be down the shitter pretty quick after first reading about it. The biggest surprise is that it took this long.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

It's too bad. But also understandable. I see shelves overstocked with old figures and starter sets plenty of places that I go.

I love playing Disney Infinity with my son. And it has enough depth in terms of world/adventure building to keep me interested as an adult.

Also, as someone who enjoys almost all things Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars, I like collecting the figures.

Possible bright side? Maybe I can get some figures on the cheap now.

Bad side, is, of course, all those lost jobs. My heart goes out to them.

 

[Ukomba]

I'll admit to a bit of schadenfreude at Disney's expense. Feel bad for Avalanche, but, really, they died back in 2005.

 

[Scarim Coral]

So does that means their toys and the games are going to sky rocket?

Ok why I can feel some sympathy (losing a job suck) but the Infinity stuff just never appeal to me (I never like the Disney characer to be worth buying in figure form and the whole create your adventure didn't appeal me) unlike Skylander and Amiboo.

 

[J.McMillen]

I got my Judy Hops and Sabine figures. I'm good. Still, it seems kind of odd that they're just shutting the whole thing down, but their figures do seem to be the ones that are left on the shelves most often.

They might have been using the Disney money and overproduced them. I only played on Steam, but I did buy a handful of figures because I wanted the figures.

What I wonder is what this will do to the price of the figures? Will it drop as sellers try to clear their inventories or will it spike as collectors try to finish their collections before the figures vanish?