In March, John Vignocchi, vice president of production at Disney Interactive, had categorically said that they were “100% behind Disney Infinity”. Well in a matter of 2 months, Disney have done an about turn on that statement, and Disney Infinity stands cancelled.
Disney is putting an end to their Disney Infinity toy-game line and discontinuing their self-published console games business.
In statement published on the Disney Interactive blog, John Blackburn SVP & GM, DISNEY INFINITY, made the ominous announcement. Disney is also shutting down Avalanche Software, the Utah-based studio responsible for Infinity. As a result, around 300 people will lose their jobs. John, described the cancellation as:
This was a difficult decision that we did not take lightly given the quality of Disney Infinity and its many passionate fans.
Senior vice president and general manager John Blackwell said he wanted to “take a moment to thank” fans of the Infinity line, “not just for your support over the years, but for creating a community” around the Disney toys-to-life franchise. “We hope you had as much fun playing the game as we had making it,” Blackwell wrote.
Earlier this year Disney had announced that they won’t be present at E3 this year. They had also announced that no new base pack would be coming out for Disney Infinity this year like Disney Infinity 3.0 before it. Instead it will see updates and addition of characters from franchises such as Alice Through The Looking Glass, and Finding Dory. These updates will still be taking place, if the recent blog by Disney Interactive is to be believed.
The reasons for shutting down Disney Infinity seems to be the low return that Disney had faced since the conception of the property. In the words of Disney boss Bob Iger , on a call with investors this afternoon:
The risk had caught up with his company. They were pleased with the success of the first Disney Infinity, but sales went downhill after that. The video game business is a changing business,and We did not have enough confidence in the business in terms of it being stable enough.
Disney Interactive also asserted that this not the end of video games, instead they will still be licensing properties to external developers and publishers to bring Disney games. So I guess its not all bad.
While I had not played a lot of Disney Infinity myself, I liked the idea of game who updated itself with new characters and missions on a yearly basis, especially when those characters came from well-loved franchises from Disney. Its sad to see Disney Infinity go, what do you think?