During the Walt Disney Company’s second-quarter earnings call (May 10), it was revealed that the popular Disney Infinity platform and associated game figures would be discontinued indefinitely. The announcement was quickly followed by a blog post by John Blackburn (UPDATED: Link has since been removed) SVP & GM of Disney Infinity, confirming that the game would no longer be produced after the final releases of Alice Through The Looking Glass and Finding Dory playsets (release date not official yet).
The announcement came as a surprise to fans, as the platform was often touted as the number one toys-to-life game and the recent Disney Infinity Next announcement in March seemed to assure fans of the future. We got the sense from the last few earnings calls that the game still had potential (with proper shifts put in place), but the Disney corporation lost faith in the format of the toys-to-life games. Rather than gamble to see if they would lose money over the long term, their analytics told them to exit the console industry now and focus solely on lower cost (and less complex) mobile gaming solutions only.
Our thoughts go out to the employees who are affected by this abrupt decision – your hard work was not lost on us as we actively played all versions of the games, reported on the platform since its initial announcement on January 15, 2013, and even still, eagerly await the final two playsets (and loath that we won’t be able to experience the next Star Wars playset).
FINDING DORY PLAYSET
UPDATED: Check out the review of the Finding Dory playset, here.
The only bright spot among the news was that fans will at least get to experience the Alice Through The Looking Glass and Finding Dory play sets that the team worked so hard to complete. Regarding the Dory playset, we had already seen (via a Kraft macaroni and cheese box) the upcoming Dory figure – but now, thanks to the keen eye of a reader at Disney Infinity Codes (UPDATED: link is no longer active), they spotted the Nemo figure on Amazon Mexico (additional figures are yet to be announced/revealed).
So, as we look to the closure of the game, let’s reflect on the last three years – leave a comment below or chat about it in the Pixar Post Forum – we want to know your responses to the following questions:
- What was your favorite play set?
- What was your favorite individual character to play in the game?
- What was your favorite physical character (figure)?
- What were your thoughts between version 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 – what edition did you favor?
- Do you feel there were mis-steps along the way – if so, what were they?
- Finally, what did you like best about the game?
Feel free to answer one or all of the questions, but let us know – we’re saddened by the news as fans of the game, but what about you?
