Despite an active and vocal fan base for the popular game, Disney Interactive announced today that it is shutting down Disney Infinity. Two more play sets will be released: Alice Through the Looking Glass and Finding Dory. Though announced last summer at D23, there is no word on whether or not the single Peter Pan figure will be released.
When no Infinity 4.0 was announced this year, we had to know something was up. Most fans believed that Disney Interactive would merely update the game online, a reasonable strategy for 2016. There were hopes for more figures, and fans are already online asking if a third party might support the game. Developer Avalanche Studios has also been shut down, with 300 employees now out of a job.
The reality is that all three major “toys to life” game franchises have been struggling to compete – Skylanders, LEGO Dimensions, and Disney Infinity have all cut prices and offered sales since their Fall 2015 launches. And this follows a predictable pattern for Disney: it’s more cost effective for the company to license the characters to third party developers than to publish in house – the same thing happened with Lucas Arts, causing the cancellation of several anticipated Star Wars games. Then EA developed Battlefront.
Three things could happen. A third party could support new expansions. We could see Marvel, Star Wars, and Disney characters show up in LEGO Dimensions, assuming that stays alive. Or, and this is most likely, nothing more happens. We enjoy the game we have and hope the community stays active for a while. But we also all know – something new will come along. (Okay, I’m hoping for the LEGO thing…)
