Disney Discontinuing Disney Infinity

http://www.disneyinteractive.com/blog/update-disney-infinity/

An Update on Disney Infinity

MAY 10, 2016 JOHN BLACKBURN, SVP & GM, DISNEY INFINITY

By now you may have heard the news that we have made the difficult decision to discontinue production of Disney Infinity. From the beginning, Disney Infinity was built for you—our fans—and I wanted to take a moment to thank you not just for your support over the years, but for creating a community that made Disney Infinity more than just a game.

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.

So what’s next for Disney Infinity? We have two final retail releases coming, including three new characters from Alice Through the Looking Glass later this month, and the Finding Dory Play Set launching in June.

And as we turn to the next chapter in our story, I want to thank everyone who helped bring Disney Infinity to life, particularly Disney’s Glendale-based production and publishing teams, our external development partners, and of course the incredible Avalanche team for their tireless dedication to this project.

But most of all, I want to again thank you for making Disney Infinity a part of your lives—and for adding to the Disney legacy by being a part of this community.

They are straight up shuttering their video game production studios as well.

No word yet on friend of the site John Vignochi as he was head of Disney Interactive.

WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO JOHNNY V!!!

Just saw it on Kotaku and had to look at it twice, I thought it was a joke or mistake. I never bought into it, but was seriously tempted several times. It wasn't that I didn't think it looked good, but just didn't want to go down that road.

This sucks, though. Anyone know if it has any kind online activation/communication?

Johnny V comming to GB lets hope so but really I hope his job is ok or he has somthing ligned up

:O damn man. Damn. Surprising.

Sounds like Disney is just stepping out of the game making game huh?

I thought these Infinity games were wildly successful. Was I just ignorant?

Are we still getting Star Wars games? I need a lot of them.

Johnny V to Sony or Iron Galaxy. Calling it right now. ?

Huh? I thought toys to life were still doing well?

I guess they will just farm out all their licenses at this point. Kind of makes sense to just let established developers handle their properties if they aren't really interested in going hard on videogames themselves.

As a category Toys to Life was only up 4% year to year. That is bad considering that Lego Dimensions was new to market, Amiibo exploded in figure count, and Infinity had a Star Wars themed edition.

Toys to Life has become the music game genre. Once the stores get flooded with all of this proprietary plastic, it turns consumers away.

@m1k3: Going to Sony seems like a safe bet.

Johnny V can't catch a break. This is a shitty move, a lot of people are going to get laid off because of this.

Maybe JV can do Marlon Brando E-sports full time?

They had to have employed a ton of people for that, right? Shit, that sucks.

@spoonman671: They were successful, especially 2.0. But I don't think they were a runaway success. Disney cites shifting exchange rates and the strengthening American Dollar as a main reason for the loss.

So uh, this means I'll be able to grab the Star Wars stuff for cheap, right?

So now Disney will sell it's game rights just like they did with Star Wars. EA to make the power play and buy Disney/Marvel game rights to go with Star Wars?

@sparky_buzzsaw: Avalanche Studios developed the game, plus the manpower needed to publish as it was published under Disney Interactive.

Disney has been under fire from shareholders ever since ESPN started slipping with subscriber counts and as revenue. They are cutting anything that is under performing.

After all this time and energy they invested into it the earning must have really not been that great to just sweep it all under the rug and lay off 300 people.

If they double down on licensing this is a positive to me. Don't care about that whole genre and would love to see traditional games with those licenses instead.

Unfortunate people are out of jobs of course.

Roughly 300 people are gonna be laid off as a result if the articles are correct.

This is kind of surprising. I was under the impression that Infinity did REALLY well, but I guess that's still not well enough for them to want to keep it afloat. I have an old friend who just lost his job there today, and according to him, they're still keeping their mobile games division open, so they're not getting completely out of games it seems, though they might as well be.

What a bummer for everyone there, including poor old Johnny V. who can't seem to settle anywhere. Good luck to everyone landing back on their feet!

Wow I didn't see this coming.

Good luck to all those this effects.

Johnny V can't catch a break, huh? This is weird, I thought it was a succesful series for them.

@artisanbreads: I like Infinity, but it would be nice to see them license the stuff out...but let's remember who we're talking about here. Disney has been weirdly protective of their license stuff forever, games included. Fingers crossed this doesn't have them running for the hills across the board when it comes to games.

Man, I don't care anything about Infinity, but now I just feel bad for Johnny V. Hope he finds a new job quickly.

Ah I see now. Cancelling at first made it sound like they were pulling the service. I guess in reality they still have two expansions coming out soon, after which they will be stopping any and all future development.

Yeah I really don't think this has anything to do with the success or failure of Disney Infinity. It sounds more like a company direction thing. Consoles games are expensive to make yadda yadda yadda maybe they'd rather just license their IP to existing companies. Makes a world of sense I think, but not trying to take away how much this sucks for employees.

I cannot CANNOT wait for Johnny V to be on the podcast.

Dude, what?! Hope there aren't a load of people without jobs.

@geraltitude: According to their investor press release it did indeed have to do with money. Disney Infinity was starting to cost more than it made just to maintain it even without major new additions or releases. So they cut the project and gave up publishing altogether.

I'm sure seeing EA make Star Wars games for them helps to make that decision.

Didn't they JUST announce Infinity 3.0? This is just the weirdest news. Also, the closing of Avalanche seems a little extreme.

To be fair, the toys-to-games thing wasn't going to last long, just like the plastic instrument business. However, Infinity was a genuinely excellent example of how to make those games work. I wonder if the Star Wars sets just didn't quite catch on or what.

Also, as everyone has said already, I hope Johnny V isn't too hurt by this, as he's totally awesome and this seemed like a dream for him. I hope all the people being let go from the Avalanche closing will get back on their feet soon.

Once Lang leaves that crackerjack operation he's at now and comes to Sony as well, all three of them will be reunited as was their destiny all along.

@jakob187: Infinity 3.0 came out in August of 2015.

Avalanche has been around since 1995, seems crazy to just close a 300 person studio like this. Disney doesn't play around I guess :/

Really those people will be put out of work. Those 300 people that were doing it to make a living? Now what?!

Yup, Disney just kills studios as soon as the numbers aren't going up. They killed Propaganda Games after Tron Evolution before they finished Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned. They killed Black Rock Studios after Split/Second. Junction Point Studios after Epic Mickey 2.

Too bad. I remember talked to Johnny V about getting a Guybrush Threepwood figure at some point.

@redhotchilimist: I'm sure it did well, just not as well as Disney expected.

Loved the idea, was hoping to play it with my kids in the future. Condolences to all effected.

Yeah it's a real bummer :(

It's a shock and a shame. The series was a solid critical success and I was under the impression the game was doing well commercially too. I hope Johnny V, Matt Pascal, and all of the others impacted by the closure land on their feet.

I'm not shocked but it is a bummer. Guess I better pick up those figures I've been meaning to get before they get stupid hard to find.

weird, i thought Disney and Skylanders were huge. Guess not huge enough.

Hows Skylanders doing compared to infinity?

:(

I would agree except how they have been with Star Wars lately. Hopefully that stuff does well and we get big Marvel games. I would like to see that at least and hope it won't go that way where they don't even license.

EDIT: I also see in that Gamespot statement they said they are "moving to a licensing model" which sounds like an increased effort there. I feel like they wouldn't bring it up as much if they just were backing away from even licensing. But of course we will see.

@m1k3: He's got good friends in high places. JV will be alright

Austin wrote an article, let's move the comments over there.

http://www.giantbomb.com/disney-infinity-3-0-edition/3030-47753/forums/disney-cancels-infinity-ends-game-publishing-divis-1796441/#66