So much for Disney being "completely behind" its Disney Infinity game series. The company has just announced that it's pulling the plug on the Infinity line and is exiting the self-publishing console games business altogether. Doing so has resulted in a $147 million charge in the Walt Disney Company's Q2 2016 earnings. Back in March, Disney signaled it would slow development of the "toys-to-life" game which first launched in 2013, but gave no indication it planned to walk away from the series entirely.
In a blog post, SVP John Blackburn expanded on the decision, saying "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." Moving forward, Disney will transition its console strategy to exclusively focus on licensing — not direct publishing.
Disney Infinity has seen major new releases each year, introducing popular characters from Disney / Pixar films, the Marvel universe, and most recently integrating Star Wars characters in Disney Infinity 3.0. Only a month ago, Disney had pledged to make the 3.0 title its "biggest game ever" through upcoming downloadable content — a way to make up for the lack of a completely new version 4.0. Well, it seems that's no longer the plan. But the company does plan to release previously announced character sets from Alice Through The Looking Glass later this month and Finding Dory in June. The rest of those updates, though? Not so much. The game's Twitter account was last active just yesterday, and, well...
Fist bump! pic.twitter.com/zKE36D2T5E
— Disney Infinity (@DisneyInfinity) May 10, 2016
That other popular toys-to-life series, Skylanders, remains in production and a huge hit for Activision. And though Disney is bailing on consoles for now, the company still has a presence in mobile gaming. "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," said Blackburn.