Disney Infinity discontinued as company exits console publishing business

Disney Infinity discontinued as company exits console publishing business
David Scammell Updated on by

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Toys-to-life franchise Disney Infinity is being discontinued, Disney has announced, with the company also set to pull out of the self-publishing console games business entirely.

The company confirmed the news in its Q2 financial results earlier today, where it revealed that it had incurred a $147m cost in connection with the closure.

“Items affecting comparability during the quarter ended April 2, 2016 included a $147 million charge in connection with the discontinuation of our self-published console games business, principally Infinity (Infinity Charge),” it said.

It has also been reported that Disney Infinity’s developer Avalanche Software is to close resulting in close to 300 jobs lost. The studio’s closure is not discussed in Disney’s report, although the high ‘Infinity Charge’ could be linked to employee severance pay.

Disney Infinity was the second major franchise to appear in the toys-to-life genre, arriving two years after the original Skylanders in August 2013. It spawned two annual sequels, Disney Infinity 2.0 and 3.0, with the latest game launching in August 2015.

UPDATE: Disney has provided the following statement to VentureBeat, confirming that it is to close Avalanche and shift to a licensing model.

“After a thorough evaluation, we have modified our approach to console gaming and will transition exclusively to a licensing model. This shift in strategy means we will cease production of Disney Infinity, where the lack of growth in the toys-to-life market, coupled with high development costs, has created a challenging business model. This means that we will be shutting down Avalanche, our internal studio that developed the game. This was a difficult decision that we did not take lightly given the quality of Disney Infinity and its many passionate fans.”

Source: Disney, @benfritz