Today Disney announced that they are cancelling their Disney Infinity line of games and figurines, as well as quitting game self-publishing altogether. Speculations are that this was due to a decrease in revenue from the series.

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.

Source

 

[Veho]

Well crap, I was going to grab a few (dozen) figurines to stick on my shelf but now they'll become "rare" and "limited" and "collectible" and, consequently, expensive as hell.

 

[Pluupy]

Just bought Disney Infinity 2.0 for $8 off the Microsoft store. I guess they're clearing stock of these. I liked the concept, but Disney Infinity was always more expensive than Skylanders and the compatibility isn't easy to deal with like Skylanders.

I like the concept of these toys to videogame things. I think Nintendo was grasping when it came to the Amiibos, but Skylanders is alright. Most of the people bashing the franchise in this thread have likely never played the games anyway.

I hope we get to keep Skylanders at least. My niece loves Skylanders and loves all of the characters. She saved up money to buy the Kaos Trap. The games aren't that bad. My niece struggles with solving the puzzles on her own but recently has gotten better. I wish they would fix the camera in future games, it's been shitty since Skylanders Giants. Also hoping they add four player someday.

I heard that Skylanders is getting a TV show on the disney channel, I think. If Activision is partnering with Disney, that would probably explain why they stopped the Disney Infinity series. Not sure about the publishing thing.

It's all a matter of the amount of content versus the initial investment. There are ways to make this model work, for instance making the game free to play and treating the figurines as the revenue maker. In that scenario the game plays the role of an interactive advertisement and if you like it, you can grab an "expansion pack" with the reader and the figurines. It's like IAP, but it brings in actual physical value to the purchase - that works. There's no shortage of people buying virtual goods, those people would buy the same skins as physical items. Alternatively there's the Amiibo model, but that provides too little value in my opinion - the Amiibos do nothing. You have to strike a balance here, and nobody really got it right yet.

Except Disney Infinity is exactly as you are describing.

Disney Infinity was always free-to-play on PC, iOS, and Android. They have it on Steam. You didn't even need the actual figures, you just buy them like DLC. You only had to pay for the game and figures on consoles.

Just goes to show that the real problem with Disney Infinity is advertising.

 

[flame1234]

You're right - it's not illegal, just highly unethical. It's like selling a car that requires an additional accessory pack in order to use the ignition. That's not a car - that's a lemon. You were sold a lemon and you were mislead into thinking that it's a complete product that you can *expand upon* by accessorizing - that's not what's happening, you're just unlocking access to features that are already there.

You can extend this to most publisher bullshit. Don't preorder, wait for reviews. Don't settle for DRM either, at least not on PC. I'm looking at you, Oculus Rift.

 

[sarkwalvein]

You can extend this to most publisher bullshit. Don't preorder, wait for reviews. Don't settle for DRM either, at least not on PC. I'm looking at you, Oculus Rift.

What happened with Oculus Grief?

 

[flame1234]

Oculus Rift software isn't just a driver. Oculus will only work with games offered through the Oculus store (Oculus DRM included). They're playing vendor lock-in games. If you're a consumer, that's a game that isn't fun.
The Vive has just a driver. Stand-alone DRM free games can make use of Vive the same as Steam or Oculus games can.

 

[Foxi4]

You can extend this to most publisher bullshit. Don't preorder, wait for reviews. Don't settle for DRM either, at least not on PC. I'm looking at you, Oculus Rift.

I haven't preordered a game for myself for years, the one notable exception is Fallout 4 due to the limited run of the Pipboy Edition, and even that was preordered for me by my fiancee without consulting me.

Just bought Disney Infinity 2.0 for $8 off the Microsoft store. I guess they're clearing stock of these. I liked the concept, but Disney Infinity was always more expensive than Skylanders and the compatibility isn't easy to deal with like Skylanders.

I like the concept of these toys to videogame things. I think Nintendo was grasping when it came to the Amiibos, but Skylanders is alright. Most of the people bashing the franchise in this thread have likely never played the games anyway.

I hope we get to keep Skylanders at least. My niece loves Skylanders and loves all of the characters. She saved up money to buy the Kaos Trap. The games aren't that bad. My niece struggles with solving the puzzles on her own but recently has gotten better. I wish they would fix the camera in future games, it's been shitty since Skylanders Giants. Also hoping they add four player someday.

I heard that Skylanders is getting a TV show on the disney channel, I think. If Activision is partnering with Disney, that would probably explain why they stopped the Disney Infinity series. Not sure about the publishing thing.



Except Disney Infinity is exactly as you are describing.

Disney Infinity was always free-to-play on PC, iOS, and Android. They have it on Steam. You didn't even need the actual figures, you just buy them like DLC. You only had to pay for the game and figures on consoles.

Just goes to show that the real problem with Disney Infinity is advertising.

The console version is certainly not free, which is what I was referring to since we're on a console-oriented site - it comes as a starter pack with a base, two figurines, one crystal and the game disc. That's the Disney Infinity I'm used to because that's the one I used to sell back when I worked at a video game store. The starter packs cost £25, which is the equivalent of around $36. I'm well-informed about Infinity despite never playing it because I had to sell it.

 

[sarkwalvein]

Oculus Rift software isn't just a driver. Oculus will only work with games offered through the Oculus store (Oculus DRM included). They're playing vendor lock-in games. If you're a consumer, that's a game that isn't fun.
The Vive has just a driver. Stand-alone DRM free games can make use of Vive the same as Steam or Oculus games can.

Oh. Great. Kill it with fire. I will keep as away from it as I can.

 

[Foxi4]

Oculus Rift software isn't just a driver. Oculus will only work with games offered through the Oculus store (Oculus DRM included). They're playing vendor lock-in games. If you're a consumer, that's a game that isn't fun.
The Vive has just a driver. Stand-alone DRM free games can make use of Vive the same as Steam or Oculus games can.

That's stupid. The headset is just a head-mounted display, there's no reason why it should work any different than a monitor.

 

[endoverend]

That's stupid. The headset is just a head-mounted display, there's no reason why it should work any different than a monitor.

In the future, sure, but the fact that there are so few games currently supporting it make it so that software is needed to promote its sale. Every game works with a monitor, and only a few work with the Rift. But ideally, we won't see any of that self-licensed bullshit made by Oculus and other headsets can take its place.

 

[Foxi4]

In the future, sure, but the fact that there are so few games currently supporting it make it so that software is needed to promote its sale. Every game works with a monitor, and only a few work with the Rift. But ideally, we won't see any of that self-licensed bullshit made by Oculus and other headsets can take its place.

I don't see the same shtick done with any other accessory. Everybody and their dog knows about the Oculus Rift, all it needs is its logo on games that support it.

 

[endoverend]

I don't see the same shtick done with any other accessory. Everybody and their dog knows about the Oculus Rift, all it needs is its logo on games that support it.

Well of course, you're right about that, but I think it's just Oculus' way of squeezing more money out of their customers' pockets. Anyone who's willing to buy that thing at that price will probably pay for their licensed games as well.

 

[Foxi4]

Well of course, you're right about that, but I think it's just Oculus' way of squeezing more money out of their customers' pockets. Anyone who's willing to buy that thing at that price will probably pay for their licensed games as well.

Oh, I'm sure that Zuckerberg has pure intentions and just wants us to enter a new era in computing, what you're saying is libel, you should be ashamed of yourself.

;O;

 

[SuzieJoeBob]

Awesome. Now we just need Amiibos to start tanking and I'll be a happy man.

You do realize that for Amiibo to completely go away, fanboys would have to go extinct, right? Nintendo probably makes all of their money off of people buying Tom Nook to kick him in the Bells for the mortgage scam, Fire Emblem fans screaming "Ether!!!" while having Marth and Roy battle each other (or finding a husbando Amiibo for Lucina), the Mario fans replaying the same tracks on Mario Kart 8 dozens of times to unlock a random Kart piece, and the cult followers known as Legend of Zelda fans.

 

[HaloEffect17]

You do realize that for Amiibo to completely go away, fanboys would have to go extinct, right? Nintendo probably makes all of their money off of people buying Tom Nook to kick him in the Bells for the mortgage scam, Fire Emblem fans screaming "Ether!!!" while having Marth and Roy battle each other (or finding a husbando Amiibo for Lucina), the Mario fans replaying the same tracks on Mario Kart 8 dozens of times to unlock a random Kart piece, and the cult followers known as Legend of Zelda fans.

Not all fanboys. I enjoy Nintendo games, I just think they can make a wiser decision to put out DLC on the eShop for extra content rather than in the form of figurines that will inevitably collect dust.

 

[Pluupy]

Not all fanboys. I enjoy Nintendo games, I just think they can make a wiser decision to put out DLC on the eShop for extra content rather than in the form of figurines that will inevitably collect dust.

Most of the people who buy Amiibos buy them for the fact they're quality figures rather than their actual functions.

 

[sarkwalvein]

Most of the people who buy Amiibos buy them for the fact they're quality figures rather than their actual functions.

True, except the "quality" part.

 

[Pluupy]

True, except the "quality" part.

I would attribute that more to the multiple runs they go through rather than any lack of quality. I've also been subscribed to Ashens on Youtube for a few years and that second image is definitely a lot, lot better that what it could be.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

I would attribute that more to the multiple runs they go through rather than any lack of quality. I've also been subscribed to Ashens on Youtube for a few years and that second image is definitely a lot, lot better that what it could be.

That image might be an exaggeration, but Amiibos are far from "quality" figurines, especially when compared to other toys-to-life figures. When Amiibos first came out, people had to actually sort through them all to find ones that didn't look like quality control rejects. It also didn't help that Nintendo kept fluffing up the promotional images so even "good" quality Amiibos still looked like crap.

As for the OP, meh. I never bothered with DI much myself, or other toys-to-life games, so I don't see this as much of a loss. Besides, Skylanders dominates the toys-to-life shit anyways, and I doubt those will disappear any time soon.

 

[SuzieJoeBob]

True, except the "quality" part.

-snip-

The picture on the left is much better than the one on the right. The Marth on the right looks like he has a Blue Raspberry Airhead as his hair.

 

[Bladexdsl]

also a better face the one on the right looks like a barbie doll