Business publication The Wall Street Journal has reported that Disney Infinity is under huge pressure to succeed due to Disney Interactive Studios’ $100 million investment.
Disney Interactive Studios has extra pressure due to the fact that it has unsuccessfully released multiple titles in multiple genres in the past and racked up losses of $1.41 billion. This reportedly caused Disney chairman and chief executive Robert Iger to set a deadline for Interactive to achieve profitability by September this year, a deadline which got extended when Infinity was delayed until August.
Back in February Iger admitted: “If Infinity does well, it bodes very well for the bottom line of this unit – if it doesn’t do well, the opposite will be the case.”
Just taking a look at Infinity on face value, it has a lot going for it. With the Toy Market success of Skylanders being incorporated into it along with hit Disney licenses and a re-imagining of the hit Toy Box mode from the Toy Story 3 video game there are a lot of reasons why Infinity should be a success.
However there are also many reasons why it could fail with Skylanders already having a massive market lead on Infinity and it is a bit on the pricey side. The Starter set costing £60 and character packs costing upwards of £15 dependent on the size of the pack you buy. With Disney Infinity releasing next week all that remains is to see how the market fairs for the game.
Are you planning on picking up Disney Infinity? What do think of Disney’s interpretation of the toys as part of the game mechanic? Let us know in the comments.