Editorials
Disney Infinity Shutdown: What You Need to Know Now
Few things feel as magical or come together as well as Disney Infinity did. Conceived as an original take on the toys-to-life genre of video games, Disney Infinity was a playground. Themed story playsets took players on adventures in their favorite Disney franchises. The Toy Box let users create whatever they wanted, with pre-made tools and extras. Disney Infinity 3.0, last year’s edition of the game, was the best. Unfortunately, we know that for certain. This summer, Disney surprised everyone with shake ups and changes in its game publishing business. Millions woke up this morning to headlines declaring Disney Infinity cancelled.
News of Disney Infinity getting cancelled came during the company’s earnings call. Many expected that the giant company would have something to say about ESPN; the huge sports network has steadily lost subscribers for months now. What they weren’t expecting was Disney to exit the game publishing business altogether. Taking Disney Infinity along with it.
Here’s what you need to know about the shutdown.
Disney Infinity Cancelled: What We Know
Disney said on the earnings call that it launched Disney Infinity with a full grasp of the complications that a toys-to-life game would include. Things like managing inventory and keeping stock steady. What it found was that the first two games in the series Disney Infinity and Disney Infinity 2.0 did astonishingly well. With more competition and the realities of selling items directly to users, Disney Infinity 3.0 didn’t stand to make as much money as previous versions.
In fact, it’s because of the tiny toys that the game lost money for Disney. The company took a $147 million hit to its earnings in the quarter preceding the announcement that Disney Infinity was cancelled. Rather than try to right the ship, Disney said that it made more sense to exit the business of making games altogether.
Going forward, Disney will partner up with other game developers for games based on its characters. Avalanche Software, the studio in charge of developing Disney Infinity will close for good.
Disney Infinity Cancelled: Playset Details
Avalanche had already confirmed that it’d skip another installation of Disney Infinity this year anyway. As such, the short-term prospects for those that enjoy the game haven’t changed in a big way, according to a blog post at Disney Interactive.
The Disney Infinity 3.0 Battlegrounds playset that accompanied the launch of Captain America: Civil War is already available. So are the Alice Through the Looking Glass playset and the Disney Infinity 3.0 playset for Finding Dory. At least for the short-term, there is plenty for lovers of the game to enjoy.
Disney Infinity Cancelled: What’s Worrisome
If Disney Infinity wasn’t such a massively interconnected game that would be where the story ends. Despite not getting a new edition, gamers would be able to keep enjoying the title as they have since it arrived on store shelves last year. That’s not really possible though.
Since the announcement, the Disney Infinity Community Forum has filled slowly with users protesting Disney’s decision to get rid of the game. That’s because Disney Infinity 3.0 isn’t a game in the traditional sense that we understand. Parts of it – very large parts – rely on servers. In turn, those servers rely on updates from Avalanche Software. If Avalanche is gone, they assume that the servers will go with them.
That’s absolutely a fair assumption to make. At the time it spawned all the “Disney Infinity cancelled” headlines, Disney announced no extended plan for supporting the users who already invested money in the series.
Only in late July did official confirmation of the company’s timetable for the shutdown arrive. Disney sent out an email to all of the game’s registered users detailing its plan for the game’s shutdown.
Everyone that has purchased a console version of Disney Infinity for a video game console can expect to still enjoy their playsets and toys, just without the online multiplayer portion of the game, nor its community content features.
As of July 29th, Avalanche has removed the in-game purchases for Disney Infinity 2.0 on Steam. The iOS, Android, Amazon and Apple TV versions of the game have had in-game purchases removed too.
On September 30th, Avalanche plans to shut down the PC, iOS, Android and Amazon versions of Disney Infinity. They’ll be removed from their respective stores too. Disney Infinity 2.0 and 3.0 from Steam will keep functioning, but have their community features and online play removed. This is when new Toy Box submissions will end.
January 3rd, Disney Infinity games available through the Windows Store will lose their in-game purchases.
On March 3rd, the Apple TV, Windows Store and all other versions of Disney Infinity will lose their community features and online functionality. Apple TV and Windows Store versions will no longer be playable.
Disney Infinity Cancelled: What To Do Now?
Here’s the biggest problem, what to do next now that Avalanche is gone and Disney Infinity 4.0 won’t happen ever?
First, unless you’re comfortable with not having online connectivity, under no circumstances should you spend money on Disney Infinity 3.0 merchandise. You won’t be able to share Toy Boxes or play with others online. Don’t expect anymore new figures to appear either.
If you’re really a big fan of the series and don’t mind spending money on something with an uncertain future, things are about to get very interesting. Look for GameStop, which has sold used and new Disney Infinity figures for years, to heavily discount what they already have in their stores. It’s hard to imagine that characters fresh in their boxes will remain priced where they are for very long. Seems like the perfect time to pick up all the characters you had your eye on.
Alexis Wilcox
07/25/2016 at 8:15 pm
So what should I do with my Disney Infinity Set? I have the first version.
Travis Pope
07/29/2016 at 1:08 pm
You’ll still be able to play, just not online or with the toy boxes.
Vicki
07/31/2016 at 12:57 pm
So to understand this, if my child has the app on the ipad, everything that we have purchased as well as the app just disappears?
Jeremiah Livingston
09/07/2016 at 8:49 am
I think that’s what it means the iPad version uses the servers and cloud to. Store data I would assume yes it will not work this is y I’m pissed bc my daughter also can’t use it
Jim
08/01/2016 at 12:49 am
Can you still make your own toy boxes and play other peoples toy boxes already downloaded?
Wyll Gonron
08/11/2016 at 3:40 pm
Wait wait wait wait wait! “exit the business of making games altogether”? does that mean…………. KINGDOM HEARTS CAN NEVER BE STOPPED!!!!! IF KINGDOM HEARTS III AND RECONNECT KINGDOM HEARTS DON’T GET RELEASED I’LL NEVER FORGIVE DISNEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sophia
02/01/2017 at 1:25 pm
I doubt that is at risk, as it mentions Disney will still partner with other games developers, and Kingdom Hearts is actually developed by Square Enix not just Disney
Erick
08/12/2016 at 9:05 am
For those interested, I submitted some focused questions to the Disney team and received direct answers. I did this because of all the speculation out there on blogs and in forums. Here is Disney’s response:
1) Yes, you will be able to save your Toy Boxes locally on your console. The only thing that would be effected as far as saving goes would be the “Save to Cloud” option. That feature would no longer work after the servers shut down.
2) Yes, you will be able to access and play with any of your Toy Boxes on your console after the shut down.
3) The Text creator and a few other toys that require the use of Disney’s moderation tools will not function correctly after March 3rd, 2017.
4) You will still be able to level up and play with your figures. Their information is saved to your console so you don’t have to worry about anything on that front!
5) Yes, you will be able to unlock Toy Box pieces even after March 2017.
In essence, the only thing you need to worry about it anything that requires access to the Disney moderation/community features. Anything saved locally to your console will continue to work as normal. That includes everything you’ve purchased like play sets, figures and power discs. Everything that you’ve created and saved to the console will continue to work even after the 3rd of March, 2017.
I hope that cleared up any concerns you had! If you have any more questions, please let us know.
Have a great day!
Connor
Disney Infinity 3.0 Edition Support
That’s it, I hope that clears up some questions for you too!
natasha
11/24/2016 at 3:32 am
Hello
Ive just purchased Infinity 3.0 for someone for Christmas, and I was looking at getting the expansion packs.
Will they all still work? she obviously wont be getting these until Christmas, I don’t want to buy any more additional sets until I understand how it will work. She hasn’t previously had Disney Infinity so not sure how it works!
Thanks
Natasha
Stitch
02/12/2017 at 6:35 pm
Even if the multilayer aspects will be gone, does this also mean I can’t load up a toy box and invite a friend to join? In my mind it would seem by removing all multi-player capabilites, that would be everything. But it could just mean the arcade stuff. I personally hope I’ll be able to invite friends to private toy boxes afterwards.
Marita
02/13/2017 at 5:16 pm
I am about to buy Disney Infinity 2.0 Marvel Super Heroes Starter Pack for PS4 plus Hulk figure, the Avenger’s Play Set, and other figure. Will my son be able to start playing it offline after March 3, 2017?
Alex
02/18/2017 at 10:08 pm
I have looked over the questions that people have had and have researched the subject for a while now. Now I’m no Disney executive but from what I have gathered is that everything you have created and will create before and after March 3rd will stay the same and will be usable because it is saved locally. Playsets, characters and power disks of 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 alike will be perfectly safe and will not be harmed as long as it’s on a console version and I believe the steam version as well. The only things that are affected from the shutdown are the ability to save toy boxes to cloud, the ability to download toy boxes and the ability to play online with friends will shut of as well as certain toys such as the text displayer due to the fact that it needs the servers to connect with it to work. I’m sorry to say that anyone who played on any Apple or Microsoft (besides Xbox) will be affected by this because they rely on the server to connect and are unplayable as of this past year. All who have purchased the game on the Xbox and PlayStation consoles are certified to be safe as of now until the online servers are shut of the upcoming month and after that is uncertain of what is coming next. If anyone plans to purchase merchandise for the console versions of the game, be wary of the unpredictability of the future and that, while highly improbable , there is a chance of it shutting down entirely, but don’t panic because it highly unlikely of that happening since the data is saved to each console.
As I said, I am no Disney executive but from what I have said it has been from research from the Disney forums and other websites and that I am rather certain of what I have said, keep in mind that I could be wrong.
Kitcatgirl
02/24/2017 at 10:12 am
Why did they have to shut down Disney Infinity?!?!?! That game was the best thing to ever happen to me and my sis!!!!!! And I was so looking forward to the Moana characters too!!!!!!! 😭😭😭😭😭😢😢😢😢😢
Natalie
03/08/2017 at 6:06 am
If I were to purchase the Finding Dory Adventure (3/8/17) it says that it needs to download 4GB of content, will I still be able to download this content?
Thanks.
Christopher A Busch
03/29/2017 at 8:49 pm
I was late to the party. My girlfriends kids were saying they wanted to sell all their Skylanders and Infinity characters. My son loves Star wars so I got the Infinity 3.0. Star Wars. I knew nothing about what happened. I installed it, played it, loved it and bought a bunch of figures online from amazon. As I was playing Skylanders superchargers I found I couldn’t find anyone online to play. So I went to Infinity to play and I kept getting a server error. I thought I needed to sign up. So I tried and discovered the horrible truth.
I have all the best characters and what not. Seeing them for sale at the local Walmart and Target I thought it was still available but now I know its gone for good. Sort of breaks my heart. Wanted to play with my 8yr old for days to come. I can still play to a certain extent on my Xbox One but just feel bamboozled.
Its sad how internal squables and poor decisions can ruin a good thing. Remember EXO Squad? Sort of the same thing. An awesome toy and cartoon that had 3 short seasons and due to rights issues, vanished. Still have one or two toys left and episodes on a dvd some place.
Guess ill put my Infinity and Skylander Super chargers in with my NES and N64 collection as collectibles. Maybe in twenty years someone will build a remake like the new NES. Lol :P