Disney cancels Infinity games, quits game development entirely

In any industry as precarious and risky and this one, it's (sadly) not a rare thing for a developer to close down shop. But when a publisher does it -- especially a publisher as big as Disney Interactive -- that certainly comes as a big shocker. Especially when they do it in as dramatic a form as what Disney did early last week: cancel the entire release of a huge franchise, and pretty much bow out of the entire industry in general.

Yes, Disney is no longer developing its own games, with the House of the Mouse confirming that all future video games created from their properties will be outsourced to other publishers and developers, as with the deal they currently have with EA and the Star Wars brand. With the decision came the shutdown of longtime developer Avalanche Software, founded over 20 years ago and staffed by over one hundred team members. They were Disney's main branch of video game development, but with the corporation cutting their losses when it comes to the format, they had to go as well.

And so did the video game series that Avalanche has been spending the past four years working on: Disney Infinity, the Skylanders inspired set of games that let you use real life toys and figurines based on famous Disney properties in one big, open-world adventure. It was an ambitious project to be sure but, based on the amount of content and new action figure Disney was releasing for the game, many assumed it was doing quite well for the company (and, more importantly, its brand.) Even if that was the case, the success of just one series was apparently not enough to convince Disney that sticking around in the video game publishing realm was worth it.

The final set of figurines that will be released for Disney Infinity include Alice: Through the Looking Glass and Finding Dory toys. With the game getting discontinued, now would be a good time to go snatch them up while you still have the chance. We would have eventually gotten our Rogue One figurines, but alas, we'll have to just dream of what they would have looked like.