Disney Cancels 'Infinity 4.0 Edition' Video Game, Closes Developer Avalanche Studios

By Charmaine Montes, Christian Post Contributor Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Sad news for all the fans of the action-adventure sandbox video game "Disney Infinity." The time has come that they will need to definitely say goodbye to the series as Disney has decided to cancel the supposedly coming new edition of the game, which is the "Disney Infinity 4.0 Edition." This is in line with the verdict of the company to exit the video game business.

According to The USB Port, the company will no longer create toys for "Disney Infinity," which is a game that makes use of collectible figurines that are then synchronized within the game world using pads. They will also take a $147 million charge for its cancellation and cease making games for consoles like Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PlayStation. This also means a closure of developer Avalanche Software which Disney bought in 2005. The Wall Street Journal reveals that the shutdown has cut around 250 to 300 employees, who are mostly from Salt Lake City.

The reason for the sudden layoff is due to the decreasing sales of the game for more than a year already. As per CBS Sacramento, CEO Bob Iger revealed to the analysts that risks has already caught up with them.

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He said that even though the unit performed well, Disney arrived at a conclusion that the best solution they have is to manage the risks by licensing characters instead of developing video games from scratch. Iger also mentioned that as a business that is constantly changing, they no longer have the confidence in the business in terms of stability.

The competition in the "toys-to-life" category has also been a tough one, although, sources reported that Activision Blizzard Inc. is said to have received disappointing sales as well. Other competitors in the category are "Lego Dimensions" from Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros and "Amiibo" from Nintendo.

However, not everything is totally lost in the gaming department for Disney though as they will continue to publish games for mobile devices. The final figures that will also be coming are "Alice Through the Looking Glass" and "Finding Dory."