Post by Nyu Nozomi Hyuga on May 17, 2016 21:20:13 GMT -5
Disney Infinity is dead as Disney exits game publishing
Avalanche is being shuttered and 300 jobs are now lost as a result
The Walt Disney Company
Disney is effectively no longer a game publisher, and the company announced during its second quarter earnings that its toys-to-life franchise, Disney Infinity, would be discontinued. Disney's chairman of consumer products and interactive media, Jimmy Pitaro, indicated that the company would incur a $147 million charge as a result of the shutdown of Disney Infinity studio Avalanche; 300 employees are now out of work.
"This was a difficult decision that we did not take lightly given the quality of Disney Infinity and its many passionate fans," he said.
Disney said that it's now looking at the video games business exclusively as a licensing opportunity, so games based on properties it owns, like Star Wars, are of course still receiving games (such as those from EA), but Disney itself no longer has any interest in publishing them. The company also cited a "lack of growth" in the toys-to-life market. While the sector grew seven percent in the US in 2015, analysts have noted that the market could shrink in 2016, and clearly Disney Infinity was already feeling the pinch.
As for current Disney Infinity owners, Disney said it will still release the character playsets for the films Alice Through the Looking Glass and Finding Dory. Playsets for the upcoming Star Wars: Rogue One had been in the works, but those will never make it to retail now. It'll be interesting to see what moves Activision makes with Skylanders and how Nintendo's Amiibo line holds up in a shrinking toys-to-life market.
Overall, Disney's toy and gaming division saw sales drop two percent to $1.2 billion, while operating income declined eight percent to $357 million.
With Disney's acquisition of Marvel rights back in 2009, followed by their announcing they'd be tightening up on licensing policies, many felt this would be the end for the MvC franchise. Indeed many Marvel games were removed from marketplaces in early 2014.
While we're not quite holding our breath just yet, this could extend over to Marvel, and that could mean an eventual revitalization of the Marvel vs. Capcom series.
Source: gamesindustry.biz/eventhubs
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'When's Mahvel 4?' - Fans have created a petition to request a new Marvel vs. Capcom title
Earlier this week, we reported on the recent discontinuation of Disney's action-adventure sandbox video game, Disney Infinity. It was stated in the article by James Brightman of Gameindustry that the company will begin looking at the video game business as a licensing opportunity for their IPs instead of publishing titles themselves.
Knowing that Marvel Comics is owned by Disney caused a pretty large uproar in the fighting game community. This new business venture from Disney potentially opens up the possibility of a new Marvel vs. Capcom title.
With that in mind, the /r/MvC3 community wasted no time. They have since put together a petition asking Disney, Capcom, Marvel Comics, Sony, and Microsoft for Marvel vs. Capcom 4.
The petition has already acquired 3,355 signatures, and aims to reach a total of 5,000. Signing can help bring awareness to the companies involved and show just how much the fans want a new title in the series.
www.change.org/p/walt-disney-i-want-mvc4-to-happen?recruiter=539822456&utm_source=petition_show&utm_medium=copylink
Source: eventhubs
