To Infinity And . . . Oh Forget It: The Impact of Disney INFINITY
You’ve probably heard of Skylanders , unless the rock you’re living under lacks basic internet. Essentially a kind of toy/game/trading fusion, people buy action figures and sets that plug into your game console, and have adventures with the characters represented by the figures in question. They moved 30 million units and made $500 in sales. It’s been well-received, and the clever character designs and humor probably helped.
Now if you looked at this and saw “Games, toys and money,” a few other companies may come to mind. But you’d be right if you thought “The House of Mouse will be all over it”
Meet, Disney INFINITY, Disney’s answer to Skylanders. Also your chance to live that Jack Sparrow/Mr. Incredible team-up fanfic you’d never admit to writing. Once your brain comes down from the idea of “What the hell could Disney do with this,” here’s a nice summary from them.
It’s a bit beyond Skylanders, mixing the toy-based adventures with unlockables, a mix-and-match mode, and the ability to get new sets of adventures, and even build your own adventures. Character figures record things for you, so the chance to make the game expandable, sustainable, and multi platform (it’s going to be on most consoles, but you know they gotta be thinking further) is very high. Frankly, it sounds like a Skylanders the next generation, and based on the fun people had with Skylanders and the sheer amount of dosh it got, that sounds like a good thing.
Now we’re certainly in an age of changes in gaming. I ranted on this two weeks ago on Fan To Pro because CES and a few other trends had made me realize that gaming was totally disrupted. This interests me because it’s a potential trend.
Disney can probably pull this off (OK, Epic Mickey 2 was a wash, but still). It’s based on a tested mode, uses well-loved characters, adds sandbox box modes (hello, Minecraft) and heavy multi platform. It’s also expandable so they can correct mistakes. It probably would take effort to botch this.
If it fails, well, it’ll probably be seen as an attempt to copy another model, perhaps one that was lightning in the bottle.
If it succeeds, perhaps even before it succeeds (since this is Disney doing it), there will doubtlessly be imitators. So I think there’s a chance we’re going to see a new trend in gaming – a nexus of figures, computer games, and media-tie ins.
Think of all the companies out there that could do this. Think of all the media tie-ins.
Transformers? Roll out, here we go. The game would probably do better than the show.
My Little Pony? It took over the internet, is everywhere from Stephen Colbert to Borderlands 2, why not this?
Marvel? Well they’re part of Disney, so this seems a natural.
DC comics? They’re doing decent in gaming, and this would work.
Any anime company and property out there? Easy. Just imagine Naruto, One Piece, Fairy Tail. Japan has produced some pretty crazy crossover games.
Any revival of past beloved properties like M.A.S.K., Centurions, etc. For that matter why not Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?
You can see the technology and hear the ca-ching.
So I think we’re on the cusp of a possible trend here. Going to be interesting to watch, interesting to follow, and interesting to see where it goes. It’s a very Nerdy idea and Disney has gone nerd-friendly – but other properties my be targeted to us even mores.
And of course, someone has to get paid to develop it . . .
Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach. He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.
