Disney Infinity shuts down as Disney drops out of game publishing

Disney may be enjoying a renaissance as the popular cross-media publisher of everything from Star Wars to Inside Out to Captain America. That list won't include video games anymore. The company just announced it will be shutting down its Disney Infinity line of games and associated collectible toys, and it will be ending its "self-published console games business" altogether.

Disney Infinity Senior VP and General Manager John Blackburn said in a surprise announcement today that "we have made the difficult decision to discontinue production of Disney Infinity. From the beginning, Disney Infinity was built for you—our fans—and I wanted to take a moment to thank you not just for your support over the years, but for creating a community that made Disney Infinity more than just a game." Blackburn promised that there would be two final retail releases of Infinity toy playsets in the next two months, before the line is shut down entirely.

In an earnings report today, Disney said it will write down a $147 million charge in connection with the shutdown of its console business, largely due to Infinity. The company's latest earnings report cites "lower results for Infinity" as part of the reason for a slight decrease in revenues and income from its Consumer Products & Interactive Media division.

Today's announcement comes a month after Disney announced Disney Infinity 3.0 would no longer be receiving updates on the Apple TV or the PC. Industry analyst Michael Pachter estimated late last year that Disney Infinity and its associated toy line earned over $200 million in 2015.

Disney Infinity launched in 2013 as the company's answer to the popularity of Activision's Skylanders and the toys-to-life segment it inspired. Infinity toys and power discs interacted with an NFC base to unlock characters, environments, and items in the associated multiplatform video game.

Though best known for Infinity in recent years, Disney Interactive was responsible for character-themed games like Fantasia: Music Evolved, Epic Mickey, and Ducktales: Remastered, as well as racing titles like Pure and Split/Second.

Disney Interactive also took a hard—and surprising—pass on handlingStar Wars-specific games once Lucasfilm was sold to the Disney/ABC empire. After shuttering LucasArts and cancelling the Star Wars 1313 game, Disney entered a multi-year licensing agreement with EA to transfer game-property rights. Last week, EA announced that another one of its game-development studios, Respawn Entertainment, would also launch a Star Wars-themed game in the future.