Disney Infinity Production Costs “Well Over 100 Million”

Disney Infinity is the first of its kind to stand up and challenge the existing king of game-with-collectible-toys concept—Activision’s Skylanders stands head and shoulders above any newcomers, but it’s possible that might not be for long. Disney’s release over the weekend is a high-visibility entry into this style of game, which puts it in a bit of an awkward position.

The game itself has apparently been ridiculously expensive to create for Disney Interactive. According to The Wall Street Journal, sources close to Disney have said that the game’s production and merchandise development has come in at a bill of “well over 100 million.”

That’s a lot of pressure to put on a game that’s only the second line of its kind in the marketplace. According to Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger, “if ‘Infinity’ does well, it bodes very well for the bottom line of this unit. If it doesn’t do well, the opposite will be the case.”

The game’s success will depend on a few things: Brand power, and smart choices when it comes to choosing and marketing the game’s included characters. Disney Interactive is relying on excited gamers and Disney fans to slap down several hundred dollars for the game’s start-up and then more of their cash each month, creating a rather expensive hobby.

So far, this has worked for Activision… but Disney Interactive has suffered serious financial losses (we’re talking $1.41 billion) since 2008, so they’re going to need to reverse the trend immediately… or no doubt Iger will carry through on his statement.

Can Disney Infinity recoup the costs of the game’s production? That’ll be step one, and it’ll be interesting to see the public’s response now that the game has hit store shelves.

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Micah
Author: Micah View all posts by
Micah has been playing games since his first pong machine, and has been writing for as long as he could grip a pencil and not drool on the paper. So, for about a week.

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