Disney Infinity not so infinite perhaps
by Rodolfo Rosini
Some numbers are out and it seems that Disney Infinity did not outperform Skylanders on the basis of units shipped (but both companies did not publish a regional sales breakdown so the truth could be more nuanced. Additionally a started kit for Infinity could run in the hundreds of dollars).
I mean yes, they have sold a million units. And imagine these were $75 units. $75m in sales is not bad. But then compare it with the crowdfunding campaign of Star Citizen that took in $26m so far and suddenly the accomplishments of a global $123bn company with the best franchises on the planet suddenly feel not quite there yet.
My argument at the time (‘Why is Disney hiding Infinity?’ – The Kernel) was that a lot of these units went to collectors in the same way Beanie Babies or Furbies sold a lot of units when it launched, only to collapse months later when the rage was over and these units went back on secondary markets at a discounted price (at least Disney Infinity make sure to “lock” your purchase to the hardware so you can’t resell a used unit without an expensive lawsuit in a country with strong consumer protection laws). Sure, it made money but it was never organic demand and sustainable growth.
I dug a bit into Amazon’s reviews and they seem that the jury is still out if this game will be a billion dollar franchise for Disney that can glue their (successful) transmedia activities with video games.
Here’s the Amazon US aggregate reviews:
And here the Amazon UK reviews:
And these were the best PS3/Xbox ones. The Wii reviews were actually worse.
The most striking example of the current state of the game came from this review from one of Amazon’s Top 1000 reviewers:
“The whole effect is of a poorly executed, rushed game, with a rapacious commercial model which fails to deliver upon the promises made by its visual design and the history/quality of the intellectual property used.”
Ouch.
Whilst in Arrakis 