Inevitable End of Toys-to-Life Games

Toys-to-Life games might be coming to a end with the Disney Corporation announcing that they will be closing Disney Infinity studio Avalanche Software. Here is a look at the Toys-to-Life game industry titles and what the future holds for the genre.

Skylanders

Skylanders was released in 2010 and has spawned 4 sequels to what seemed financial success. Upon investigation we find what seems that toys to Life Studios are in trouble. Back in February after Skylanders: Superchargers underperformed Skylanders studio Toys for Bob announced Layoffs. In Activision's statement they say, "As announced on our earnings call, our games for core audiences did extremely well, but the casual audience has not yet emerged on next gen consoles,” and “So we are refocusing to better align with Activision’s long-term priorities...". Activison refocusing their priorities will most likely result in more first person shooters. We have begun to see preorders of the new Skylanders game, Skylanders Imaginators and considering that E3 is next week we will probably see some game footage. Based on the concept of the next Skylanders game where you create your own hero and the poor earnings; potentially this could be the last of the Skylanders franchise.

Disney Infinity

Three months after the Skylanders layoff, Disney Infinity Developer Avalanche Games announce the closure of its studio. The series has had three renditions featuring characters from Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars universe's. Since it's initial release in 2013, Disney Infinity had increasing operating costs. With Disney Infinity's initial development cost being more than $100 million dollars. And the following two sequels the operating costs could only rise. Leading to believe we could see a restructuring of the Disney's Corporation video game department. It most likely will result in the leasing of character licenses to other companies for new Disney games.

Lego Dimensions

Lego Dimensions is the only Toys-to-Life game so far not to have layoffs. When Lego Dimensions was announced last year, they revealed five waves of figures to be released throughout the year. Last week the final wave of figures was released with many more planned according to Traveller's Tales. The success that developer Traveller's Tales and Warner Bros. have had with the Lego games. Traveller's Tales have been the exclusive developers of Lego Games since 2005 with Lego Star Wars: the Original Trilogy. Lego Star Wars, and Lego Marvel Superhero's are some of the studio's biggest successes and since the closure of Disney video game department we could see a announcement of those characters coming to Lego Dimensions at E3 next week.


Source: gameinformer.com 

Source: VG247.com