Disney Infinity.

[Thrippa]

On the other hand, many kids for generations have loved playing with lead (later tin, later plastic) soldiers and animals.  We have an entire circus from the 50s complete with animals, performers, vendors and guests - and none of them 'move'.  Neither do most stuffed animals.  These are no different, except being interactive with a game.

[Autosaver]

On the other hand, many kids for generations have loved playing with lead (later tin, later plastic) soldiers and animals.  We have an entire circus from the 50s complete with animals, performers, vendors and guests - and none of them 'move'.  Neither do most stuffed animals.  These are no different, except being interactive with a game.

They're not even random figurines too. They're collectables. There are over a 100 toys to collect with many limited editions and alternate versions. Gold plated, silver plated, glow in the dark, 'rare' versions, etc. It seems like no surprise that people would try to collect them all. The fact Jake Bird called them a "cheap bit of plastic" means he probably won't understand why people collect them. People collect a variety of different things for different reasons. They don't have to cost 100's of dollars and they don't have to be interactive.

Oh, as a bonus they work in game.

 

Edited for clarification

Edited January 26, 2013 by Autosaver

[Thrippa]

Hey, I didn't call them cheap bits of plastic.  I have a stable of 500 model horses; I know all about collectable figurines, as well as playable-with  ones.

[Autosaver]

Hey, I didn't call them cheap bits of plastic.  I have a stable of 500 model horses; I know all about collectable figurines, as well as playable-with  ones.

I was referring to Birdie.

[Badnik Mechanic]

From E3

 

[Badnik Mechanic]

So this game has cost Disney over $100 million.

 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323455104579013341130423088.html

 

The toys, and the game have cost the same as some blockbuster movies.

 

Remember that rumor when Sega were aparently making a Sonic version of Skylanders? Yeah I think we can safely say that was NEVER EVER going to happen.

[RK64]

Well, Disney are perfectionists when it comes to there animation (which I think this game falls into; the figures look like something right out of a Pixar film), and they want Infinity to be a hit, so them pouring a ton of money into the game makes since.

 

I really think that this game will be a huge success (notably during the holidays) as your not just getting random creatures to plop on pads, but legendary, iconic Disney characters and full playsets that last about as long as a full retail game (so they say...); its going to print money for them, pushing them to start putting more Disney characters in the game (really surprised there isn't a Ducktails or Mickey playset, as both could tie into Ducktails Remastered and New Mickey Cartoons respectively).

[Crash]

So, has anyone here got the game? I pre-ordered it to play with my little brother.

[Willsy]

Thought I'd bump this because I just downloaded the iOS Toybox app. It's very very good, I spent well over 2 hours playing around in it today. I even bought Wreck It Ralph, and I never use micro transactions. I haven't played the actual console version, but it's on my backlog.

[LimeTH]

I've played the console version. It's fantastic.

 

Probably helps that I love collecting toys to begin with, but man, I really like being able to play as all these guys AND get sweet figurines of them,

Some characters are more fun than others, some are just clones of each other, but the moveset customization can clear that up.
There are some subtle differences in stats. Mike and Sulley have the same moveset, but Mike is faster and more nimble, yet physically and defensively weaker, while Sulley is stronger, but slower and a bit clunkier.

 

The best thing about this game is, if you're playing the toybox, you can just jump in and go. It's great in both short doses and for hours and hours of extensive play. 

 

Also, hot DAMN, Mickey and Violet will fuck you straight up. Best characters in the game PERIOD.

SO FAR at least. I'm hoping Perry will be just as awesome. How could he NOT? It's Perry the friggin' Platypus!

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

OR - and I know this might be a strange concept - Disney could just hire some better developers? They've got a media empire backing them, a merchandising one behind that and their own fucking theme park, so it's not like they don't have the money to spare.

I guess it's kinda neat that we might not be seeing shovelware anymore but this is kind of a crap tradeoff if you ask me.

You don't suppose they might be aiming to assimilate some of the big shot videogame companies, heck, maybe even one of the big three, into their tactical empire, do you?

[Willsy]

I wish Olaf was playable

Maybe they'll add him in the future?

[LimeTH]

I wish Olaf was playable

Maybe they'll add him in the future?

 

You and me both brother. Him being one of those blockhead NPCs sort of eases the pain a bit, since I bring him along with me whenever I play as Anna.

 

What also confuses me is the lack of Ferb. Phineas, Perry, but no Ferb? Ever worse, Ferb was shown to be playable in some of the trailers! What happened?

[Willsy]

Maybe Ferb and playable Olaf will come later on? I dunno, that's what I'm thinking.

[LimeTH]

Maybe Ferb and playable Olaf will come later on? I dunno, that's what I'm thinking.

 

Probably in the sequel.

[Willsy]

A sequel on next gen consoles would be nice, but I'm not sure how they wold execute the whole toy thing without taking a loss (unless they reused the toys from the first game).

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

What would be the point of a sequel when they can just add on character figures?

[Johnny Boy]

Am I the only one who finds it disappointing that none of the character from their older films (Lion King, Aladdin, etc.) are playable?

[Blacklightning]

You don't suppose they might be aiming to assimilate some of the big shot videogame companies, heck, maybe even one of the big three, into their tactical empire, do you?

...jesus christ, did you just quote a post from January of last year? I don't even remember the context of that post anymore ahahaha

 

If I had to make a proper response, the only conclusion I can come to is that Disney isn't that deliberate about their choice of developers. It was clear to anyone with an eye and a brain that they plainly didn't give a shit about how their games turned out prior to Infinity, and more recently they gave the Star Wars license to fucking EA of all companies. It's not quite throwing darts at a board, but they'll take on any old sod that can do the job for them.

 

There also isn't a chance in hell they'll buy out one of the big three even on the offchance they wanted to - Microsoft is still rich as fuck and has much more than their Xbox division to fall back on, Sony isn't doing too badly either for a company that had a junk credit rating, and Nintendo would likely sooner dismantle the entire company before working for anyone other than themselves.

 

 

What would be the point of a sequel when they can just add on character figures?

I dunno, ask Activision. Skylanders already got three games under the exact same gimmick Infinity swiped from them - seven if you count web and iOS - so I can only assume the answer would be "money". It's not like the two of them aren't already making a killing off of dumb-assed parents and nagging, whining children - if they made a new game where the only real difference is support for more characters most of them wouldn't know it.

 

Speaking of support, here's a bigger question, though. How would you just "add" figures to a game that didn't originally support them? Aren't the figurines just unlock keys for characters already on the disc?

[KHCast]

Considering Disney owns quite a lot of Kingdom Hearts, I wonder if we'll ever see some sort of Kingdom Hearts representation, be it a character, stage,weapon,enemy, etc. I think it's time Disney started actually using that series outside of its own games.

 

I mean it'd be a smart money maker if you ask me. You could introduce new fans to those games, and are very likely to get lots of Kingdom Hearts fans to purchase the game, or even just the statues. Square probably also wouldn't mind so long as they get some of the money as well.

 

I could see them do this closer to Kingdom Hearts III's release however, when the hype is massive, so if a sequel is made to Infinity, doing this kind of thing in that game would make sense if this game dies by the time III releases. 

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

Well, if they do make a sequel, I'd hope they'd at least include the potential to crossover characters and let them influence others' story modes, or have the ability to make countless story paths or new stories completely out of the crossovers based on the figures used.

 and more recently they gave the Star Wars license to fucking EA of all companies. It's not quite throwing darts at a board, but they'll take on any old sod that can do the job for them.

 

What!? Gaming and movie license to EA!? WHyyyyyyyyyy?????

[The Disney Dork]

Am I the only one who finds it disappointing that none of the character from their older films (Lion King, Aladdin, etc.) are playable?

 

No, not at all. This is one of the reasons why I refuse to buy the game...even though I'm one of the biggest Disney fans you'll ever meet. The only characters from the Disney animated canon are Wreck It Ralph, Vanellope, Rapunzel, Anna, Elsa. The rest are all either Pixar, live action, or other stuff like movies under the Disney name (Nightmare before Christmas) or cartoons (Phineas and Ferb). Where are all the princesses? Where's Tarzan? Donald Duck, Goofy? Hercules, Aladdin? What I also can't stand is that only certain characters have actual "story mode" games...or "play sets"  as they call them...The fact that the characters that are actually a part of the Disney animated canon (that I listed) are toy box only characters is just ridiculous. 

[LimeTH]

As much as I love the game, I'll have to agree. There needed to be more animated canon characters.

 

Hell, there's enough Aladdin items in this game that they could have made a playset for it. What gives?

 

Funny enough though? Out of the Aladdin NPCs, there's Jasmine, Genie and Jafar, but no Aladdin himself. Wonder what that's about. Maybe he WAS planned at some point, but was scrapped, much like Ferb and Emperor Zurg were?

[Crash]

I think that a sequel is likely because if more figures are planned, how are they going to add them into the game without an update/patch? Some kids don't have their consoles hooked up to the internet so if they made a patch for new figures and kids couldn't use them, they'd probably be in a load of trouble.

 

alsoaddgeniejustsayingdisney

[The Disney Dork]

They're obviously just going to make a Marvel and/or Star Wars Infinity game (or figures and play sets, but I wouldn't be surprised if they made a whole game for them). The game can be the exact same thing as the first with new characters and it will still make loads of money. 

 

The only way I'll buy this game is if I see play sets for actual Disney animated canon characters. I don't know if you guys have noticed...but there isn't ONE play set for any of the animated canon characters, and that's just pathetic and sad. Things they could easily do:

 

Tangled play set and Flynn character pack

 

Frozen play set with Kristoff and Olaf character packs

 

The Lion King play set with Timon and Pumba, Simba sold separately 

 

And one thing that would be really awesome...what if they had a Disney Princess play set? Just one, general one for all the princesses. The play set could come with Cinderella (since she's the most popular princess) and someone else, and then all of the other princesses could be sold separately.