Disney tightened its focus within the video games sector in order to concentrate on the upcoming multiplatform release of Disney Infinity, the Wall Street Journal reports.
As part of its restructuring efforts, the company canceled a previously unannounced Iron Man-licensed game that had entered production. Disney Interactive additionally passed on its option to produce multiple Star Wars-licensed games following its parent company’s purchase of Lucasfilm earlier this year.
According to the Wall Street Journal’s report, Disney Infinity cost the company more than $100 million to produce. The risk is great, but Disney counts on a big payoff, as Activision’s competing Skylanders series has raked in more than $1.5 billion in sales since its launch in 2011.
Disney positions Infinity as a boost for its faltering Interactive division, which has incurred more than $1.41 billion in losses since its formation in 2008.
“If Infinity does well, it bodes very well for the bottom line of this unit,” Disney CEO Robert Iger told the Wall Street Journal. “If it doesn’t do well, the opposite will be the case.”
“It’s a Hail Mary with a tremendous amount of pressure to be a hit,” said an unnamed source who recently left Disney’s video game division.
