Mixed Emotions & The Mobile Merge

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Mixed Emotions & The Mobile Merge

Postby goofyspaceranger » Tue Mar 15, 2016 11:34 am

Personally, I am very much looking forward to a trip to Toys R Us today 8-).

Professionally, I have mixed emotions. There is still no statement of direction for Disney Infinity on the PC. As much as I've been advocating for an educational version of Infinity for the PC, there's as much indication from unofficial tweets and Infinity service responses that imply that all PC development is done.

Locally, both our library system and our P-Tech high school have committed funds to purchase new hardware so that they can upgrade to Infinity 3.0. That's probably over $10,000 that has not yet been spent. That does not count well over $5,000 spent on Disney Infinity software licensing already, nor does it count the money earmarked for our hackathon club at our local college.

Will there be a revised version of Infinity on the PC? Will there be continued service, for a month, for a year, for the life of the overall franchise? Specifically, will there be continued connectivity to the servers required for the PC version to run? And will there be patches made available for bug fixes, even if PC development has been functionally stabilized?

The IBM Brand is advocating Disney Infinity on the PC, with both a PDF and a YouTube video in the public domain via the IBM On Demand Community detailing the software pricing. Without an official statement from the Disney Infinity Team, that will need to be pulled very soon.

I am considering a move to mobile. The hardware costs are roughly comparable. It may even be a better move in serving libraries & schools in the long run. A statement of direction for Infinity would make this decision much easier. And might the Disney Infinity Team consider a migration path? The fact that a figure's web card can unlock the virtual counterpart for both PC & mobile implies that they're all interconnected. With this abrupt stop on the PC, might the PC purchases of characters, power discs, & Toy Store unlocks be migrated to mobile devices for the corresponding Infinity accounts? This wouldn't resolve play sets, nor would it resolve PC gamers uninterested in mobile, but it would preserve the investment of many, and would cost the Walt Disney Company next to nothing. I will personally continue to advocate the Infinity platform regardless, but for many others, this could serve to preserve the customer base. And perhaps that migration mitigation would be the perfect way to deliver an official statement of direction. 8-)

Still a fan. Please clarify your communications. Best wishes.
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Re: Mixed Emotions & The Mobile Merge

Postby BluePunchBuggy » Wed Mar 16, 2016 1:29 am

Thank you, GSR. I appreciate all you've done with making DI an educational platform. Hopefully, someone on the forums can get you in touch with the right people on the DI team to determine the next steps for your project. I've been interested in getting this started with one of my kids schools, and have been thinking through what's required. You have some excellent information available.
 
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Re: Mixed Emotions & The Mobile Merge

Postby goofyspaceranger » Wed Mar 16, 2016 11:28 am

Thanks, BPG :D We've run a lot of different venues with a lot of different age groups. If you have any questions for activities, post or PM. I do hope DI makes a statement soon on the service plans for PC (& mobile for that matter). Unlike the PC gamers, it doesn't matter to me if the PC development is functionally stabilized - just needs to continue support. Difficult to recommend a new startup without that. I'd love to see the digital purchasing of PC & mobile merge into an educational version of the Toy Box, and the PC version would be even better with lesser graphics requirements.

Still continuing with Toy Box Club expansion - designing a more complex tutorial Toy Box with Star Wars theming, shooting for end of April. Have a team of IBMers working on a new Toy Box Club app to provide a quick reference to the hologram Creativi-toys - no target date for that yet. Really fun.

At the end of the day, DI needs to make money on all supported platforms. But if they have a segue into their own corporate citizenship goals, with an expansion of their potential consumers, where that educational version helps drive console purchases anyway, then everybody's happy 8-).

P.S. Make no mistake - it's Avalanche that made DI educational - the Creativi-Toy interface is just great. I'm just pointing it out to a few folks who didn't notice it ;)
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