Ten Reasons EA Should Save Disney Infinity

If Infinity was revived I feel like they need to step away from the forced promotional tie ins. When it's natural like Finding Dory, or TFA, or Avengers, go for it. But forcing characters like Yondu or the Rebels isn't doing fans any favours, nor did it do Disney any favours.

Hey guys I just finished my first draft of an article I have constructed around my original thread here. As you guys are the ones I want to represent, I wanted you all to get a first glimpse. I will be pushing to get the article on popular media sites like Gamespot, IGN, Kotaku, etc as a guest article. I would appreciate you also sharing the article and helping me clean it up. This is the first phase of our last ditch effort to save the game. Together as a community we can make a difference.

Ten Reasons Why EA Should Save Disney Infinity

Three years ago Disney sought out a way to bring the magic and imagination that permeates its movies and theme parks to gamers young and old alike through their ambitious Toys to Life product, Disney Infinity. For the past three years Disney has built a platform in which childhood fantasies could be realized as gamers could soar over Sleeping Beauty's Castle as Tinkerbell, fly through San Fransokyo as Baymax, swing along the rooftops as Spiderman, and lead a Death Star trench run as Luke Skywalker. Beyond living out these iconic fantasies, Disney Infinity empowered children and the young at heart to build like a Disney imagineer, melding the worlds of Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars together in unprecedented fashion from the comfort of their own couch. Worlds were created by young and old alike that allowed Stitch to become an honorary Rebel pilot, Malificent to square off against Avengers, and Elsa to race Mickey through the deserts of Tatooine. What was created was, at its core, nothing short of Disney magic.

However, the Disney magic was not immune to the troubles of modern business. Brand new products are rarely ever perfect when they are first released. The game's core gameplay underwent refinement through its three iterations from clunky and buggy to smooth and responsive. Similarly, the game's creative suite received much needed upgrades in its interface and ease of accessibility. Growing pains aside, it was the underproduction of inventory for its first iteration and compensatory overproduction of figure inventory during its second iteration that ultimately resulted in the project's untimely demise. With millions of dollars of surplus inventory from its 2.0 edition, even the success of Disney Infinity 3.0 could not save the platform.

As Disney announced the closure of Avalanche Software last week and the decision to no longer publish games on their own, investors let out a sigh of relief while a dedicated fanbase mourned a great loss. One need not look far to find examples of how the news devastated loyal fans of the game. If you're one who gets a little teary eyed while watching Pixar films like myself, you likely won't be able to handle the personal heartbreak expressed on the disneyinfinityfans.com forum or the change.org petition to save the game (https://www.change.org/p/the-walt-disne ... infinity/c). Some of the personal stories shared are guaranteed to move you, assuming your heart hasn't been turned ice cold by an Asgardian with a scepter.

As moving as the experiences are, I could not help but feel a petition for Disney to backpedal on its decision would be fruitless. Disney has clearly taken a new stance with regards to where they are investing their time and money. They are going back to their roots of creating cinematic classics and the aggressive expansion of their Disney Parks. In many ways, I understand and appreciate them going back to what they do best while they allow others to license Disney properties for games. But that hardly means I am ready to give up on the game Avalanche Software created and the incredible community that supports it. After a couple of days of contemplation, I have come to the realization that a partnership between Disney and gaming giant Electronic Arts presents the best opportunity for the series to survive. While it's clear an EA revival would be great for fans and may help Disney save face in times of criticism, this deal also makes all the sense in the world for EA.

Below I have outlined the top 10 reasons a Disney Infinity revival by EA makes sense:

1. Disney Infinity has been documented as the highest earning franchise in the Toys to Life segment recently. 200 million dollars in sales last fall with the release of Disney Infinity 3.0 Star Wars is impressive...most impressive. EA would be foolish not to jump at the chance to add such an established product to their portfolio. This is especially true when you consider the alternative being allowing their chief publishing rival Activision to continue with their Skylanders line with minimal competition. You can also look at EA's track record of acquiring known entities such as Tiburon, Bioware, Maxis, Westwood, Bullfrog, etc and continuing with their established franchises with successful sales.

2. EA has close ties to Disney now. EA has exclusive licensing rights to Star Wars games for the foreseeable future. EA loves to get exclusive rights, whether it is Star Wars or the NFL. EA partnering with the entire Disney brand presents more opportunities for them while simultaneously taking Disney away from prospective competitors. An EA partnership could even lead to an EA presence within Disney Parks.

3. The addition of Disney games, chiefly Disney Infinity, would allow EA to publish games to a demographic they don't currently represent strongly in their current game portfolio. EA has a strong presence in action games, sports games, RPGs, etc. The family/kid friendly game genre is a great opportunity to further diversify and potentially create brand recognition with their target audience at a younger age.

4. EA would have comparatively little work to do with regards to keeping Infinity up and running. The foundation of the game has already been created by Avalanche. They can create their own team of former Avalanche employees and designers from their various subsidiaries for an arguably more well balanced team than what Avalanche built on their own. Let's not forget how many outside developers were brought in to assist the Avalanche team with the last two iterations of Infinity. Outside consulting and project delegation is costly in most any industry. EA is better suited to keep everything in house to cut costs and improve efficiency. Furthermore a number of 2016 projects including a Peter Pan figure and Star Wars: Rogue One Playset are already in various stages of completion based on reports.

5. EA can afford the risk. If you follow their financial statements, EA had an incredibly fruitful fiscal year. Right now investors and EA leaders are happy. When investors and leaders are happy with performance, companies like EA are in a better position to take "risks," which some may label Toys to Life is, though I'd disagree as there's still ample room for growth.

6. EA is better suited to operate a production on the scale of Infinity than Disney Interactive was. EA has decades of successful game publishing from a financial performance perspective. As alluded to before, they also have a wealth of developers under the EA umbrella that can lend developmental help to Disney Infinity rather than outsourcing which is quite costly. I can only imagine how Infinity could evolve if you developers from DICE or EA Sports lending assistance. Who wants to see a first person camera in Infinity with Iron Man's HUD? Who wants to see NBA Jam style basketball mechanics so we can see Mr Incredible go up to dunk a basketball only to be frozen in midair by Elsa? Honestly the prospect of combining Disney's properties with EA's game development prowess should be enough to make Activision tremble.

7. EA has the benefit of of hindsight. EA can easily see the missteps that doomed Disney Interactive and Avalanche, most notably the overproduction of inventory if recently released reports are accurate. With a clean slate and a better understanding of realistic sales expectations, a company can make even a niche market successful.

8. EA can gain substantial positive publicity by being Disney Infinity's "savior." EA was a once reviled company unlike any other, earning the dubious distinction of Most Hated Company two years in a row. In the past few years, EA has made tremendous strides to change public perception. Reviving a dead, but loved, product is a sure fire way to earn the adoration of fans, but also reshape attitudes towards the corporate giant. One need not look far to see how Netflix continues to gain positive press when saving shows with passionate followings like Arrested Development, Longmire, and The Gilmore Girls. Not only will they be reviving a beloved children's game, but also saving a number of the 300 jobs that were lost with the closure of Avalanche Software.

9. EA has to realize Disney products offer a stable flow of income as long as Disney continues to produce box office hits that excite children, parents, and everyone in between. Disney has been nothing short of spectacular with regards to their film releases as of late considering they own four of the top ten box office earners from 2015 (Star Wars TFA, Avengers Age of Ultron, Inside Out, and Cinderella). 2016 looks to match that pace with Disney owning three of the top five spots thus far (Zootopia, Jungle Book, and Captain America Civil War). Keep in mind another MCU and Star Wars installment will be here by the holiday season and Disney's cinematic plans include at least 2 MCU and 1 Star Wars installment every year for the foreseeable future in addition to their typical slate of Disney live action, Disney Animation Studios, and Disney Pixar productions. If the movies are popular, kids will want to have the toys, games, and other tie ins that come with it.

10. EA has an opportunity to further add to its legacy in the history of the gaming industry by taking Toys to Life to the next level. Super Mario Bros was not the first platformer but Nintendo will forever be recognized for how they perfected it. Doom was not the first FPS but it will forever remembered for how it pushed the genre mainstream. World of Warcraft was not the first MMORPG but it will forever be known for how it defined the genre. Activision's Skylanders is clearly the pioneer of the Toys to Life segment, but that doesn't mean they have to go down in history as being the ones who did it best. EA has a legacy established in its sports division, but now they have an opportunity again, at the crossroads of gaming history to take the Toys to Life segment to infinity and beyond.

On behalf of all Disney Infinity fans, I say help us EA...you're our only hope...

JV

Disney is all about marketing and good business.

To cut us off and without a back-up plan,doesn't sound like Disney.

Love the time and effort that you put into that article. You have my full support. I still refuse to think this is the end and won't not matter who tells me it is. There has to be a way. Maybe this is it. Go for it Wookie.

^Disney's synergy used to be top notch, nowadays it's often head scratching. Ultimately they have to answer to shareholders/stakeholders, which tends to mean fewer long term investments. if something isn't making a butt load of money immediately, dump it

Very beautiful first draft. Got teary eyed while reading it. This game and the community are very special to me and hold a very special place in my heart. I believe we have a chance to save the game if we all work together.

That's a pretty compelling and well-written article, Wookie. I'm with you on this.

There are a couple grammatical errors. Other than that, it is well reasoned and logical. Here is to hoping that is even possible!!!

1. "While it's clear and (should be an) EA revival would be great..."
2. "What was created was, at its core, was nothing short of Disney magic." (Choose one was surrounding "at its core")

Thanks for the support guys. Thanks for finding those errors pjhaan. Very good eyes. This is what I am coming to you guys for. Any other suggestions or recommendations would be great. I want this to be OUR voice.