Disney Infinity details the beginning of the end of online
functionality for the toys-to-life franchise, and reveals that many
gamers won’t even be able to play offline.
After years of success, fans of the toy-to-life trend were shocked to learn that the Disney Infinity series would be ending abruptly. Disney Interactive has now gone on to officially announce when Disney Infinity online services will end, and that some gaming systems won’t have access to the game at all anymore.
Disney Infinity officials have made it clear that gamers will continue to be able to play Disney Infinity offline on consoles for the forseeable future. However, with the end of the game’s production, the online services will be taken offline over the course of the next year. The breakdown of when gamers can expect the services to no longer be available and whether they can continue playing the game offline depends upon what version of Disney Infinity they own and what system they’re playing it on.
Specifically, Disney revealed that console gamers and Steam players can expect Disney Infinity to remain playable with the exception of online and community services, which will be discontinued. On September 30th, all community content and the ability to upload or download Disney Infinity Toy Box material will be shut down on all versions.
Starting today, Disney Infinity has already removed the ability for players to make purchases in-game in Disney Infinity on Android, Apple TV, iOS, and the PC version purchased directly from Disney. On September 30th, all of the aforementioned versions will be removed from their respective stores, and all but the Apple TV version will be rendered unplayable. Apple TV as well as Windows 8 and Windows 10 (the versions not purchased directly from Disney) won’t be spared from the end of services either, though, finally coming to a close on March 3, 2017, and rendering the them unplayable as well.
Unfortunately, this news reveals that many Disney Infinity players have a short period of time remaining before the game is completely shutdown. Many gamers will likely be frustrated by this, since typically, toys-to-life games require quite a bit more financial investment than a typical game, but it won’t remain playable like most other offline-capable games. It’s also rather unfair that the game will remain functional on some gaming platforms, while others will have their access to the game completely revoked.
Many fans of the Disney Infinity series, Marvel, and other Disney properties have already been disappointed by the number of cancelled figures that were on their way to the production line. Fans were let down to learn that prototypes for X-Men and Star Wars Episode 8 Disney Infinity was scrapped due to the series’ cancellation. However, if those figures had been released and gamers had subsequently been locked out of the game shortly thereafter anyway, maybe it’s better that those figures never saw the light of day.
Disney Infinity‘s online services will come to a close over the course of the next year for all players.