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This Is The Video Game That’s Bringing In Millions Of Dollars For Disney
Karyne Levy/Business Insider
Iron Man is one of the characters you can play as in ‘Disney Infinity 2.0.’
Disney Interactive has seen massive growth in the past year.
Revenue was up 45% to $266 million for the third quarter this year. And its operating income in Q3 was up to $29 million, compared with a loss of $58 million last year. The company predicts it will soon become a billion-dollar business.
And that’s all thanks to one game: “Disney Infinity.”
“Disney Infinity” is an interactive open-world game, where you buy figures that then connect to the game and interact with each other.
Each Disney movie that comes out is a potential goldmine: A starter pack, which includes the game, base, and some figurines, costs around $70. Then there are play sets you can buy, which have a couple different characters. Those cost around $30. And individual figurines cost around $15.
The next generation of the game, “Disney Infinity 2.0: Marvel Super Heroes,” just came out. It brings together Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, and others, as well as Disney originals, like Maleficent from the live-action movie, and Merida from the Pixar film “Brave.”
This is a starter pack, starring some of “The Avengers” characters. It’ll set you back around $70.
Inside you’ll find the game disc, a base, Iron Man, Thor, and Black Widow, a clear plastic model of Avengers Tower (called a play set piece), and a poster of all the figures you can collect.
The figures use near field communication (NFC) to interact with the base and the game.
Here’s a closer look at the base. The characters fit in the circles, and the plastic play set pieces (like the Avengers Tower) fit on the hexagon.
Each of the characters has a special power.
You can also buy Power Discs that are placed underneath the characters on the base. Discs come in “blind packs,” so you don’t know what you’re going to get until you open it.
They’re basically “trading cards” that give your characters special abilities, gadgets, costumes, and environments. There are more than 130 different Power Discs. They cost $5 for a pack of two.
Gameplay in “Story Mode” is pretty straightforward. You have missions to complete, items to find, and bad guys to obliterate.
But the coolest part about the game is called “Toy Box Mode.”
Toy Box Mode is where characters from different play sets come together and interact with each other.
So you can play as Spider-Man …
… and your friend can play as Elsa from the movie “Frozen.”
You can play in other game worlds, or even in worlds that other players created and posted online. Here, Spider-Man is in Aladdin’s world of Agrabah.
You can also build things here. And in Toy Box is where you’ll find items you unlocked during Story Mode.
These are some of the other characters that are available for “Disney Infinity 2.0.” Each one costs around $15, or $40 for a play set.
Every time a new movie comes out, new characters will come out. It’s a booming business for Disney Interactive.
“Toy Box Mode” isn’t the only place people can build crazy things …
14 amazing creations people have built in the game “Minecraft”>>
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