Disney Infinity | It’s Officially Awesome!

Today we finally received our formal announcement from Disney regarding their new Disney Infinity gaming platform.  There has been a flurry of early reports with details and speculation.  I will try to distill the information as much as possible here.  But based on what I’ve read, Disney Infinity appears to bring everything I hoped for, and a whole bunch more.

• Disney Infinity will be released in June of 2013.  The starter pack will sell for $74.99 and will include 3 play sets (Monsters University, Pirates of the Caribbean, and The Incredibles), and three figures (one for each play set I would imagine).

• Other play sets will sell for $34.99, figure three packs for $29.99, and individual figures for $12.99.

• Disney Infinity will incorporate a Skylanders like portal, two in fact, plus a third “Play set” for worlds rather than figures.

• You can play in the “Play set” or “Toy box.”  The former will limit you to only those figures that are appropriate for the set (No Mr. Incredible in Monsters University).  The toy box is an open world platform where all characters can play together.

• Power Discs will be sold separately.  These will act as upgrades to the figures and will sell for $4.99.

• The game will support 2 players in the play sets and 4 players in toy box mode. 

 Here are some shots of what a “Play Set” may look like.

Reactions?

First, I’m totally thrilled that the figures will be put in play.  I love Disney, I love video games, and I love to collect things just like this.  And the Disney Ninja too!  So this is exciting.  I’m also thrilled to hear the continued talk of the toy box world being something like a Minecraft or Little Big Planet type experience.  For those that have played either of those games, you know they can extend the life of a game almost infinitely.  Hence the name I guess.  And then I saw this video and things started to get very cool and very real.

Tell me that doesn’t get you a little jacked to perhaps finally have a Disney game worth playing?  I’m encouraged by the opinion of some that even if you are not a gamer, the toys are of high enough quality to stand on their own outside of the gaming experience.  I know first-hand what that means having watched my son stage live-action battles with his Skylanders.  Seeing him do that is one of the main reasons I’m behind this so much.

Here are some quotes I pulled from the various articles.  Disney Infinity is gonna be good.

From the Polygon article.

From the Business Week article.

And the best for last, from another Polygon follow-up article.

Heck yeah!! You go get ‘em John!!

I’ll finish this announcement up with some more teasers from the game.

Disney Infinity

Well, we finally got the news and I got everything I wanted.  The wait is over.  Wait.  The wait isn’t over.  Now I have to wait another 5 months for them to release the dang thing!  Maybe they’ll let me buy the toys ahead of time…