What RUINED Disney Interactive?

Disney Interactive was an attempt from Disney to get into the world of gaming and it was ultimately a costly disaster. Why was it a failure? How come Disney couldn't succeed in this industry?
Social Media
►Follow Saber64 on Twitter: / saberspark64
Video Credits
►Video Script and Research by Saberspark
/ saberspark
►Video Script and Research by Tom Oliver
/ tommyoliversays
►Video Edits by GeekToons
/ @geektoons
►Audio Edits by dBPony
/ dbponymusic
►Intro Music/Outro Music by Hirosashii
/ hirosashii

[@SystemZ3RO]

Former DIS worker here. This pretty much checks out. Higher ups basically made games to cash in on their existing properties and had no idea on how to handle new IPs they acquired. Turok especially was micromanaged into the ground in terms of what the devs could and could not do. Even publishing the game under Bunea Vista Games. The increase costs also was the result of the games being top heavy. Alot of people who never even looked at a game "worked" on them while simultaneously looking down on those who did work on them as lesser.

[@CaptainCat101]

I miss Disney Interactive. Maybe it's just because Epic Mickey is one of my favorite video games, but the company made some good stuff

[@Pridetoons]

I can count all the good games made by Disney Interactive on one hand.

[@lmbao5021]

@@Pridetoons as they said, Disney made *some* good stuff

[@dalcioandujar8850]

I miss Disney infinity those were good games

[@DavidDumbedDown]

@@Pridetoons This comment was made at 14:59 o clock

[@DavidDumbedDown]

15:31

[@Cupheadsadvocate]

To sum it up, Disney found it easier to pay other companies to make games

[@andykishore]

Thank you for saving me the hassle.

[@Cupheadsadvocate]

@@andykishore You're welcome

[@FH4Player6397]

Thanks for the explanation!

[@Cupheadsadvocate]

@@FH4Player6397 No problem

[@shiftfire4511]

Which is so fucking weird, since they actually did pretty decently...and trusting other companies and them fucking up is what lead to the founding of Disney Interactive in the first place.

[@adelcipher5617]

Man Disney Infinity was so much fun I still have the game and a lot of the figures but just as anything Disney it was really cash grabby.....hard to imagine the folks that made it now made Hogwarts Legacy......years just fly by

[@Typhoon1620]

I just started to replay Disney Infinity and it is honestly so much fun and I kinda miss going to stores for a scavenger hunt for what characters or play sets I want, but now we have the games in Steam, full package: characters, play sets, power discs, etc. So it's a no brainer to get it especially since I never got 1.0 or any of the play sets for 2.0, I've just stuck with 3.0 this whole time

[@clyne8835]

The same guys who made hogwarts legacy made Disney infinity? That's so funny! How come Disney infinity is the better product out of the two lol

[@adelcipher5617]

@@clyne8835 I wouldn't say HL is worse than Disney Infinity.....both of these games are completely different DI is a sandbox game and HL is a heavy RPG..... honestly Avalanche did a pretty impressive job for their first ever project of that scale not to mention a pretty beloved IP, of course it could be improved there's no doubt about it but I'd say both of these games are equally charming and engaging also let's be honest playing with your favourite Disney characters and becoming a wizard in Hogwarts are a childhood dream come true

[@clyne8835]

@@adelcipher5617 I mean yeah they are different games, but Disney infinity as their first project was more optimised with a better UI than hogwarts legacy. There's too much stuff on the screen in that game. It's unfair for me to compare the gameplay because they're very different games, but as someone who recently replayed infinity because I found all my old figures shoved in a box, I was way more engaged with that than I ever was with HL. I didn't even finish that game because it just wasn't fun

[@adelcipher5617]

@@clyne8835 Yeah that also put me off a bit and the first hours before you get through the first classes are pretty boring but than the game kept getting better for me I did 100% it so I guess I did get hooked....but honestly it reminds me of Horizon zero dawn it's one of my favourites still although it has pretty stiff animations and the characters could have been fleshed out more the same goes for HL I wanted so much more of a lot of it's characters but hopefully Avalanche will learn form this and make the sequel even better......but Disney infinity is definitely more creative the amount of things you can do In that game is still awesome and there hasn't been a game like it since, and the figures are absolutely perfect I feel kinda bad for letting them catch dust but my old Xbox 360 does struggle a bit lately so I don't want to push it, the only thing I'm still mad about is the pay wall that's stopping you from enjoying the game fully, but that's Disney so I can't really expect anything

[@tonytins]

I find it quite hilarious how hypocritical Disney as a company really is. They sing praises about how creative their artists are, yet the company as a whole is about as unoriginal and shallow as you can get.

[@j.k.4479]

Yeah, they've really only ever bought out other companies or retold stories already written. They're good at it but none of it is truly new.

[@lil_brook97]

@@j.k.4479None of it USED to be truly new. Back then Disney actually had originality and creativity. But now they became a shallow and soulless company

[@montgomeryyu9521]

Disney has been shallow and soulless ever since Walt died.

[@normadgarmez7026]

That's for sure. They really should put their money where their mouth is.

[@glynmillett7193]

yeah i mean they put all the focus into marvel and star wars instead of actual original disney creations thats why i hate both franchises now

[@VidtopiaEntertainment]

Disney Interactive was a big part of my childhood and I would always remember promos for their games would appear in front of various Disney VHS’ it was a treat to see one of them.

[@ToHoldNothing]

I definitely recall some, but never really played most of them. Only a few remain in my memory or were common, mostly little compilations of games centered around something, like a Lion King one with Timon and Pumbaa and the big one in my recollection, a Hunchback of Notre Dame one.

[@ziawilliams-collier8684]

@@ToHoldNothingsplit/second and Pure we’re great racing games that did well but people didn’t pick it up due to Disney I assume. Turok wasn’t bad either

[@trevorblue4531]

@@ToHoldNothing Those would be Jungle Games, and Topsy Turvey Games!

[@ToHoldNothing]

@@trevorblue4531 It's almost coming back to me. I played the crap out of Pajama Sam's first game, never really played any other Humongous Entertainment games, sadly, some seemed kind of cool, like the James Bond Fox series

[@trevorblue4531]

@@ToHoldNothing The whole Humongous collection is on Steam!

[@exterminator9676]

I'm sad you ignored Toontown's existence, it's always good to get more players, which encourages fan developers to pump out more updates. Toontown was the biggest Disney venture that actually mattered in any way to my life, so yeah. EDIT: Epic Mickey, which you mentioned in the video, was an amazing game!

[@MadoyaTatemano]

Same. I only got excited by this video because of ToonTown. Sad it was never mentioned. 😭😭😭

[@trevorblue4531]

It was, except 4 the automatic save feature!

[@busybody42luigifanxxx20]

Don't worry, he made a toontown video now.

[@MadoyaTatemano]

@@busybody42luigifanxxx20 thank you for telling us

[@BlueEyes274]

There was a game series that had Disney Interactive Studios involved with it, which also faded into obscurity. This series was known as Spectrobes, which was quite interesting in its approach as a sort of creature collector game type. It started on the Nintendo DS but sadly died out with the Wii, but I at least enjoyed this obscure series.

[@DavidDumbedDown]

This comment was made at 14:38 o clock

[@DavidDumbedDown]

15:23

[@numbersbubble]

I still play Split/Second, the multiplayer is still up 14 years later

[@SparkzEnt]

@@numbersbubble Split/Second is really fun and something that doesn't even feel Disney. Makes it all the more special

[@tomokh2]

Even with KH's success, the frustrating part is that Disney Japan promoted KH a lot more than the other Disney branches rather than there be some kind of equal share of the promotion. Namely, Disney North America, which clearly was focused on making profits as their #1 priority. Over the last two decades, it's been a rare treat to see KH have a presence in its parks, on a cruise ship and stores. (Not counting the KH demo booths that existed in NYC"s old World of Disney store and Epcot's Innovations' game demo booths.) At least, KH has a good presence in bookstores with their manga, novels, calendars, and ultimanias. I did notice though, in the last five years, that I'd say KH's presence has started to slightly improve in the NA parks (pins), random Sora shirts, USAOPOLY board games, and some Disney shows (cameos). However, nothing can beat the huge amount of official KH merch/furniture coming out of S-E's store, the KH merch out of Japan's Disney's catalog and Tokyo Disney's Ambassador hotel's KH themed room. In the West, KH fans have to rely on other KH fans, who are currently working for Disney, to actually bring out some of that KH magic because Disney NA can only half acknowledge a series that isn't made in house. It's frustrating every year, but it is what it is until Disney changes from within. Indeed, Disney put a lot of money and marketing to other games like Disney Infinity. That just makes it very ironic that the one Disney series, still chugging along way past Disney Interactive's lifespan, is KH that hasn't even been heavily heavily marketed like Disney Infinity. Maybe, it's good that KH was never milked to death in merch in the West, but a lot of global fans are missing out on some good official merch. Some specialty stores may randomly sell some official KH merch, but that's only if you know where to look.

[@azazel6342]

I only wish Spectrobes didn't get forgotten. I loved that game. Digging up the fossils, singing to them to get specific colors, leveling them up.

[@Mr._Sherwood]

Likewise, Spectrobes was such a fun creature collector and at this point I'd settle for, I don't know, a switch port of Origins or something.

[@Yellowredstone]

I found a Spectrobes fan in the wild! YOO! At this point we just need a dedicated fan to license the franchise from Disney. Hopefully such a thing won't be terribly expensive as it's completely dead.

[@dacknostrum]

@@Mr._Sherwooda switch port of the first two games, and a revamped port of Origin.

[@grantdaily9662]

MORE SPECTROBES FANS!? HUZZA!

[@Mr._Sherwood]

Don't mess with us spectrobes fans, there's like twenty of us in existence

[@neffrey]

during my experience as a nine-year-old playing disney infinity for the first time, i found it pretty confusing to navigate the menus and figure out where the game was. the only thing i could figure out was the level making area. i'm sure i would be able to work it out today but i'm not a child and i'm not the target demographic

[@RaisonLychi]

I never knew what system that game was on, but I'd always see the character figures in the game section of Walmart. 🤔

[@pocoplease3731]

Disney Infinity was crazy confusing and kinda complicated for their target audience.. 💀

[@twirox1662]

The original Kingdom Hearts is one of my all time favorite games, the soundtrack is also legendary

[@ORIGINALFBI]

Absolutely

[@dreamguardian8320]

Agreed.

[@JMax54]

I remember when I booted up Split/Second for the first time on my 360. I seen Disney Interactive and was like, "Disney is apart of this?!" That shocked the hell out of me. So sad we will never get a Split/Second 2 though.. Fun racing game.

[@numbersbubble]

multiplayer is still up for split second, though I never seen a full lobby in a year, at most I see 4- 6 players

[@SHIFTER24FX]

Rest In Peace BlackRock Studio

[@cofagrigusfan24]

some of the game i remember fondly from the studio -Alice in Wonderland (2010, Wii) -Disney Universe (2011, Wii) -Disney's Animated Storybook: The Lion King (1994, PC) -Disney's Animated Storybook: 101 Dalmatians (1997, PC) -Disney's Activity Center: Aladdin ost (1994, PC) -Disney's Timon & Pumbaa's Jungle Games (1995, PC) -Disney•Pixar Finding Nemo (2003, PC) -Kingdom Heart 1 & 2 (2002, 2005, PS2) -Spectrobes Origins (2009, Wii)

[@keijijohnson9754]

Ah Spectrobes... Another series that was gone too dang soon. 😔

[@yubelious5584]

I got Timon & Pumba Jungle Games in a cereal box. Played it for years, on 2 or 3 different computers after that.

[@4ply4ply4plywhenicry4]

I’d really like to see a video about what happened to Junction Point, one of the developers behind the Epic Mickey games, or maybe even a video on that franchise alone.

[@toonghost3]

Didyouknowgaming already did one

[@dhgmrz17]

Grew up playing Toy Story 2 on PC, one of my first real introductions to gaming.

[@naruhearts1]

Same here, before I even knew what resolution was or how to change it and the difference between being Software or Hardware rendered

[@ali_ex]

I was obsessed with Disney infinity because I liked the toy designs and liked drawing other characters in that style but yea I wasn’t a fan of the generic sandbox gameplay

[@BrandonCroker]

The nostalgia levels are off the charts

[@OlyChickenGuy]

The only Disney-based games I can recall playing were Kingdom Hearts (which I'd still be playing if I had the modern consoles to support it), and I somehow ended up in possession of the SNES Aladdin game.

[@sushikushisparrow1096]

Luckily you can now get the final mix versions on modern consoles. As a avid player, there’s a difference for sure, but those difference are still worth the prices 😅

[@OlyChickenGuy]

@@sushikushisparrow1096 That's good to hear! Unfortunately, I haven't owned a console since the PS2, but hey, if I ever pick one up again I now know I can have a library of some of my favourite games. :3

[@papouligaming9594]

What’s important to remember is that while Skylanders is mostly filled with new characters, Disney Infinity’s and Lego Dimensions’ rosters were filled mostly with licensed characters. I imagine making and running these games would be significantly more expensive as there’s a lot more copyright to manage.

[@mageyplss]

The disney fantasia game was actually really good, the songs themselves were really solid and had an option to pick what instruments you wanted to include once you beat the song, there were little interactive minigames you could activate, it got a bit grindy if you wanted to complete it but it was so much fun

[@ExtremeWreck]

Better than Infogrames' Genesis game.

[@chronoblue418]

Along with Split Second, another racing game I'd recommend is Pure. It was also published by Disney Interactive and developed by Black Rock Studios. Its an ATV racing game where you use ramps to perform and successfully land tricks to gain boost and can customize your ATV with a variety of parts to alter its performance. It also looks great visually and has a decent variety of track designs you normally wouldn't see in ATV racing games like areas with more foliage and water where most games of this type would be mostly dirt. If you've played Sonic Riders and want something a little similar to it's trick system you should try this.

[@keijijohnson9754]

I wouldn’t say that it’s THAT on par with Sonic Riders, but man does it annoy me more that there’s never going to be a sequel to that or Split/Second still.😔

[@lasz1979]

I'm still pissed that apparently there was a Kim Possible set planned for Infinity. It would have been cool to have figurines of Kim, Ron and Shego.

[@brenolk4642]

My personal favorite Disney Interactive Publication has to be Split Second: Velocity, possibly the best Arcade Racer for the PS3/XBOX 360 and really hope it makes a comeback some day

[@SHIFTER24FX]

It wont

[@SHIFTER24FX]

Disney had shutdown BlackRock Studio thus killing Split/Second and Split/Second 2

[@ryanv7681]

​@@SHIFTER24FXare rights to the IP up for grabs now? Or is it still locked with Disney

[@SHIFTER24FX]

@@ryanv7681 They still hold it, however they do not care

[@SHIFTER24FX]

@@ryanv7681 There is a remake in the works in Unreal Engine 4 or 5 and Disney did not give a dam and the guy who is remaking the game ported the dlc of the console version to the pc version and he contacted Disney and they do not care at all

[@CommonNeon]

I had all of the Disney Infinity games growing up. And I remember buying the games, figures and crystals as they came out. I was so upset to see that we didn't get a Disney Infinity 4.0. I'm so glad to see you reviewing this game, Saber. These were one of my favorite games when I was younger. The best thing about it for me was the Disney movie based worlds and the toy box.

[@selimnagisokrov]

As someone who has everything except the star wars fx editions (yes, I have the mickey d23 expo one with authenticity), the problem I found with the infinity game was lack of interaction. Skylanders and Dimensions would talk to one another and the environments placed. I could put Homer into Gotham and he would talk to the other 2 figures from Ghostbusters and whatever else . In Infinity outside the toy box, I couldn't put my figures into other storylines and it killed it. Disney wanted the $$$$ that came with toys to life but not the extra play. Sure part of the problem with the Toys to Life franchise was the money. You could play with base but if you wanted the full experience you needed to fork out the cash. Which was true with Dimensions and Skylanders. Disney... Didn't have that flare. Inside out to Inside out. star wars to star wars. Disney killed the franchise by not being imaginative and yet wanting us to be imaginative.

[@HylianBean97]

​@@selimnagisokrov bro, you had to SACRIFICE a fucking body part to be able to fucking afford LEGO Dimensions!! That game was too expensive, Infinity series was the most affordable one to collect, I was able to afford all the playsets from each iteration of Infinity, if anything was expensive was Skylosers and LEGO Dimensions, remember LEGO charges STUPID amounts for tiny pieces of plastic 💀

[@HylianBean97]

​@@selimnagisokrov Infinity had PLENTY of interaction bro, especially towards Spider-Man and Venom, Nova You're just trying to come out with excuses to trash on Disney 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@sasamichan]

IMO Disney infinity was the ONLY thing that justified Live Action Remakes why they are STILL going on is beyond me. I think what ruined them was the fact that not enough people wanted to buy all the parts and with Lego and Nintendo and Skylenders and others trying to get in on the action it just flopped. Then for whatever dumb reason Disney just pulled the plug on ALL video games. We also lost Epic Mickey 3 which could be a video topic too. and who knows what other games we could have gotten.' 'Epic Micky had problems these problems were addressed in the next game and caused more problems and it ended on a cliffhanger. Star Wars swapping from Luccas Arts to EA also ruined a lot of fun ideas. Online isn't worth the investment IMO if you can't play the same game for at least 20 or 30 years. This is why Mincraft did right what others did wrong.

[@ValTek_Armory]

The Kingdom Hearts series is incredibly important to me. I literally grew up with it and was finally able to play KH 3 this past year.

[@ValTek_Armory]

I guess we can blame the fall of Disney Interactive for how strict disney was with their properties in KH3. They wanted as little risk as possible

[@knuclear200x]

What risk?

[@magical-soap5359]

​@@knuclear200x I have seen videos debating that KH3 is held down by too much of Disney world characters and not enough creative choices to make with them.

[@knuclear200x]

@magical-soap5359 the way I see it, KH is really just a Final Fantasy game that can't work by itself. It only uses Disney characters to get your attention

[@magical-soap5359]

@@knuclear200x Yup the big appeal is the crossover aspect for people. Saberspark said KH is less tied up with the Disney content than the beginning but KH3 is accused of being too much Disney. Sounds contradictory but I don't follow KH games as closely so I'm not sure.

[@kirara2516]

Also, you caught me and my emotions off guard in those last seconds, showing Sora's reveal trailer for Smash. By showing that scene of Link, Cloud and a pokemon turning to greet him. So much love and nostalgia packed into those frames.

[@SkyeBerryJam]

A few big reasons Disney infinity specifically closed down sort of unceremoniously in the end in my opinion are, that a lot of the older audience that would have enjoyed it, was burned out on the idea from things like Skylanders, the kids who were getting their parents to buy more for them, probably also had their parents like hell no I'm done spending more and more money on this one game, and finally there really wasn't a big community around the content creation aspect like there was with something like little big planet combined with a lack of content in the base game because of the creative mode being a huge selling point and the selling of every single level pack separately and such.

[@ReggieMosbyJr]

I still have Apprentice Mickey, Nick Fury, Falcon, Donald, Black Panther, Aladdin, and Thor

[@aria_daize9926]

Epic Mackey is still my all time favorite game series, and the game d argue that had the most passion put into it. Even with its flaws, its hands down one if the best game they have ever made, and I will forever mourn what the series could have been

[@trevorblue4531]

The automatic save feature was the worst!

[@WreakingOfSmoke]

I worked at a toy store when the Disney Infinity stuff was out. We were trained to check with people who were going to buy Infinity toys to make sure they had the right games to work with the 2.0 and 3.0 figures. It's sad when the Infinity stuff had to have a chart so kids and parents could tell if they could play with the toys on the box. It just confused people a lot on top of the toys to life concept being on its way out by that point too.

[@ToHoldNothing]

Minor correction I feel like someone else may have brought up: technically Squaresoft was not the majority company after the merger with Enix, they were doing worse than the latter and so Enix basically bought them ought and they reconstituted. That Spirits Within movie really screwed over Squaresoft back in the day, plus the budget for the Legend of the Crystals anime had to be cut in half and that probably also nearly bankrupted them

[@momomo5023]

I had all the original disney infinity collectables and used to play the game until i got migraines(This happened like everytime i played the game lmao). It really helped me as a kid through my childhood so its a shame kids now won't be able to go through scary times with their disney friends.

[@Quadrenaro]

The title of this video alone just unlocked a part of my childhood, long forgotten. The 101 Dalmatian games were great. The escape from De Ville Manor was an amazing adventure game for kids. Tarzan was great. A bug's life was a fun 3d platform era. And I loved the Incredibles.

[@Roadent1241]

I loved the Toy Story and Treasure Planet and Monsters Inc games. Just to go for ones not Kingdom Hearts. I'd go for that Disney Speedstorm game if it was free to play like Google claimed it was, because I enjoyed the Toy Story Racer game and the one advert I saw just looked like a sequel. So I wonder who picked that one up and made it £25 instead of Free To Play. I do miss all these Storybook games as well... Wonder why Mulan was the only one ported to PS1.

[@trevorblue4531]

The Hercules ones are great as well, Storybook, Action Game, and Hades Challenge, especially the final boss fight! And Jungle Games and Topsy Turvey Games!

[@Iffy350]

I bet Disney wishes it was still the early 2000’s

[@Markimark151]

Disney Interactive didn’t focus enough on internal game development, the games they developed in-house were mostly flops like Epic Mickey and Disney Infinity sequels, while their licensed games to other publishers like Kingdom Hearts from Square Enix and Ducktales from Capcom were just more profitable! Disney doesn’t like to deal with overhead costs with developers.

[@NxTTxT]

Even Disney’s current gaming investments are still just rip offs of other titles. Dreamlight Valley (which I love don’t get me wrong) is basically Animal Crossing with paid DLC and v-bucks, and Speedstorm is essentially Mario Kart but with internal campaigns in order to unlock characters and karts. They really just haven’t learned from their mistakes.

[@JJPRODUCTDELUXE]

I kinda feel bad for Disney infinities failure, yes it was made for a genre that’s now gone..maybe, but unlike let’s say sky lands it had a unique ascetic with the sandbox mode, as you said ‘letting you do or create whatever Disney crossover you wanted’ and Disney infinity 4.0 was also being made around the time of avalanches downfall..which makes things even more sadder, trust me..me and my brother used to play 3.0 non-stop..i’m just kinda bummed out Disney infinity 4.0 wasn’t finished lol

[@platypusfox73]

I loved Disney infinity when it was around and it had a great community of toybox builders. Alot of us were devastated when it was shut down especially when it was revealed that the fourth game was going to take a Lego Dimensions approach with its main story

[@popatsot1]

The Kingdom Hearts music in the background was a nice touch.

[@slackarjackal]

it's a shame fantasia: music evolved didn't do too well. i was super excited when i saw news of it back when i still enjoyed music games and it was even the first game i ever preordered. a game where you could create your own versions of licensed and classical songs was very appealing, and i think it did a great job at that even with all the body moving required for a kinect title

[@trevorblue4531]

Way better than Genesis Fantasia!

[@ryanv7681]

The biggest heartbreak for me was the disbanding of BlackRock studio, thereby ending one of my favorite racing games: split second

[@Rex_The_Mouse]

Everyone forgets Toontown Online, such a shame because I had a ton of fun with it as a kid!

[@Silver_Adventures]

checkout toontown rewritten if you are still interested in the game

[@ashcashgamer5770]

It's pretty interesting to see Disney themselves try to make video games. Video games are huge money makers and Disney thought, "We have a lot of IPs and properties, maybe if we made quality video games with them, they will be successful." I know these failed but they seem to have a lot of charm and effort in them. Nowadays, Disney has lost a ton of ambition and it playing it's company too safe by releasing sequels to IP's, live action remakes, and prequels to those films with little to no payoff while it's other companies are failing as well.

[@joefawley9264]

One of my favorite games was toy story for sega genesis. Also wouldve been cool to hear about toon town

[@PreventerMkII]

I remember when Avalanche shut down, they were VERY candid about the death of Infinity, putting the blame solely on Disney corporate and its inability to understand the gaming market. 1.0 was very successful, but like Amiibo at the time, had scarcity issues with some of the more popular characters. When 2.0 released, Disney over-corrected this problem by having an absurd number of 1.0 reissues and 2.0 characters produced to the point that it affected 3.0's budget. This was made evident in the changes to the release format of the power-up discs, the reduction of expansions, and the thinning of core content. I started with 3.0 myself, mainly to get the very awesome Boba Fett, and despite my late start, I was able to build most of my collection through deep clearance purchases. To add insult to injury, Disney still makes money off of Infinity by selling action figures made in the Infinity stylings under the new "Toy Box" label.

[@maxsherman1685]

Every time I hear Square Enix, I think of the just cause franchise and I’m still not used to them making final fantasy

[@foxboydragon9608]

Oh! There was actually one game that you didn't mention that was genuinely pretty good, maybe not super popular, but a very fun game is Disney Universe! I don't remember how it went really, but some sort of creature was corrupting the world's one by one, so you had to go through the warped stories and fix them. There were fun little power ups you could get, the stories were actually pretty good, and overall it was just a blast to play.

[@everythingslayer_888]

Disney Interactive? More like what happened to Toontown Online, Pirates Online, Pixie Hollow. Even Disney Create.

[@orgXIIIcoat]

the kingdom hearts elevator ride is widely known as an urban legend, even nomura himself said the most that was said in that conversation was that it would be great for disney and square to work together, not two dudes throwing around ideas in an elevator lol

[@Mr._Sherwood]

Honestly i just wish they kept the Spectrobes games going. They were niche, but they had a ton of charm to them and absolutely peak creature design and i will die happy if i see it represented even a little in Kingdom Hearts.

[@HarmonyBunny]

Sad to see an iconic licensed video game division disappear into dust.

[@BrianMcCorkle2001]

I think calling Disney Infinity "Skylanders with a Disney coat of paint" is unfair. While they were similar at their core of being Toys to Life games, there was a lot of things you could do in Infinity that you couldn't do in Skylanders. The Toybox was a HUGE selling point for a lot of us. You played the worlds to see ideas on how pieces could be used, then go into the Toybox and let your imagination run wild. There was no fantasy in Spyro and (insert other skylander here) because the game gave you that. But, like you pointed out, Infinity (and later, Lego Dimensions) let you cross that bridge. Mickey running around with Captain America, or Sully and Hulk. It was all something you could do and something Skylanders would never be able to achieve. Also, Infinity had racing and Skylanders didn't. The only thing that came close to Infinity was Lego Dimensions which, if you say anything should be "Disney Infinity with a Lego and random IPs coat of paint". Batman, Gandalf, and Sonic the Hedgehog playing together was fun for kids. Spyro was just... Spyro... Skylanders started the craze. Infinity grew upon it. Dimensions made you pay for it. Honestly, I wish they would have given Infinity more effort, even if that meant killing the Toys to Life feature and have you pay a couple bucks for each new character or $10 for a new adventure. They could have monetized it better and people would have accepted it because it was Disney.

[@AkinokazeHaruichiban]

It's such a shame that Split/second failed, cause it's a really fun racer with interesting ideas..... you're driving in a TV show with prepared pyrotechic stunts and huge setpieces. Instead of just using shortcuts and some weapons, you can trigger certain things to move/explode, creating hazards, taking out opponents and even altering the course itself. One track was around an airport, where you could trigger a plane to land, and you could also destroy the Tower which would crash down onto the track creating a new route. Others blew up dams, or dropped ships in dockyards.... it was so good.

[@ryanv7681]

Airport is uncontested, you can drop a friggin plane in on others

[@feeblereptilian]

>Kingdom Hearts That’s what killed it.

[@Kro368]

It seems almost like a crime to not include anything regarding Disney’s Dreamlight Valley😭

[@EnigmaticGentleman]

Fr though Disney is so underrepresented compared to others in the video game sphere (outside of garbage mobile games where they absolutely dominate( its not even funny.

[@MoonGhostDoodles]

I forgot how awkward the Saber n64 model was lol

[@ShadamyLover15]

I also wanna add that another reason I think Disney Infinity didn't sell well was because alot of the figures wasn't backwards compatible with the version they released. 1.0 figures couldn't be played with in 2.0 and 3.0 wasn't at all compatible with what came before. Not to mention that you had to play with specific characters in there certain playsets? The whole point to me sounded like one big crossover, imagine playing as Woody in the avengers set or Sully in the Pirates set. They missed the mark completely with compatability. Heck even skylanders did this when they released a new game at least up to Trap Team I believe. Disney Infinity could have been really cool and been a great crossover toy platform but they chose not to utilize it correctly

[@FoxHoundUnit90]

But the figures were backwards compatible? You could play all the characters in 3.0 just not in the play sets.

[@shadyshadow7167]

I remeber being so hyped for disney infinitey 3.0...and i played it so often as a kid when i got it for christmas and began collecting characters. I remember playing in the toybox while listening to iheart radio because if you signed into the disney server you got a iheart radio that legit worked. I still play the game on my ps3 but it just isnt the same. I've done just about anything i can do besides try to figure out how to make my own themepark on the game. All my characters are all leveled up to the highest level and i've completed the story modes that i have and have also discovered all the crops and bought most of everything that was unlocked that i could get in the ingame shop for items to mess around with or to use to decorate.Other then trying to break the game to get into things that i'm not supposed to there isn't alot to offer...i remeber asking people at my school if they had gotten the game wanting to find a new friend to play it with and being told that the game was for "babies" keeping in mind that disney infinity's demographic was for kids and i had gotten this game during elementary school..

[@MITSI1991]

The one game i enjoyed as a kid and even to this day was Aladdin for the sega. The game its self had so many of the original animators and people involved with the movie working on it. And it shows!

[@sfagh5668]

im not used to looking saberspark as a n64 model but I guess no one else isn't used to it

[@TheImmortalIvan]

The fact that a lot of these games were developed by Disney means they likely went down with the ship. It'd be great to see game like Split/Second and Spectrobes rescued from the vault and developed by passionate people that actually want to bring these ideas to life.

[@CorndogGaming]

I really miss the disney infinity series 😢

[@VGamingJunkieVT]

Absorbing companies, without a clear vision? Yeah, that definitely doesn't sound familiar, does it?

[@ImGonnaFudgeThatFish]

Im really surprised you didnt mention Toontown like at all. It was a massive *original* title for DI and its even still played today.

[@syx9986]

I never played Kingdom Hearts or Infinity, but I do have the TRON games (Evolution, RUN/R, etc), and find it playing that Disney still has faith in my favorite IP despite the end of it's in-house development company. Even with returning to simply licensing, I'm excited for the newest TRON game on the way. It's probably best that Disney stays on it's path of it will give us legit, good games.

[@UndiagnosedGarbage]

Saber, you forgot to mention the most vital piece of Disney Developed games, imo far more important especially now with the community still on going with its fan servers. Toontown Online I may be speaking from a place of bias, but its still relevant.

[@taqresu5865]

Your low poly Avatar reminds me of that Rugrats game for the PS1 "Search for Reptar." Down to your glasses resembling and working like Chucky's glasses on his low poly 3D character model. Also I really enjoyed Disney Infinity, and it saddened me to see them take down the game's online service.

[@connorthompson8376]

I would love to see a video about what happened to Disney Quest. It was an attraction at Walt Disney World resort, and essentially was a theme park of virtual attractions inside of a building. It was ended a few years ago, and I think the games were very out of date. A video about that would be interesting.

[@kikogeva]

Hopefully you will make a video about the lego company's influence of the gaming market since it was a crucial player in introducing younger audience to gaming

[@awesome123306]

How was Toontown not mentioned during the online gaming chapter? That game was huge before club penguin

[@MadoyaTatemano]

Yeah and the fact the main reason why ToonTown Online was shut down in the first place was because Disney wanted to focus more on supporting Club Penguin than ToonTown. 🙄 If anything I hope saberspark does a video just about ToonTown Online and the community behind the private servers. Heck maybe even trying out the games on stream.

[@crashtefano]

My copy of Kingdom Hearts on PS2 reminds me that I regret nothing. I wouldn't change a single thing about what happened with Disney Interactive; there have been some stinkers, but I also have fond memories of Donald Duck and other childhood games on the PS1

[@LM-cc7qz]

Wait. How did I just now find out saberspark has a gaming channel? He needs to advertise this. Also Game Dev here and literally any disney game frome 2011 and prior is a master class in design because disney isn't just good at making movies, they're good at making art.

[@ToHoldNothing]

He doesn't do it as much, I remember when he started it, almost, though I think I came in a bit late, similar to his channel with the riffs, many of which I have backlogged to watch

[@lilicat9687]

Oh God, that logo just brought on a wave of nostalgia! I grew up on Disney computer games, how I miss them!

[@Attmay]

Before this, they had a licensing deal with a company called Sierra to produce Disney branded games that included the Apple IIGS version of *The Black Cauldron,* which I played a lot in absence of any access to the movie itself. There were others, but I can’t remember them offhand right now.

[@growingsage]

*see Michael Eisner* *Has defunctland flashbacks* But seriously, Disney interactivehad some pretty neat stuff when i was a kid. Most of it was bare bones in the early day of CD-ROM games, but 9 year old me was happy to play anything that wasnt solitaire.

[@moltenboyo2163]

Great video! Definitely hoping to see some more from Tom soon

[@MageSkeleton]

That's sad, Disney Infinity should have had more support but i suppose the game world they provided was insufficient. i would had loved to play a Disney character to explore the Disney world and it could had even been "Kingdom Hearts 10 1/2" edition story but with your chosen characters. Let's face it, SKYLANDERS was the first to jump onto the tech, but what were they're main characters? Spyro, a lovely kangaroo, multiple other dragons.... Do you see my point?

[@dagoth_ur0]

Tbh the only games ive liked have been the Epic Mickey Games it really sucks that Epic Mickey 3 didnt get to get finished

[@trevorblue4531]

The automatic save feature was the worst!

[@TheZintastic]

Sudden realization that... yeah... now that I actually think of it... I haven't seen OR heard ANYTHING about these "Diseney amiibos" in a long while... Well, time to find out why exactly, it seems.

[@Randy-2001]

Split/Second might not get a sequel, but still holds up on next gen consoles! it's still playable on Xbox Series X/S & PS5/PSNow

[@michaelorlando5732]

Don't think I didn't notice Twilight Towns' theme in the backgground

[@lucasgibbs4050]

Short answer: Disney itself. That’s no surprise.

[@Demobunny]

split second is underrated, change my mind

[@litozway617]

Just finished replaying that glorious game!

[@cheshireray5725]

Dont forget Toon Town Online! I use to play that as a kid. Its still up just fans have it now.

[@lydiajulianprower8356]

I grew up with those activity centers, my favorite being the Lion King 2 one!

[@ashleyannie6756]

I will forever love Kingdom Hearts, but I am STILL salty about Disney Infinity. I sank so much money into that game only for them to give up and shut it down. I now have a ton of worthless figures collecting dust because nobody wants them now. I think it's good that they outsource for their games now, as Disney itself doesn't have the motivation to follow through with a game unless it's making them millions.

[@art2d2plays90]

Disney Infinity was my favorite games and yes I agree it was a great marketing tactic. Also, surprised Disney Dreamlight Valley wasn't mentioned (thought it is Animal Crossing with a Disney coat of paint)

[@HylianBean97]

Because Dreamlight Valley is trash and was developed by a completely different studio 💀

[@DaRealBruner]

0:19 BMX XXX goes uncensored on Gamecube, but it is censored on PS2. How _that_ happened we'll never know.

[@Vicky-Hugh-Martini]

I guess it was okay with Nintendo? The GameCube port was released 14 days after the PlayStation 2 and Xbox port. Only Sony had issue with the nudity and some major retail stores refuse to sell the game.

[@KingKrouch]

With Nintendo and Sony as of late, it's a bit surprising that time is repeating itself (assuming you don't include Nintendo's first-party games lol).

[@bobbynick5358]

The Disney infinity Gold versions are not fully complete that was kinda sucks, at least the 3rd game. As 3rd game at least is missing 20-30 percent features of the last toy sets, the Nemo set, The Marvels Battlegrounds set and Baloo, and many hero figures.

[@skywise001]

Their terrible at making video games. So they Bought Lucas Interactive and closed it down in favor of Activision/Blizzard greed.

[@wonderingeye98]

One factor that pisses me off about the loss of Disney interactive is specifically that Black Rock Studios who created Split Second had amazing and interesting plans for a follow up and probably would’ve gotten it too with how the game was reviewed but Disney didn’t market the game nearly enough to warrant people during its release window picking it up. Other arcade style racing games completely removed it from the running primarily from lack of marketing on disneys part. Black Rock Studios lost so much money and would stop production after Disney would shut down Disney interactive Studios. Make no mistake I have no belief that Disney is know for having a decent reputation of game portfolio work but killing studios like Black Rock Studio after they had a brilliant game that only bombed sales wise due to port marketing and Split Second is recalled by many fans (including myself) as being a rightful gem of a racing game during the 360 and PS3 period of gaming makes me sad. And the fact they were already conceptualizing ideas and themes for a second game makes the pill of Black Rock closing even harder to swallow.

[@xdead_manx5506]

I remember playing that Tarzan game on our old family windows xp computer with that one game mode where you play as kid tarzan collecting bananas and giving them to the gorillas

[@inny74]

What was unfortunate about Split/Second was how there was a sequel planned for the game, but Disney Interactive decided to tank Black Rock Studios, essentially cancelling the game before anything even got done. It sucks, because Split/Second brought something fresh and exciting to the racing game genre. It was a good racing title that came out when the genre became over-saturated and when there was a lot of competition releasing the year it came out. 45 racing games came out in 2010. You heard that right... *45* And a lot of those werent even good either. While we did get gems and classics like ModNation Racers, NFS Hot Pursuit, Gran Turismo 5, and Blur (which too wasnt so lucky and its sequel met the same fate)... we also got unmemorable or shit games such as Microsoft's "Kinect Joy Ride", Focus Home Interactive's "Things on Wheels", and... a MMO by Glu Mobile called "Car Town". I kid you not. ._. I wish Black Rock Studios wasnt closed by Disney Interactive, we probably could have gotten an amazing sequel to such an underrated gem. What a shame.

[@mattwo7]

If that's why it died, then how is EA still around? It's done _literally everything_ Disney Interactive did wrong (aside from doing Toys-To-Life apparently, which is entirely off-brand for them)

[@Walamonga1313]

Because idiots still buy FIFA/MADDEN every time

[@MinecraftLD10]

EA has a lot more in their catalogue being kept running as a franchise than just what Disney gives them license for, so they have a lot more they can keep floating on even if say their Disney deals went bust.

[@Artrin441]

Man I’m so sad Disney infinity ended, they had secret items at the end of each one that teased the next game and what it would have, like for 2.0 if you collected every character you would get a light saber and in 3.0 you would get the keyblade from kh. (But you can’t get it because they never released the final figures for the game)

[@TommyDeonauthsArchives]

The Disney interactive logo with the combined DI in the red square will always be my favorite version of the logo.

[@tod557]

Those figurines and amiibos weren't so goddamn expensive than they might have actually had a good way to make money there