Disney Takes a Page from ‘Skylanders’ and Announces ‘Disney Infinity’

As much as we love Disney and a lot of the things they do like Wreck-It Ralph, even we notice that they don’t always come up with all their own concepts. Usually it is something that has been successful in the past and they put a Disney twist on it to turn it into an even bigger success. Cinderella, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast and tons more are all examples of this. So, it’s no surprise that Disney and Avalanche Software would be following the success of the toys to video game combo of Skylanders with the announcement of Disney Infinity.

Using a special hardware base accessory, players will be able to unlock new in game content and characters for Disney Infinity. Sounds familiar right? Disney Infinity will be following a model similar to that of Activision’s Skylanders franchise. Players will be able to take purchased toys and put them on a base that will read the figure and unlock characters and items in the game.

In the trailer below, you’ll see characters from Pirates of the Caribbean, The Incredibles, Monsters University, Cars, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Toy Story and more that will most likely be on the list of playable characters and toys coming out for Disney Infinity.

Unlock Skylanders though, Disney Infinity will have a much more open sandbox feel to it, including a toy chest. The toy box will encourage creativity from players as they create their own games by using virtual toys unlocked from each of the purchased Play Sets. In addition to characters, these will include “buildings, weapons, gadgets and more”. With a game even more clearly geared towards younger gamers, the emphasis on creativity within the gaming world looks to be the main focus so far instead of a more sprawling story.

What is most surprising about this toys to gaming combination is that Nintendo hasn’t capitalized on it yet with their Pokemon franchise. While they wouldn’t want to sully the Pokemon proper franchise and take away its RPG elements, it is shocking they haven’t come out with a spinoff game featuring this smart toy technology and that Disney beat them to it.

Disney Universe will be releasing in June of 2013 for the XBox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. No pricing or SKU information for play sets have been released yet.