Disney Infinity to allow gamers to play favourite characters “without limits”

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      The Walt Disney Company has a wealthy stable of characters and story lines, and the company is rolling them all out in a new interactive product called Disney Infinity.

      At a press event broadcast online today (January 15), the company revealed the project, which includes video games and action figure toys, similar to the Skylanders franchise which has been such a success for Activision.

      In the broadcast, live from the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California, John Lasseter said he was “so excited” about Disney Infinity. The chief creative officer for Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios said that he wants to do anything possible to promote creativity, “because creativity is the foundation for making a better world.”

      Coming in June for all home and handheld video-game consoles as well as Windows computers, Disney Infinity is being developed by Avalanche Software, a Disney Interactive studio based in Salt Lake City.

      Avalanche created the Toy Story 3 video game, which introduced a Toy Box mode in which gamers could play with Andy’s toys in an open, sandbox environment. That mode is also a big part of Disney Infinity, which will allow characters from nearly any Disney property to interact with one another.

      Infinity also provides “Play Set” experiences in which the characters stay in their own world. John Pleasants, the co-president of Disney Interactive, named The Incredibles, Monsters University, and Pirates of the Caribbean as the first three play sets. Others, he said, will become available before the year is out.

      “This platform is how we will advance the bar at Disney Interactive,” explained Pleasants, “by allowing you to play with all your favourite Disney characters without limits.”

      There is also a user-generated content aspect to Infinity, with players having access to robust tools—akin to LittleBigPlanet and Minecraft—to create their own toys and levels. That content can be uploaded to Disney, which will moderate and curate it for possible release to the community.

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