darkSpyro

I know this is the Skylanders forum, but Disney Infinity is ceasing production in June. A few remaining figures will be released and then that's it for DI. Will Skylanders, and potentially Lego Dimensions and Amiibo, be next? Not necessarily an indication, but I'm pretty sure there was more news in previous years about the coming Skylanders release. If not news, at least more excitement. It seems that excitement for Skylanders 6.0 is pretty muted.

6kylanders got confirmed twice. In fact, might sound like a conspiracy theorist here,but I have a feeling Activision was waiting exactly to see if DI was going to drop dead sooner or later, since it just took some underwhelming sales to kill it off.

Though that's not good news for us even if sales are great this year, we *need* competition to keep Acti on its toes and not settle for what's easy.

I think TTL is just too common these days. It's no longer a novelty, you know?

Pretty shocked about DI. I think LD is doing pretty well, and from what I've seen on this forum Amiibo is popular too. (IMO Amiibo are really nice looking figures!) I think Skylanders is getting towards the end of its run now, however. Not gonna get into it, though, because people will complain about my negativity

Guys, Disney Infinity is sooooo much better. They have release dates and no new portals and EVERYTHING. Skylanders is soooo doomed they're not even going to release Thrillipede and Buzz Wing.

Excitement for Sky 6 is muted because we have nothing on Sky 6. I'm sure once we get an announcement all the excitement will come rushing though the forums. Lego Dimensions is still in its infancy and seems to be doing pretty well for itself. Skylanders and amiibo will have to mark it big in order to keep the genre afloat!

Quote: UncleBob

Guys, Disney Infinity is sooooo much better. They have release dates and no new portals and EVERYTHING. Skylanders is soooo doomed they're not even going to release Thrillipede and Buzz Wing.

DI practices are moot now that DI is done.

Quote: GamerDrone

Quote: UncleBob

Guys, Disney Infinity is sooooo much better. They have release dates and no new portals and EVERYTHING. Skylanders is soooo doomed they're not even going to release Thrillipede and Buzz Wing.

DI practices are moot now that DI is done.

Dude, sarcasm... That's what he was trying to convey.

I think this is good for Skylanders. They now have one less competitor, meaning they'll be able to go all-out with their marketing this year. This may also get them out of the recent hole they dug in terms of sales. Infinity fans may still crave a TTL franchise and jump onto Skylanders.

Yeah, quoting GM78 and parts of other people's words. Not only we're getting Thrillipede and Buzz Wing,now there's no more DI; the guy said that not even 3 months ago.

Quote: UncleBob

Guys, Disney Infinity is sooooo much better. They have release dates and no new portals and EVERYTHING. Skylanders is soooo doomed they're not even going to release Thrillipede and Buzz Wing.

Keep in mind several trade publications indicated Infinity was the clear winner this year based on sales. If the year was so bad it is causing them to close shop, what does that say about Skylanders?

Quote: defpally

Quote: UncleBob

Guys, Disney Infinity is sooooo much better. They have release dates and no new portals and EVERYTHING. Skylanders is soooo doomed they're not even going to release Thrillipede and Buzz Wing.

Keep in mind several trade publications indicated Infinity was the clear winner this year based on sales. If the year was so bad it is causing them to close shop, what does that say about Skylanders?

That Disney might've had expectations too high? There's more than one answer. And bringing it up again - Activision is notorious for killing franchises for little, heck they're still sitting on Crash's IP despite the crazy hype over rumors that ended up going nowhere, and just ended Guitar Hero for the second time. If they're not doing it when they had underwhelming sales as well, then the problem might be elsewhere.

Also, keep in mind not only DI stopped, everything from their game publishing period.

Quote: Bifrost

Quote: defpally

Quote: UncleBob

Guys, Disney Infinity is sooooo much better. They have release dates and no new portals and EVERYTHING. Skylanders is soooo doomed they're not even going to release Thrillipede and Buzz Wing.

Keep in mind several trade publications indicated Infinity was the clear winner this year based on sales. If the year was so bad it is causing them to close shop, what does that say about Skylanders?

That Disney might've had expectations too high? There's more than one answer. And bringing it up again - Activision is notorious for killing franchises for little, heck they're still sitting on Crash's IP despite the crazy hype over rumors that ended up going nowhere, and just ended Guitar Hero for the second time. If they're not doing it when they had underwhelming sales as well, then the problem might be elsewhere.

Also, keep in mind not only DI stopped, everything from their game publishing period.

No more Disney games? SWeet, guess that means I can get invested in Toontown Rewritten without worrying about an official Toontown sequel now

Well, they're still doing licensing, but publishing is done.

Yes, sarcasm.

Anywhoo, Disney is pretty much cutting it's entire publishing branch. This isn't entirely on Infinity, but I think Disney put a lot of money on that horse and things didn't turn out as planned.

Remember, we're in a business where Tomb Raider can sell millions of copies and still be considered a sales disaster. Studios have been crumbling to the ground all around us in the last 10 years - and a lot of it has been due to poor planning.

Skylanders, warts and all, still sells millions - we all know that. But, ultimately, none of that matters. It could sell thousands or it could sell billions - wouldn't matter much for the extended life of the series. What matters is did it outperform expectations and do the big wigs in Activision think they can outperform with the next installment.

Infinity is proof of this. It sold millions (and, by all accounts, outsold Skylanders) - but if it did not perform to the expectations Disney had for it (which, considering the Marvel/Star Wars tie-ins, I suspect they had insanely high expectations), then it's on the edge of the chopping block.

I'm really sorry to hear about Disney Infinity production's end.
To think it apparently was so much stronger than Skylanders, for some people...
I was curious to see if the "upgrade" strategy would have been effective or not.

It's particularly sad if you consider it still sold a lot, only not enough.

Hope Activision won't take this as a sign to relax and stop pushing the series further.
But as of now I think Skylanders is safe.

If only we had news about the sixth game...

Quote: Drek95

I'm really sorry to hear about Disney Infinity production's end.
To think it apparently was so much stronger than Skylanders, for some people...
I was curious to see if the "upgrade" strategy would have been effective or not.

It's particularly sad if you consider it still sold a lot, only not enough.

Hope Activision won't take this as a sign to relax and stop pushing the series further.
But as of now I think Skylanders is safe.

If only we had news about the sixth game...

Well, we have Lego Dimensions to test out that hypothesis.

I think that the Toys-to-Life market will be lost (or with much less products) over the time, and Skylanders can stop having games, unless they have good enough ideas to keep it up. Amiibo seems to be doing pretty well, probably because of the flexibility of the figures' use. Don't know about Lego.

Hope that it still last at least some years, but I don't believe it will last as it is forever.

Quote: TheToyNerd

Quote: Drek95

I'm really sorry to hear about Disney Infinity production's end.
To think it apparently was so much stronger than Skylanders, for some people...
I was curious to see if the "upgrade" strategy would have been effective or not.

It's particularly sad if you consider it still sold a lot, only not enough.

Hope Activision won't take this as a sign to relax and stop pushing the series further.
But as of now I think Skylanders is safe.

If only we had news about the sixth game...

Well, we have Lego Dimensions to test out that hypothesis.

That's very true.

In fact I'm not even sure they had the same strategy in mind.
Maybe Infinity's was more like "we'll release figures but not new playsets" while Dimension's basically a new game each year but without physical requirements (and new figures as well of course).

Who knows, maybe Disney thought it might have been too dangerous and didn't had the time to try LEGO's approach... Or it simply didn't sold enough to keep going.

Again, very sad.

I agree with a previous poster about sales not meeting projections, even though sales were pretty good (i.e. beating Skylanders). Also, Disney may not have a new market to exploit like it did with Marvel and Star Wars. Or, Disney had ideas, but the numbers weren't anything special as compared to Marvel and/or Star Wars. Better to pull the plug now and focus resources on other things versus pumping money into a "failure".

i'm a little surprised they had slow sales because everyone was buying these up everywhere this year in my area at least and from what others have reported that disney infinity was the game to get. there must've been something on it that with high production costs, disney probably went all in these past few years with what they had to compete. it looks like they didn't want to get farther in their properties since they had so much potential with it.

I guess that just means the infinity items will now go up in value due to this since once they finish those releases that's it basically for their figure lines.

I have a feeling that sky 6 might be the last one from this. lego and skylanders will continue to butt heads for another "year" but in the end it might be lego that has more staying power. I wonder if infinity was the big loser this year and skylanders just barely got ahead of them.

What if Disney decides to allow Dimensions to include the Disney/Pixar/Marvel/Star Wars properties?

This article says "sales have been on the decline", which surprises me considering the use of Marvel and Star Wars franchises after the first entry.

I hope this can bring back fans to the Skylanders franchise.

Quote: newkill

This article says "sales have been on the decline", which surprises me considering the use of Marvel and Star Wars franchises after the first entry.

I hope this can bring back fans to the Skylanders franchise.

It depends but if people weren't interested in skylanders, there's a good chance they won't jump to it. I've seen people strictly go for infinity over it and I doubt they'll want to switch.

Quote: Biodude

What if Disney decides to allow Dimensions to include the Disney/Pixar/Marvel/Star Wars properties?

Highly doubt this since disney wants to get out of the toys to life market and I doubt they would license the competitor to do this even though there are lego games based on the characters, but it could be possible because of that.

We'll at least see 7 games. Sky 6 and 7 are in the works because of the alternating Toys for Bob and Vicarious Visions productions. And like Drawdler said, they are probably banking on the TV show re-vitalizing sales.

If they are smart, they will keep the prices down. The pocket- gouging has turned me off and I will not be buying any more after SC.

Wow! This was totally shocking news to me. They just released that brawler playset, and have plans for future playset releases this summer. Hopefully this means I can get the figures cheap in the next few months

As other posters have mentioned, they probably looked at their movie business where they can invest $250 million and get back billions (through movie revenues, toys, licensing, etc), while investing the same in DI doesn't earn nearly as much.

I stopped by to see how the Skylander community is doing and I'm very happy to see that no one here is completely bashing Disney Infinity. I think a lot of the immaturity has grown out of some of you since the last time I visited. I'm deeply saddened by what has happened today and ask the rest of you to think good thoughts for the 300+ Disney Infinity employees that lost their jobs today. Thankfully Disney is helping them get their resumes and other documents ready for when they "officially" leave. Also very cool to hear about the TV show, I will definitely tune in.

Wasn't both Disney Universe and Epic Mickey 2 (their biggest releases right before Infinity) considered rather big failures and they really hurt Disney Interactive Studios? If it wasn't for Infinity, they probably would have closed years ago.

I checked Wiki and it says "Disney Interactive Studios has lost more than $200 million per year from 2008-2012 during a period in which it shut down Propaganda Games, Black Rock Studio and Junction Point Studios and its co-president John Pleasants stepped down in November 2013 after the launch of Disney Infinity. On March 6, 2014, 700 employees were laid off." I wonder if they made a profit from the Infinity years?

I wouldn't mind them licensing their characters out to something like Lego rather than producing games. Just keep them away from Skylanders, as I don't want to see Mickey and Spiro team-up in Sky 7. LOL! Honestly, I think Skylanders will move away from gaming and just become a toy line for Sky 7 and beyond. Much like how Disney won't stop having toys because Ininity is shut down.

I was SO shocked when I heard about DI =(! I never fully got into it, since they dropped support for Wii so early on. But I did get several figures, and it had amazing potential (not to mention that the devs continually improved the game with each iteration). I hope Skylanders can learn from DI's mistakes and hopefully pull in some lost fans who switched over.
I think that Skylanders has the potential to be more flexible then Infinity, and it's apparent in both Battlecast and the TV show. We'll just have to wait an see if this diversification pays off. I just hope Activision doesn't smother it.

-Rov

I'm not being negative my own opinion that I've lost interest in skylanders after trap team even though I own the characters I just keep em as displays near my window some did lose coloring due to the sun.

It's shame to see my 3rd fav game die off so sad I was hoping for revenge of the sith playset and zootopia play set my dreams were crushed oh well. Only attentions now are Fnaf and destiny.

But I will still play infinity since it's still my favorite game everything in the game so many things to do I usually go toy box and listen to Disney radio xD

I just saw this and wow im surprised. I guess I prob should pick up DI 3.0 stuff before its gone. Espically the stuff still coming as it might be a lower then normal run you think? Like Nemo/Dory playset or whatever it is (?sorry not completely following 3.0 this year)

Quote: JetVac96

I'm very happy to see that no one here is completely bashing Disney Infinity. I think a lot of the immaturity has grown out of some of you since the last time I visited. I'm deeply saddened by what has happened today and ask the rest of you to think good thoughts for the 300+ Disney Infinity employees that lost their jobs today.

Yeah, I kinda hate Infinity but when Skylanders ends, I wouldn't want people rejoicing about it.

Journalism tend to missunderstand "sales stabilization" with "failure".

A succesful product has a very fast growth sales at the beggining (is not difficult to experience a great growth when your previous record is 0) and as time passes the growth becomes smaller and smaller. This is what is known as "the diminishing returns". It doesn't mean the product is unsuccesful, it only means it's reaching it's mature stage and the sales are stabilizing. Sure, if there are significants declines, it could point to a failure, but the fact the growth is not as expected it doesn't mean it's a failure.

As Unclebob pointed out it also depends on expectations. If you design a businnes plan based on high profit expectations and, eventually, these don't turn out to be as good as you forecasted, then you may into financial trouble, no matter if you have sold millions of those, caz a significant part of your business plan ( salaries, physical production, game development, marketing, etc) was based on these expectations.

Even if DI has sold millions, it's investment was probably very high as well, so the fact they are not producing anymore may point to a non profitable business plan.

Skylanders sales hadn't reach expectations, but that doesn't mean is not profitable. We would need to know if their investment was inferior to the profits they made.

Nevetheless, I have never liked DI tbh, but, on side, it wasn't bad for skylanders to have a bit of competition.

Quote: UncleBob

Yes, sarcasm.

Anywhoo, Disney is pretty much cutting it's entire publishing branch. This isn't entirely on Infinity, but I think Disney put a lot of money on that horse and things didn't turn out as planned.

Remember, we're in a business where Tomb Raider can sell millions of copies and still be considered a sales disaster. Studios have been crumbling to the ground all around us in the last 10 years - and a lot of it has been due to poor planning.

Skylanders, warts and all, still sells millions - we all know that. But, ultimately, none of that matters. It could sell thousands or it could sell billions - wouldn't matter much for the extended life of the series. What matters is did it outperform expectations and do the big wigs in Activision think they can outperform with the next installment.

Infinity is proof of this. It sold millions (and, by all accounts, outsold Skylanders) - but if it did not perform to the expectations Disney had for it (which, considering the Marvel/Star Wars tie-ins, I suspect they had insanely high expectations), then it's on the edge of the chopping block.

Yeah, I know it was.

You are right about all that, Disney had high expectations - but they also know when to cut and run. You know TTL is heading towards an end when a well received version of the game that is focusing on Star Wars cannot deliver the sales to justify continuing the franchise. We will see how Activision handles Skylanders. I thought Skylanders 6 was a lock, but am now starting to wonder if we see it this year.

One thing to remember is TTL games require much more up front investment than normal games. Figures (like cartridges) require a game maker invest a great deal before the first game is even sold, and if it doesn't they are stuck with stock they cannot get rid of easily. Retilaers also have to invest lots of shelf space, and take a bath of their own if sales are down (like the recent huge figure sales) If a normal game bombs, you are out the cost of making a Blu-Ray, which is minuscule (like pennies).

Stop wondering. Acti had two press releases AND the confirmation for Skylanders Academy also premiering in Fall along with ithe main game(which we know isn't empty promises because Eric Rogers also mentioned it). What would actually be interesting is if they knew this could happen and are waiting for reactions before making their move.

Quote: Bifrost

Stop wondering. Acti had two press releases AND the confirmation for Skylanders Academy also premiering in Fall along with ithe main game(which we know isn't empty promises because Eric Rogers also mentioned it). What would actually be interesting is if they knew this could happen and are waiting for reactions before making their move.

And a month ago Disney was talking about future releases and Adventure sets like Peter Pan as well as 3 others they had in development for this year. Things change.

Maybe they have decided to drive the franchise off the cliff. If they go with another one on normal schedule and it isn't a big turn around, the franchise will be pretty much dead for good for video games (maybe the TV show will live on). If you park it for a while, you can return later - but if you run it into the ground, that's what people will remember that, not the fond memories of when it was great.

Sky6 will happen, but I'm leery about Sky7. Even with the TV show, I wonder if it will provide the interest to boost sales of the game. There may be a slight boost, but Activision needs to keep its expectations realistic. IMO, the time for a TV show to significantly boost sales would have been during the Swap Force era. That was Sky3, enthusiasm was much higher, and the game was not nearly as old. By the time the show debuts, it will be 6 games that has released TONS of characters. Which ones will the show focus on? Forget about sales of older characters because parents will not hunt them down.

Eric Rogers already answered that(tweets were deleted due to NDA that they enforced halfway through his AMAing for some reason). It'll focus mostly on the flagships(minus Gill Grunt who'd thought) but we'll see arcs and stories of several different ones. Considering he said it's somewhere between Futurama and Gravity Falls, the flagships will probably be in a main team and the current arc will have the focus character acting as sixth ranger.

Quote: tigerdr

Highly doubt this since disney wants to get out of the toys to life market and I doubt they would license the competitor to do this even though there are lego games based on the characters, but it could be possible because of that.

I read somewhere that they said they were going to license out their characters to other developers, so it's possible. I thought it was in the official announcement, but it's not there, and I can't find the article. Disney stands to make a lot of money by licensing out their characters to other developers, but they couldn't make enough, I guess, by making the games on their own. Lego Dimensions will be huge if they include Marvel and Star Wars (and other Disney characters, as well), and I'm sure they would be willing to pay out the money to Disney for the license, which they wouldn't turn down now that they won't be a competitor.

Quote: GamerDrone

Sky6 will happen, but I'm leery about Sky7. Even with the TV show, I wonder if it will provide the interest to boost sales of the game. There may be a slight boost, but Activision needs to keep its expectations realistic. IMO, the time for a TV show to significantly boost sales would have been during the Swap Force era. That was Sky3, enthusiasm was much higher, and the game was not nearly as old. By the time the show debuts, it will be 6 games that has released TONS of characters. Which ones will the show focus on? Forget about sales of older characters because parents will not hunt them down.

Oh, Skylanders 6 will (and should) happen, but my opinion is that in light of this they should seriously give it another year for demand to rebuild and make sure the game is of significant quality and not just another iteration. Otherwise it will just continue the decline, and no TV show is going to fix that. People are burnt out on TTL and chasing down new figures, they need to want them again. If the franchise gets ground into the dirt, which it will with another iteration of questionable quality - the franchise will be beyond the point of rescue.

Look at Guitar Hero, people were excited for the new one. But that brings up another point, the next game also need to be good. The new Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk were definitely not good or anything else than just another version of the same old game. Guitar Hero could have been reignited last year with an excellent game that wasn't just more plastic instruments to buy.

There have been TONS of Mario and Zelda games over time, and people still go crazy when new ones come out. If we got yearly Marios that were just new levels and a few new features, it would have been dead a long time ago. But alas, that is not the way Activision does business. Only sports games and shooters (Call of Duty is pretty much a sports type game now) can survive long term on that strategy.

We also have to remember that Disney infinite was just a single part of The Disney corporation. Keeping infinite going really wasn't the main goal of Disney , they'll just channel off that money to somewhere else in the corporation for new projects.

skylanders is a bit different in that the franchise would cease to exist without the video games. Unless the skylanders company literally fails, they arnt going to stop making their games.

Quote: B-BOB358

We also have to remember that Disney infinite was just a single part of The Disney corporation. Keeping infinite going really wasn't the main goal of Disney , they'll just channel off that money to somewhere else in the corporation for new projects.

skylanders is a bit different in that the franchise would cease to exist without the video games. Unless the skylanders company literally fails, they arnt going to stop making their games.

Skylanders doesn't exist without Activision. This isn't just some disc game, we are talking about massive investments in figure manufacturing and retailer agreements before the first figure hits the shelves. Activision has many, many other projects (like Call of Duty) should Skylanders reach the point of not being worth the effort. They can and have cut franchises for not living up to expectations, same as Disney did. They could cut Toys for Bob and Vicarious Visions loose just as easily as Disney cut Avalanche - and since Activision owns Skylanders, the franchise would cease to exist. Even if TfB could get the rights, they do not have the financing to bring it to stores on their own.

The problem with DI is, that we had three games with different target groups. As the second game cames out with only one play sets and against the starter of the first game with Marvel characters, that would be the same as the next Skylanders game would come with characters from CoD with a title like "Heroes of Duty" or so.

Quote: Jeriba

The problem with DI is, that we had three games with different target groups. As the second game cames out with only one play sets and against the starter of the first game with Marvel characters, that would be the same as the next Skylanders game would come with characters from CoD with a title like "Heroes of Duty" or so.

Disney also faced the problem that they really did not get the content right until 3.0. The first two were basically repetitive fetch quests with highly limited options on which characters could play in which set. Many people got turned off during the first two games that were more interested in playing than creating. The Toy Box was a major advantage, but it really only appealed to a small subset of players.

With 3.0, they created Toy Box Takeover and Marvel Battlegrounds that had a wide variety of allowable figures. The playsets also allowed you to use ANY Star Wars figure, not just the ones that made sense storywise. The playsets were also a big step up in quality of play.

They have always had the advantage of the best quality figures, highly marketable properties and release strategy. That only takes you so far though.

When it takes you three games to hit your stride, you lose many people that could have held your franchise aloft.

Quote: defpally

Quote: B-BOB358

We also have to remember that Disney infinite was just a single part of The Disney corporation. Keeping infinite going really wasn't the main goal of Disney , they'll just channel off that money to somewhere else in the corporation for new projects.

skylanders is a bit different in that the franchise would cease to exist without the video games. Unless the skylanders company literally fails, they arnt going to stop making their games.

Skylanders doesn't exist without Activision. This isn't just some disc game, we are talking about massive investments in figure manufacturing and retailer agreements before the first figure hits the shelves. Activision has many, many other projects (like Call of Duty) should Skylanders reach the point of not being worth the effort. They can and have cut franchises for not living up to expectations, same as Disney did. They could cut Toys for Bob and Vicarious Visions loose just as easily as Disney cut Avalanche - and since Activision owns Skylanders, the franchise would cease to exist. Even if TfB could get the rights, they do not have the financing to bring it to stores on their own.

I would be more than happy if next game in Skylanders universe will be just plain game with new levels and story on the same engine as Trap Team or Swap Force - I do not need any new "revolutionary" gimmicks or new portal and even new figures, I'm quite tired of that, I have enough skylander characters already.
What do I really need - a good new funny story and interesting game play (do not fix working things)- bring back PvP arena, make it online capable, even make some downloadable expansions for previous games - like "Forgotten chapters" or whatever you name it - and I'm sold, take my money right now.

I'm surprised people aren't just considering the possibility that they're just ending DI because they're stopping while they are ahead.

Quote: MugoUrth

I'm surprised people aren't just considering the possibility that they're just ending DI because they're stopping while they are ahead.

Because it's not how AAA game industry works. You sell while you can,long term plans are for indies.

This tumblr post also makes some good points about how it's more about Disney than the genre. tl;dr, Disney is making more money with licensing and there wasn't enough return for DI, and they said before that the games better deliver or they'd end the franchise; and the game industry sucks(more news at 11). That final paragraph on how the developers on AAA have nearly no stability in their jobs is actually pretty scary considering I'm trying to have a career on game art :I Indie it is, unfortunately.

Quote: Bifrost

Quote: MugoUrth

I'm surprised people aren't just considering the possibility that they're just ending DI because they're stopping while they are ahead.

Because it's not how AAA game industry works. You sell while you can,long term plans are for indies.

This tumblr post also makes some good points about how it's more about Disney than the genre. tl;dr, Disney is making more money with licensing and there wasn't enough return for DI, and they said before that the games better deliver or they'd end the franchise; and the game industry sucks(more news at 11). That final paragraph on how the developers on AAA have nearly no stability in their jobs is actually pretty scary considering I'm trying to have a career on game art :I Indie it is, unfortunately.

Thank you for sharing that Tumblr post. To be honest, Bob Iger seems to dislike video games greatly. Disney Interactive's days were numbered. Good luck making it in the games industry! Have you seen extra credits? One of the main guys is a game animator. They have some great tips!

Extra Credits disappointed me hard on how they'll twist the truth if it makes them look smarter. It was a while ago and the biggest part was drama and bias, but stuff like "kanji is gay guys Persona 4 totally didn't beat us over the head on how it doesn't matter" just accumulated quickly on the last year I was subscribed.

Back on the text itself, the games industry looks like a total unpleasant mess to outsiders though. AAA at least is all about shoving out as much popular product as possible, employees, long term projects and even the companies themselves(since so many drove themselves into financial crisises over dumb decisions of this caliber) be damned. There'll usually be nowhere to fall back on, people get laid off over the dumbest things since they lose their best in it so often, and we know how it went with Konami treating them like machines then dropping all their sucessful franchises like hot potato into Pachinko.
To someone who doesn't really know the value of a game, devs are all pretty stupid to constantly risk their income instead of just making mobile or indie games.

Hoping I can get the rest of the DI series now on the cheap. I only got in on with #3 and have enjoyed it, but I really think TTL's market presence is decreasing, which with them gone should help with Skylanders this year. As Acti has said "innovation" is key and they've not always delivered that. If they do what they say, there will be no problems.