Disney Infinity NEXT Recap

Bright and early this morning, Disney held their first Disney Infinity NEXT broadcast that gave an overview of what to expect for Infinity‘s future. Unfortunately though, something went wrong and the broadcast was geo-blocked, preventing anyone outside the US from watching. It was very disappointing to wake up around 5am only for it to have been for nothing. But they’ve apologised and unlocked the archived video for everybody else, so it’s all good. The presentation started by saying that Infinity was the #1 Toys to Life game for the second year running in 2015, and making an exciting announcement- instead of releasing another starter pack this year, they will instead be updating 3.0 with new content over the course of 2016.

The main focus of the presentation was the upcoming Marvel Battlegrounds playset, which is releasing here alongside some new Marvel figurines on March 24th. This playset is being developed by United Front Games, and looks a lot like Power Stone with Marvel characters. Up to four players can duke it out in local multiplayer using just one portal, and all of your 2.0 Marvel characters and circular power discs will be compatible. For those who can’t gather up other people to play with, the playset will also feature some kind of singleplayer content, but we don’t have many details on that yet.

Rocket’s in a teensy bit of trouble

A bunch of new Marvel characters who are compatible with this playset were revealed, who we absolutely did not know about already, no siree 😉 These characters are Ant-Man, Black Panther, Vision, and a standalone release of the Black Suit Spider-Man figure that was originally only bundled with the Vita version of 2.0. Black Suit Spidey has had some small changes to his moveset to differentiate himself from the normal Spidey character. Alongside these characters will be a Marvel power disc pack, which includes three circular event discs (perfect for use within Battlegrounds!) and a hexagonal disc that will allow you to use Ghost Rider’s motorcycle in the Toy Box. You can see the new characters in action by watching the Marvel Battlegrounds launch trailer below.

Marvel Battlegrounds is the first of four new playsets that will be releasing this year. It was announced that Disney, Pixar, and Star Wars would each also be getting a new playset this year, as well as new characters and other content. “If it’s happening at The Walt Disney Company, it’s happening inside Disney Infinity” says John Blackburn, Studio Vice President and General Manager of Disney Infinity. We got a tease that we would be shown content from Alice In Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass and Finding Dory in the next Disney Infinity NEXT presentation, so I’d say they’re good bets for a playset. Star Wars’ playset will no doubt be based on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, a movie releasing towards the end of the year that follows the group of Rebels who stole the plans to the Death Star from the Empire. It’s set to be a fantastic year for Infinity if this is the case, but if not four playsets is a heck of a lot to look forward too regardless.

Nick and Judy on patrol!

We also got a look behind the scenes of Infinity‘s development. A lot of work has gone into differentiating characters from each other, while making sure they’re also faithful to the source material. Two characters they focused on in the presentation were Nick and Judy from Zootopia, who will be releasing alongside a Zootopia power disc pack this week. The team wanted them to feel like they walked right off the set of the movie into the game. Judy is an agile character who uses her legs for all sorts of acrobatic manoeuvres and kicks, while Nick was described as a ‘melee powerhouse’ who swings around a giant popsicle stick as a weapon, and can call in a buddy to assist him. A new Disney character was also revealed – Baloo, from The Jungle Book! This character was a fan request, and also ties in with the new live-action Jungle Book movie releasing this year. He will, however, appear in his classic animated version because that’s what the fans asked for. Baloo was designed to capture the spirit of his character from the movie – he has a comical moveset that revolves around singing and dancing, and throwing fruit.

So while hardcore Infinity fans new a lot of these reveals were coming already, Infinity NEXT was still a well-produced means of delivering this information (aside from the region lock, grrr!) and I look forward to seeing what else they do with the format. I’m more interested in Marvel Battlegrounds now that we’ve seen the new characters in action as well as more hints of a full-om story mode, and the prospect of four whole new playsets this year is an incredibly exciting prospect.

We’ll be adding the new reveals into our release date calendar for easy tracking, and you can watch the whole NEXT presentation below.