Anonymous sources reveal details about Disney Infinity 4.0, including the inclusion of Star Wars: Episode VIII content, and explain why the franchise was cancelled.

Even though Disney Infinity was the top toys-to-life franchise, the series is now effectively dead after Disney made the shocking decision to stop work on the franchise. However, a couple of former Avalanche Software employees have revealed what Disney Infinity 4.0 would have been like if it was finished, and also elaborated on what brought on the downfall of Disney Infinity.

Disney Infinity 4.0 would have released in 2017, with content based on Star Wars: Episode VIII. It also would have been home to a much more ambitious story mode that would have brought all the figures together under one epic plot line, but sadly, fans will never see how that would have turned out.

Avalanche Software also had plans to continue supporting the current release of Disney Infinity as well, at least up to the release of 4.0. This support would have included play sets based on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (which was to be developed by Ninja Theory) and the upcoming Disney animated feature Moana. Furthermore, there were plans to release 12-inch versions of the franchise's most popular toys, which would have been much more elaborate than the other Disney Infinity figures on the market.

Unfortunately, with Disney Infinity ceasing production, none of this exciting content will come to pass. The cancellation of the franchise came as an unwanted surprise to fans of the series because Disney Infinity 3.0 was actually a sales success. To that end, the same two individuals that have revealed what the future plans were for Disney Infinity 4.0 also explained what brought on the death of Disney Infinity despite its strong sales.

Apparently, Disney Infinity's demise has less to do with the actual game's performance or quality, but with Disney producing too many toys. The first Disney Infinity had a toy shortage problem, which resulted in Disney overcompensating by producing far too many toys for the Marvel-centric Disney Infinity 2.0. For example, according to the sources, 2 million Hulk figures were produced, yet only about a million of them were actually sold.

Disney had considered handing toy production and distribution responsibilities to Hasbro, which could have potentially opened the door for Hasbro properties like Transformers to appear in Disney Infinity games. Ultimately, this deal fell through, and with Disney unable to hand off toy production to another company, executives decided that Disney Infinity just didn't make much business sense.

It seems like that decision was reached partly due to the sales success of Star Wars Battlefront. Disney licensed the Star Wars IP to EA to create the game, meaning that Disney itself purely profited on the release. With EA developing more Star Wars games that will likely pull even in more big bucks for Disney, it doesn't make much sense for the company to invest its own funds into creating new Disney Infinity games.

Regardless of why Disney Infinity has been ended, it's still a sad situation. The content that was in the works for Disney Infinity 4.0 sounds impressive, and the 12-inch figures could have been a hit. However, it seems as though Disney didn't have confidence in Disney Infinity 4.0 being all that profitable, and so about 300 people have lost their jobs, and the franchise is no more.

Would you have played Disney Infinity 4.0? Leave us your thoughts on the cancellation of the franchise in the comments below.

Source: Kotaku