Disney Infinity takes Interactive division into profit and beyond
Disney Interactive posted $116 million in annual operating profit, which is the first time Disney's gaming arm has made a yearly gain under its current setup. The figure represents the division's profit for the fiscal year that ended September 27, 2014, underlining the impact of Disney Infinity and its array of collectible figures since launching in August 2013.
It's not all been plain sailing for Disney Interactive this year, after the division reportedly laid off around 700 employees in March 2014, roughly a quarter of its staff. Disney Interactive President James Pitaro said at the time, "These are large-scale changes as we focus not just on getting to profitability but sustained profitability and scalability."
A month later, Pitaro revealed Disney Infinity had notched 3 million starter pack sales and an estimated $500 million in revenue. The game's follow-up, Disney Infinity: 2.0 Edition, launched with a Marvel-boosted line-up in mid-September. In its financial statement, Disney said the sequel's shorter window ahead of the fiscal results "partially offset" the Interactive division's Q4 profit of $18 million, which was still up from the previous year's figure of $16 million.
As Games Industry International notes, Disney began reporting figures for its Interactive subsidiary in 2009, after the company had merged its gaming and Internet divisions. Since then, Disney Interactive's consistently reported annual losses, though they had reduced from $295 million in fiscal 2009 to $81 million in fiscal 2013. As for this fiscal year, Disney said Interactive's "growth" was attributable not just to the Infinity games, but also mobile entries Tsum Tsum and Frozen Free Fall.
"We are very pleased with the results of the first installment of [Disney Infinity] and we feel good about the launch of the second installment thus far," Pitaro said during an investors conference call this week. "But we will have a better sense of overall performance as we enter the holiday season."
[Image: Disney]
