E3 2013: Disney's plans for the iOS, Android, and 3DS releases of Infinity
Patience is a virtue
Disney Interactive was looming large in the cavernous South Hall of E3 2013.
Located directly at the entrance to one of the main exhibition spaces, it was impossible to enter the South Hall without seeing signs for, and demonstrations of, Disney Infinity - its upcoming, figure-based, cross-platform sandbox game.
With the August release window drawing closer (August 18 for North America, August 20 for Europe), there are still relatively few details available for the mobile and 3DS versions of Infinity.
We visited the Disney Booth twice this year, once for a general tour and once for a closed-door roundtable discussion, to see what we could gather about the pocketable versions of Inifinity.
Cat and mouseOn the 3DS front, we were told that details were still being finalized but that it would deliver "a different experience" from the console and PC versions of Disney Infinity.
While it was confirmed that the 3DS version would use a base like the console versions of Infinity, it was also confirmed that its base will be somehow different - perhaps to cater to the "mini-game focus" of the 3DS Infinity experience.
To summarize: the 3DS version will have a base - but it'll be a different base - and the focus will be on mini-games and not on the full Playset experience.
On the mobile side, we learned only that it will be a "juicy" game and that the iOS and Android versions "are not what we're expecting them to be".
Disney seemed genuinely excited about the mobile and 3DS versions of Infinity and promised that we'd know more about them in July.
...and beyond
At current, Disney Infinity has five franchise playsets confirmed for launch: Monsters University, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Incredibles, Cars, and The Lone Ranger.
The first three are included in the starter set, while the last two will be separate purchases.
Each Playset delivers 3-5 hours of story-driven game content with original plots inspired by the movies that the Playsets are based upon. Additionally, Playsets allow players to unlock different toys and skins to bring into the open-world Toybox mode.
