Disney Infinity 2.0 Outsells Competitors

This weekend sales information was released for Disney Infinity by the NPD Group.  According to a report on Bloomberg, Infinity outsold it’s competitor, Skylanders and had better sales than the same period in 2013.

Walt Disney Co. (DIS) said its Infinity video game for kids outsold a key title from competitor Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI), the company that invented the combination toy-and-video-game category.

The product is crucial for Disney, which only recently achieved profitability in its interactive division. Its claim as industry leader in the category called “toys to life” spurred an intense rebuttal from Activision, which created the business in 2011 with its Skylanders franchise.

Disney said data from researcher NPD Group Inc. showed U.S. sales of the Infinity franchise increased 16 percent in November and December from a year earlier. “We’re outselling our previous year and we’re outselling our competition,” James Pitaro, president of Disney’s interactive division, said in a telephone interview.

The report also mentioned Star Wars as a possible addition to future plans.

Pitaro attributed the increased sales to a “toy box” feature that allows players to have characters from different Disney movies interact with one another. He also cited new characters tied to hit Disney films last year, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Big Hero 6.” He declined to say whether Disney would introduce “Star Wars” characters this year.

And finally, sales data on the success of 2.0’s Starter Packs were also revealed.

Disney said it sold almost 1.2 million of the starter packs to its most recent version, Infinity 2.0, in November and December, an increase of about 10 percent from a year earlier.

So looking at this early information, it does appear the addition of Marvel to Infinity has had a good impact on sales.

What at do you think of this information?