Disney delays release of Infinity game platform

The release of Disney’s much-ballyhooed video game and toy platform, Infinity, has been pushed back to mid-August.

Disney attributed the delay not to development issues but purely to timing. Retailers were interested in seeing the release come closer to the holiday season, John Pleasants, co-president of Disney Interactive, told the New York Times.

The extra time will let Disney add more bells and whistles to the game and make sure it really “sings and pops,” Pleasants said.

But the Times also speculated on competitive reasons for the delay:

Disney hopes that Infinity will be its version of Skylanders, a popular product from  Activision Blizzard in which players collect action figures and then transfer them into the game’s action by plugging them into a sensor base. Skylanders has generated more than $1 billion in sales since its 2011 arrival; about 100 million of its toys have been sold.

The next edition of Skylanders is scheduled to arrive in stores this fall. Mr. Pleasants downplayed comparisons, but said, “We think it’s good to be first and really lean into the most important selling season of the year.”

The later release means the game platform will miss the tie-in with the June release of “Monsters University.”