Walt Disney Co. expects global retail sales from its 10-month-old Infinity video game to reach $1 billion, despite that fact that rivals have started combining physical toys with games, according to Reuters.
Disney launched Infinity last August to try turning around its interactive gaming unit, which reported a $1.4 billion loss from fiscal year 2008 through 2013.
The division laid off approximately one-quarter of the workforce in March, cut the number of games it develops, and is focusing more on advertising on the fast-changing mobile market, according to Reuters.
In May, Disney reported global retail sales of $550 million for Infinity. Sales of the games helped the unit post a $14 million profit for the quarter, which ended in March.
"We will be a billion-dollar franchise," Jimmy Pitaro, president of the company's interactive unit, said of Infinity in an interview at the E3 video game conference, according to Reuters.
A Disney spokeswoman confirmed that the company expects Infinity's global retail sales will cross that threshold with the upcoming launch of the game's next version, "Disney Infinity 2.0: Marvel Super Heroes."
She said that Pitaro's projection is "just the beginning of what we expect it to do. This is a long-term game franchise."
Infinity allows players to use characters from Pixar and Disney films like Captain Jack Sparrow from "Pirates of the Caribbean" and Lightning McQueen from "Cars," and Anna and Elsa from "Frozen."
The new version will be launched in the fall. It will include Marvel heroes such as Captain America, Iron Man and Spider-Man.
Infinity competes with Activision Blizzard Inc's "Skylanders" franchise, which first introduced the concept of toys coming to life on screen when placed on an electronic base.
"Skylanders" has surpassed $2 billion in revenue based on data from 2011 through 2013.
Disney also has plans to release more mobile "Star Wars" games before its scheduled December 2015 release of the seventh movie, Pitaro confirmed.
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