A look into the PS3 files

Right, but practically everything there is scheduled for release by the end of the year.

There is no way they can think people will be buying DI2 anytime before next summer at least - as you said, June is the absolute earliest.

And there is no way that they will take a six month break.

They have something up their sleeve - it's clear. If it's hidden on the disc (people are just scanning file names mostly, not delving into the actual content), or will be downloaded, or or any number of things. They are really rushing through content - if all we were getting between now and DI2 is what we know about, they either would have to be planning DI2 for Jan/Feb (suicidal, there is no way they will try that), or be planning for six months of no content (which would be silly because people would then lose interest).

I don't think they are going to keep up this pace, but I cannot imagine there isn't more product planned for the first two quarters of 2014. If that was the case, they would be spreading out the releases a lot more.

Here is my take on this, with a little "industry experience".

Sadly I don't think they will have have add on dlc. Just making compatible patches for the previous games to use the new figures is not as easy as people speculate.

The other major factor is that if they want this to be a yearly franchise there is no need for dlc. They have 12 months essentially to make whole new game with another 18ish characters, 3 or more play sets not to mention manufacture all the toys needed for it. Bug testing, QA, shipping etc. There is a major reason why games usually take 3 year to develop even with massive studios. They want to do it every 12 months.

They don't really have time to make dlc. The moment that DI hit gold status, they probably already had a whiteboard with what characters and playsets the wanted to include. How they can refine the engine and squeeze more performance from it.

Also like someone else said, just because a character does not have a playset now, like frozen, nightmare, ralph etc. Doesn't mean they won't in the future. When DI 2 or 3 hit and nightmare gets a playset you will already have a Jack waiting. They might even come out with reposed jacks or alternate costume jacks.

For them dlc is not a good use of time vs money. They dlc they make or patch would have to be free. So they would rather, from a business stand point, just make the next game. It is a breakneck pace for the developers.

Also I would forecast the release of the next characters to be more spread out throughout the year, ala skylanders. I would rather have them all at once, but I completely understand why thats not possible. ( shelf space from a store and just making the sheer amount of all the toys at once).

I don't want to crush dreams, this is a Disney game after all.
Just wanted to put in some real life facts and perspective on this. Playing devil's advocate if you will.

Have you been able to pull any of the character models?

I ask for a couple of reasons.

1 - as a sculpting getting into virtual sculpting I'd like to be able to study the game models for style and level of complexity

2- damn it I want to print out a model of Gibbs , Tia Dalma, Pintel and Ragetti as actual models to complete the set. I don't care if they'll never be playable characters to have them as actual models would be awesome.

@caitlindevi: No, the models are in some format that I've never seen before and I don't have any experience trying to convert them to something else.

They could always just include a CD with packaging for the new "Phineas and Ferb" playset.

They used to do disc-based DLC's before broadband. I still remember buying a Map Pack disc for Halo 2 back sometime around 2004 or 2005.

Again with a yearly model it is not worth their time and effort to do anything more than patch issues that come up in the game. Even then you may see limited support in that regard.

^ Thanks for the industry info stormbringer! When was the year model confirmed?

I never wanted to be pulled into another Sims model... but if that's what DI's gonna be, it's too late for me now.

Thanks for the insight Stormbringer.

I would only add though, that after the January release of Sorcerer Mickey and possibly Phineas and Agent P, there would be no new figures until DI-2 (and there's no way Wave 3 will include only 3 characters). I just don't see them waiting that long between figure waves. They've got it setup for figures every 2 months (August, October, January) and it would seem that is likely to be the release schedule they've adopted going forward.

Disney Universe used a pay model of DLC that seemed to work quite well. There's no reason to think they couldn't do it for Infinity too.

Besides, they already have the perfect delivery method in the playsets and power discs. If they need to charge more for a DLC update, they already have us accustomed to paying more for the playsets anyway. Including a DI-1.5 disc in a playset pack isn't that hard to imagine.

Also, with the new Muppet movie coming out in March, and possible DI figure concept art for it leaked, I would be surprised if Disney didn't want to take advantage of the tie-in and get The Muppets in DI as soon as the movie is released.

Good points and again I'm not 100 percent sure, and obviously I would love to see some more dlc.

They could do sure. But I'm guessing the team is focusing on the next game. Especially if they want to hit a June date every year. They now have less than 12 months to get DI 2 out the door.

As far as figure spacing. I would prefer everything came out at once. But it won't. Im actually surprised they didn't space it out more though. 1 or 2 figures a month or something. But remember this is a test pilot. Everything pointed to the games success sure, but they had to play it careful. Wave 2 is probably now finishing up mass production now that they have money figures from launch.

Also us hardcore fans went out and bought the game and everything out at launch. But the vast majority of people did not. A lot just got the game and some the game and some figures. We will devour the game and every figure before February I imagine. But the casuals will still be buying the figures up until the next game launches.

That being said I would predict Disney Infinity 2 will have more playsets maybe 10 and probably at least 20 figures to spread out throughout the year. That's not including all the DI1 toys that will be forwards compatible.

Sorry didn't mean to hijack the thread.