Disney Interactive posts first annual profit

Disney’s game development arm, Disney Interactive, has posted its first annual operating profit since the division was created in 2008.

The studio posted a profit of $116m in its annual financial results. This was drawn from revenues of $1.3bn, a year-on-year increase of 22%.

The majority of income is unsurprisingly attributed to the the Skylanders-esque Disney Infinity franchise, which saw the release of the updated 2.0 edition a few days before the financial results were published.

Following the release of Disney Infinity, Disney Interactive’s prospects picked up last year with the division only losing $87m, a marked improvement on 2012s $216m and 2011s $308m losses.

As well as Disney Infinity, Disney Interactive attribute some of the financial success to the performance of its mobile game Tsum Tsum, a freemium item matching puzzle game on iOS and Android.

Disney Infinity was released in August 2013 and has a version available for Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Wii U, 3DS, Windows and iPad. The initial starter set contained Sulley from Monsters Inc, Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean and Mr. Incredible from the Incredibles.

Additional booster sets containing other figurines have enlarged the roster significantly rounding it out to 29 figures released over 2013 and 2014.

As a whole, Disney reported annual net income as $7.5bn, a year-on-year increase of 22% and revenues of $48.8bn, a year-on-year increase of 8%.