Disney’s shutdown of Marvel: Avengers Alliance games shows the difficulties of mobile

If Disney can’t succeed with a mobile game, then you know that the $36 billion mobile game market is truly difficult.

Late last week, the company shut down its Marvel: Avengers Alliance and Marvel: Avengers Alliance 2 games. The first one was a big hit in the Facebook games era when it debuted 4.5 years ago. The second game debuted on mobile devices in March in an attempt to keep that magic alive. But the title didn’t perform as expected. And Disney has shown before that it will shut down a weak game rather than continue to keep it alive.

“For more than four years, Marvel: Avengers Alliance has been one of [Disney’s] most successful games created for Facebook, and our hope was to continue the series with Marvel: Avengers Alliance 2,” said a Disney spokesman. “But the title has not met our performance expectations. As a result, we have decided to focus our efforts on new game experiences.”

Disney Interactive also shut down its Disney Infinity toy-game hybrid products in May. In both cases, Disney showed no appetite for running games that were performing below expectations. The Marvel: Avengers Alliance 2 title was developed in-house by a team of mobile gamemakers. Disney will likely continue to make mobile games using its internal teams when it can, but it is also taking advantage of outside teams more often to execute on its licenses.

The shutdown shows that Disney is having as hard a time as ever with internally produced games, but it’s clear that the company also has a lot of success, such as with its Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes mobile game and the Star Wars: Battlefront game created by Electronic Arts. Disney also has its own successful mobile games, including Disney Emoji Blitz and Star Wars: Commander.

The games will be playable until September 30, and then they will go offline.