• by Thom Forbes  @tforbes, June 3, 2015

After about three years of hush-hush development, Disney Consumer Products yesterday allowed beat journalists and analysts who had gotten a recent peek to reveal their inner child about a product line called Playmation — “the next step in the evolution of play, where digital gets physical and imagination becomes real.”

“I got a chance to try it out,” writes Bryan Bishop on The Verge, “and now the 10 year old inside me is flipping out.” And, he concludes, “there’s an awful lot to like about what Disney and Hasbro are doing here: enhancing play in the physical space, instead of replacing it with a computer screen.”

“Despite its cutting-edge nature, Playmation is in certain ways an anti-video game: It's designed to get kids up and running around,” explains Julia Boorstin for NBC. “And while kids can use a smartphone or tablet app to learn their ‘mission,’ once you start playing, you have to step away from any screen.”

Playmation is a system of smart-technology toys and wearables — such as a “Repulsor Gear” worn on the wrist that can be synced with other “recruits" Repulsors “to inspire kids to run around and use their imaginations, as they become the hero or heroine of stories from across The Walt Disney Company.” An Internet connection is required for activities such as downloading apps, “missions” and registering products but is not needed for general gameplay.

The Playmation Marvel's Avengers Starter Pack will roll out in October 2015 with a suggested retail price of $119.99; it’s available for pre-order starting July 7. Product shots, the logo and footage of kids playing the game — and Disney executives waxing effusive about its merits — are part of the Business Wire package announcing the product. Star Wars and Disney Frozen systems are in development for release in 2016 and 2017, respectively.

“I see this as a breakthrough item, especially in the action and role-play aisle,” Jim Silver, the editor of toy review website TTPM, tells the New York Times’ Brooks Barnes in an interview. “What Disney has done here is so sophisticated that I actually don’t like the word ‘toy’ for it.” 

Silver is also featured in the Disney Business Wire release and video. “The key is it’s a lot of fun,” he says. “At the end of the day, I’ve seen so many toys in the business that are really cool but they’re not fun.”

Disney commissioned third-party research of kids 6-11 and their parents, it says, that “reveals that parents feel nostalgia for the way they used to play growing up and that they also have a desire to keep their kids active.” The Ipsos study also found that children enjoy being active in addition to their affinity for “technology-infused products.” 

“Innovation and creativity are the driving forces behind Disney, and our goal is to inspire children to unleash the power of their imaginations through the stories we tell and the experiences we create,” says Disney Consumer Products president Leslie Ferraro. president of Disney Consumer Products. “With Playmation, we’re taking the next step in that tradition — bringing the worlds of play, storytelling, and technology together.” 

The product was revealed to all at an event in Hollywood emceed by new COO Thomas Staggs, Daniel Miller and Shan Li report in the Los Angeles Times. “At a product demonstration held after Staggs' presentation, a girl playing the game was out of breath as she ran around dodging an attack from Ultron, the central villain of the recently released blockbuster “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” they write. 

They also point out that “so-called smart toys have drawn the attention of consumer advocacy groups that worry about the privacy of children,” but Afsoun Yazdian, director of product management for Playmation, said the Disney product “does not record or store anything beyond simple, anonymous game play information.”

The Wall Street Journal’s Ben Fritz points out that the new line “represents a higher risk, higher reward strategy than Disney has previously pursued for its consumers products. Typically, Disney grants licenses to other companies to make and market” its toys and dolls. “But Disney poured its own resources into developing Playmation’s technology and will handle most marketing ….” 

“We haven’t done this much innovation internally before,” said Kareem Daniel, an SVP in charge of strategy for Disney Consumer Products. “That’s going to be a large part of what we do going forward.” 

RBC Capital Markets managing director David Bank, interviewed on CNBC’s “Power Lunch,” points out that Disney has a unique capability to push its toys in more channels than your average toymaker — not only in movies — and their sequels upon sequels — but also, for example, with events at its theme parks around the world. 

And, of course, it has the resources to produce studio-quality videos for its incipient website. Increasingly, it’s a Disney world and we are all just players in it, eh?