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Kids will be able to make Disney and Pixar characters including Mr. Incredible, Sulley, and Jack Sparrow interact with each other.

Disney's video game unit was struggling. It lost $1.4 billion from fiscal year 2008 to 2013.

So the company decided to take a different approach to gaming. Rather than making standalone games, which are expensive to make and market, Disney followed the "Skylanders" model and launched "Disney Infinity" in August.

"Infinity" — and "Skylanders" before it — isn't just a video game; it incorporates physical toys from Disney and Pixar films that interact with what's on the screen. And you can even mesh the characters from different movies together.

Before "Infinity," the hits coming out of Disney Interactive were few and far between. The first "Kingdom Hearts" game, which merged classic Disney characters and storylines from "The Lion King," "Beauty and the Beast," and more, with characters from Square Enix's "Final Fantasy" franchise, became one of the best-selling PlayStation 2 games in the U.S. It was followed by several sequels.

Later came "Epic Mickey," which was a moderate success, selling 1.3 million units in its first few months alone. But the sequel, "Epic Mickey 2," bombed: it only sold 270,000 copies between its debut in November 2012 and the end of 2013.

Disney needed a boost. And it seems "Infinity" was just the thing to do it.

Last month the company reported global revenue of $550 million for "Infinity." The company told Reuters that it expects revenues to reach $1 billion.

"Infinity" was released originally for the PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, Wii U, and 3DS. It was later released for PCs and there's even an iPad version.

Gameplay Basics

Wikimedia Commons

'Infinity' Lone Ranger set on the Infinity Base.

There are two different modes: Play Set mode and Toy Box mode. In Play Set, you play through the game as different characters from each film, such as Captain Jack Sparrow from "Pirates of the Caribbean." You then go through a specific campaign, based on the film you're playing.

The game knows which pieces you'd like to play because you place a special disk into the Infinity Base. One or two players can play in this mode.

You can't mix players from different films in Play Set mode. If you want Lightning McQueen to hang out with Mr. Incredible, however, you play Toy Box mode.

Toy Box is what's known as an open sandbox, in video game lingo. In this mode, you can build your own world, mix and match players, and basically just roam around and discover new things.

This is also where you interact with stuff you unlocked in Play Set mode, such as vehicles and weapons. This mode also supports online multiplayer, so you can play with people who aren't even physically in the same room as you.