Sphero has made several cute robots based on Disney characters as it had a licensing agreement with the media conglomerate. However, the former has now decided to completely give up on its licensing partnerships. Sphero has confirmed that it will no longer be making licensed robots. The ones it has made include R2-D2, BB-8, BB-9E, and Lightning McQueen from Cars.
The Verge reports that Sphero is going to sell the remaining inventory of licensed robot toys and will not manufacture more units once the stock runs out. Even the product listings on Sphero’s website have been updated to say that these are legacy products that are “no longer in production.”
Sphero feels that the licensing partnerships aren’t worth enough to dedicate resources for production. The company’s boss Paul Berberian said that while the robots sold well when the tie-in movies were released, sales declined once the hype around the movies died down. “When you launch a toy, your first year’s your biggest. Your second year’s way smaller, and your third year gets really tiny,” he added.
With educational toys gaining more popularity over the past few years, Sphero has decided that it’s now going to divert its time and resources to developing more educational toys. Sphero will support the apps for its Star Wars robots for at least two years.
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