Xbox boss Phil Spencer has previously said that Microsoft has long-term plans with Activision Blizzard, and that newly appointed studios will be allowed to work on a variety of franchises, as opposed to their current situation, where they’ve all been pulled in to feed the Call of Duty machine. It’s not just the Microsoft side that’s thinking about the potential impact of this deal though.

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick – who himself is at the center of many questions where this acquisition is concerned – recently spoke about the Xbox deal in an interview with VentureBeat, and talked about some franchises in particular that could really benefit from being under Microsoft ownership, where they could be able to succeed in ways they haven’t done in recent years- such as Guitar Hero and Skylanders.

“You look at all the opportunities that we get with a company like Microsoft,” Kotick said. “I’ll give you one great example. Phil and I started riffing on things for the future. I’ll give you three that are really compelling. I wanted to make a new Guitar Hero for a while, but I don’t want to add teams to do manufacturing and supply chain and QA for manufacturing. And the chip shortages are enormous.

“We didn’t really have the ability to do that. I had a really cool vision for what the next Guitar Hero would be, and realized we don’t have the resources to do that. And Skylanders too. One of the great disappointments of my career is that other people came in and they came out with crappy alternatives. And they dumped all of these crappy alternatives in the market, and basically destroyed the market for what was a really cool future opportunity. If you look at Skylanders, with its hardware and manufacturing and supply chain, there are the same kinds of things that we can’t do but Microsoft can.”

Xbox’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard isn’t going to be finalized yet until well into 2023, so there’s probably quite some time before any plans are put into place, and even longer before they materialize. Of course, there’s plenty of other questions that need answering as well- like how Microsoft will handle the exclusivity of future Activision Blizzard releases, especially where Call of Duty and PlayStation are concerned.

Knuckles – Sonic Boom

Take Knuckles, Sonic’s nemesis and beloved cool guy of gaming. What if Sega made him into an over-buff (but skinny-legged) muscle brain? For as annoying as Sonic’s rework was in Sonic Boom, Knuckles was way more baffling. Even worse is that his character is little more than a “dumb jock,” with oddly intellectual viewpoints in the animated series because it’s randomly funny or something.

Just a couple of years ago, the Toys to Life genre was one of the biggest ones on the market, making big bucks numbering in the billions on an annual basis. Since then, Disney Infinity has been cancelled, Warner Bros.’ LEGO Dimensions has failed to take off, and Amiibo sales are no longer the kind of lightning in a bottle that they were- and now, the vanguard of the genre, Skylanders, which created the genre to begin with, may be due for a cancellation too.

This report comes from Unseen64, well known for their analyses and dissections of canceled games and behind the scenes reports of the going ons in the industry. The report states that franchise developer Toys for Bob are still awaiting word on their next project, with Skylanders 2017 having been canceled altogether.

The suspension of the franchise may have to do with the declining sales of the series- Imaginators was a dramatic step down from Supercharged, which itself was a step down from the previous games. While we await official word on this, let’s hope that the studios involved in the development of these games make it through unscathed.

You know what’s better than having Skylanders? Having your own, custom Skylanders. And the new Skylanders Creators app by Activision lets you do just that, creating custom Skylanders for Skylanders Imaginators.

The app lets players custom design a Skylander figurine, that they can then get 3D printed for $49.99. What’s more, the Skylander that they design and have made in this way will have full functionality in the game, too.

“The Skylanders Creator app will feature Timed Imaginite Chests that give users new creation parts for their Imaginators at certain times during the day, daily Sensei Chests featuring special parts unique to that Skylander, a collection menu where players can access all of their created Imaginators, called My Imaginators’ Creation Gallery, and the ability to share created characters with fans around the world,” says Activision.

Skylanders: Imaginators is going to launch on October 13 for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, and Wii U.

Last week, we broke the news to you that Warner Bros. is looking at jumping into the toys to life category of video games, which is currently dominated by Activision’s Skylanders, Disney’s Infinity, and Nintendo’s Amiibo. Now, we have a bit more to share with you on that- it appears that the game, under development at perennial Lego custodian Traveler Tales, will be called Lego Dimensions.

Also important, the first set of NFC enabled LEGO figurines are slated to launch with this game, which would certainly make for an interesting synergy with the Lego brand of toys.

As stated before, Lego is one of the most recognizable brand in the world when it comes to kids, and generally permeates all cultures. If this development is in fact true, then Warner Bros. may just have managed to score themselves a home run and gotten themselves an assured hit in this segment. And as Nintendo demonstrated recently with their Amiibos, brand identification matters when trying to break into this crowded genre.

Watch this space.

Source.

 

Players of the extremely popular Skylanders series of video games can look forward to playing some exclusive Nintendo 3DS content when Skylanders Trap Team launches on October 10th later this year, bringing with it a wealth of content. The exclusive content that won’t be available in any other Skylanders Starter Pack will see fans taking on the Evil Dream Sheep and the 13 other exclusive Villains that will only be in the 3DS build of the game.

On top of the platform specific Villains, the 3DS build of Skylanders Trap Team will offer players an all new storyline to follow as well as two new Skylanders Toys, or action figures…whatever you want to call them.

Also coming to the Nintendo handheld version of the game if the reintroduction of the fan-favourite card game, Skylanders Skystones. This time around, Skylanders Skystones makes use of a Wifi connectivity meaning that for the first time, players of the game can play with mini game with friends and family alike.

Skylanders seems to do nothing but grow an ever expanding install base, but what do you think of it?

The game, which will launch across a large variety of platforms, is set to be published Activision as the fourth instalment in the series. Launching on October 2nd 2014 in Australia, October 5th 2014 in North America and October 10th 2014 in Europe, Skylanders: Trap Team will be available on Android, Fire OS, iOS, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, WIi, Wii U, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

• 1. Development
• 2. Story
• 3. Gameplay
• 2. Characters

Development

Similar to the other games in the Skylanders video games, Skylanders: Trap Team will make use of a NFC (short field communication) device which is referred to as the Traptanium Portal. This portal allows the game to read the NFC chip found in the base of all the figurines and use this data to render the figurine as a playable character within the game.

To coincide with the release of the Trap Team game, a new line of figurines has been announced and named Trap Masters. It’s the task of the Trap Masters and the Portal Master to capture criminals in the game.

It’s been three years since the Skylanders franchise was born and Eric Hirshberg, the president and CEO of Activision Publishing has complete faith in the project. “We’re going to leap forward once again and redefine how kids play,”…”We make kids say ‘wow’ for a living. We have strived with each and every release to make kids say ‘wow’ again. The game is eventually going to support a cast of 50 new characters alongside the new Trap Masters.

Story

Following on form the events of Skylanders: Swap Force, the games foremost antagonist Kaos releases the most notorious villains in the Skylands. He does this by destroying the Cloudcracker Prison, thus freeing them of their shackles.

The player assumes the role of the Portal Master and must coordinate the Trap Masters in an effort to track, locate and recapture the now rampant villains.

Gameplay

Gameplay in Skylanders: Trap Team remains largely unchanged from its predecessors. The player assumes control over a character that has been injected into the game by way of an NFC chip reading. From there on the game is played in a third person perspective as the player navigates the stage combating enemies and solving basic platforming puzzles. As per usual some of these puzzles can only be solved by using a character of the same element.

A major difference in Trap Team and the previous titles is the inclusion of a new item. This item, The Trap, allows the player to ensnare a total of 40 enemies which can then be controlled by the player as good characters. A nice feature that has been included but has zero practical use is that when an enemy is captured by the portal, the sound transfers from the game to the portal to reflect their capture.

When playing the game in the cooperative mode, players can share trapped villains and take turns swapping in and out. However, for the sake of balance, there is a time limit on how long this character can be used, upon the timer running out this character is unavailable until its energy has been recharged. With that being said, the villains are more powerful than the players Skylanders, thus lending an element of strategy to their deployment. Saving them for tougher enemy encounters etc.

The game is planned to release on Android, iOS and Fire OS supported hardware, these versions of the game will make use of a Traptanium Portal that is connected by a bluetooth link. The game will also support optional touch controls. However, if the portal is not connected to the players device, the game offers digital versions of the characters that are stored on the device, thus allowing portable play.

Characters

Given the ever expanding roster of characters in the Skylanders, it would be impossible to list a static list of characters. This portion of the Wiki will list the announced Trap Masters and returning Skylanders.

Trap Masters

• Blastermind
• Bushwhack
• Enigma
• Gearshift
• Gusto
• Head Rush
• Jawbreaker
• Ka-Boom
• Krypt King
• Lob-Star
• Short Cut
• Snap Shot
• Thunderbolt
• Tuff Luck
• Wallop
• Wildfire

Skylanders

• Bat Spin
• Blades
• Chopper
• Cobra Cadabra
• Deja Vu
• Echo
• Fist Bump
• Fling kong
• Flip Wreck
• Food Fight
• Funny Bone
• High Five
• Rocky Roll
• Torch
• Trail Blazer
• Tread Head
• Fizzy Frenzy
• Fukk Blast Jet-Vac
• Hog Wilde Fryno
• Sure Shot Shroomboom
• Tidal Wave Gill Grunt

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.

Activision has been remarkably successful with sustaining some steady franchises over the last ten years- Call of Duty and Skylanders notably spring to mind- but surprisingly, the studio has stayed away from the allure of Hollywood, which seems to attract so many other big name publishers, such as Ubisoft or Sony. But a recent leak coming from The Information suggests that Activision is currently at work building up its own movie studio, so it can create movies of its existing franchises for the big screen.

Of course, the benefits of doing it yourself are immediately apparent- you get someone in charge who is throughly and intimately versed with the source material, and will do it justice, instead of a bunch of suits trying to cash in on a popular brand name. And this way, Activision at least retains complete control of its products.

But on the other hand, the pitfalls are immediately apparent too- notably, another big name publisher once tried doing the exact same thing with a franchise that was arguably even bigger- Squaresoft with Final Fantasy- and it was such a disaster that it nearly sunk the company.

Whether or not this is true is unknown at this point in time (Activision has declined to comment), but if it is, the giant publisher may be best advised to tread lightly in this alien new territory.

For Activision, Skylanders is a double fold money spinner- not only do they get money from the insane sales the games themselves generate, but they also get money from the sales of the actual, physical toys. And now, Activision being Activision, are cranking that part up to eleven, by introducing a new line of ‘premium toys.’

It’s called ‘Eon’s Elite,’ and it brings in eight new collectible toys, with new renditions of fan favorite characters such as Spyro. All the characters in this toy line are from the original Skylanders game, and when played in-game, Eon’s Elite will be up to three times as powerful over other characters, which represents the biggest in-game boosts ever incorporated into a Skylanders toy to date.

“Eon’s Elite represents the most iconic characters from the original Skylanders game that started it all,” said Josh Taub, senior vice president of product marketing at Activision Publishing. “These eight toys are not only premium quality but also honour the characters’ strength, courage and commitment. We’re excited to extend our fans’ collections with this new line.”

For more on Skylanders, stay tuned to GamingBolt.

Activision’s massive Skylanders franchise, which uses an NFC toys driven model for gameplay and revenue, has been a ridiculous success so far (even causing Disney and Nintendo to spawn their own imitators). Now, the latest installment in the franchise is set to be announced, Polygon reports.

Activision has set out an invite to an event on April 23, which is when they plan on unveiling the newest entry in the franchise, slated for a 2014 release. This game will follow 2011’s Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure, 2012’s Skylanders Giants, and 2013’s Skylanders: Swap Force. Toys for Bob, the company behind the first two games in the series, will be handling the new one too.

Given Disney Infinity’s success, as well as Disney’s recent intimation that it plans on adding Marvel characters to the game, which should make it even more massive, Activision is probably trying to pre-empt them to maintain their position at the top.