Skylanders - Giants Youtube Channels

http://www.youtube.com/user/SkylandersGame

Go to the above address to view the commercials for Skylanders - Giants

TASK FOR HALF TERM:

Research as much as you can about this game and BlogPost a case study. (Hopefully after Miss Crompton's lesson yesterday you will know that copying and pasting is NOT to be found in a case study.)

What is so unique about the game? (The first game was the no. 1 kids toy of 2011)
How is the game marketing?
How much does it cost?
The article you should have taken home helps to illustrate the audience and the market involved in such games as Skylanders but anything you can find out would be helpful.

Tip: This toys+game combo is a golden example of symbiosis.

Gotta Catch Them All!

While thinking about the whole concept behind Skylanders and thinking about crazes and fads, I remembered this episode of South Park entitled "Chinpokomon" (Series 3 Episode 10 for legal downloaders...) that sums up the whole 'marketing directly to kids' idea and pester power. This episode aired way back in 1999, at the height of the Pokemon fad though they seem to have predicted pretty accurately how toys and videogames combine (through the special Chinpokomon gamepad!) in a very similar way to our Skylanders toys. Just found it interesting!

Mr H

Tomorrow - Test of what you know so far!

Tomorrow's lesson will be taking place in L22 - This is my classroom and where we will be every Thursday period 5.

You will have a sheet of questions to work through. Some will require longer answers than others - some will require examples from the games we have looked at so far.

To revise, it would be wise to revisit the lesson powerpoints label cloud on the right hand side of this page as well as the History of Rockstar Games video.

If you finish, I have an article from Edge Magazine that I will be asking you to read and make notes on. The article charts the current trend of games aimed at the pre-teen market - obviously a very different audience from the GTA IV and V games we have been looking at. One of the most successful of these games aimed at pre-teens is the Skylanders series, loosely based on the Spyro universe.
The first Skylanders game was the big hit of Christmas 2011 and Friday sees the release of sequel Skylanders: Giants - which many predict to be a similar success (sales if not critical!). If you have time with your revision, have a glance at a couple of the trailers to see what makes this IP so unique

Click below for the official trailer for the sequel.



Consider the difference in marketing between Skylanders and GTA IV. Where do you think Activision (Publishers of Skylanders) choose to spend marketing £££ advertising the game?

Lesson 11 - Synergy & Symbiosis

11 synergy symbiosis from mrhoward12

TASK:

1. Define these two terms without copying and pasting.

2. The examples earlier in the PPT used the film industry - Explain them using your own examples from the Games Industry - you will have to think about what to research: Googling "symbiosis in games" will not give you what you need!
PPT behind the cut

Lesson 10 - Media Ownership

Some notes on the main issues of media ownership - with reference to Rockstar Games

PPT after cut

How is Skylanders changing the way kids play games?

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/figures-of-fun-how-skylanders-is-changing-the-way-children-play-7569021.html

In the Nintendo Store in midtown Manhattan a woman is asking if they have any Skylanders figurines. "Sorry ma'am, we're all out," comes the reply. "Not even under the till?" the customer pleads, "I know some stores are keeping them back."

After being patiently reassured that the $10 (£6.35) plastic toys aren't being stashed like contraband, she gives up, but not before explaining the struggle she's had getting them elsewhere.

So far, so annual toy fad – a tradition that dates back to queues for Christmas "must-haves" such as Buzz Lightyear, Furby and Tickle-Me Elmo. But, unlike the rest of the plastic delights on show at this year's New York Toy Fair, Skylanders are a bit different. Different because they combine two parents' pocket-straining items: the collectible plastic toy and the computer game. The game itself is a standard (but critically praised) platform game, written by Toy Story's Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow. It's available on all major consoles.

Spyro soars again in acclaimed hybrid ‘Skylanders’

http://games.yahoo.com/blogs/plugged-in/spyro-soars-again-acclaimed-hybrid-skylanders-231303939.html

Three years ago, when Activision was trying to figure out what to do next with the long-running Spyro the Dragon series, it really didn't have ambitious plans.
While the character was tremendously popular in the PlayStation 2 days (when Ratchet & Clank/Resistance developer Insomniac Games was running the franchise), a string of mediocre sequels had long since dulled its earnings potential. But a radical idea from Toys For Bob, a developer most gamers had never heard of, quickly convinced the company to bet big on the little fire-breather.
"We were looking for a new way to reinvigorate [the series] and they came to the table with this idea of bringing physical toys to the game that got everyone's imaginations firing," says Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing. "It took what was a smallish, moderately ambitious project and turned it into a larger one."

The result — Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure — is a unique blending of the toy and video game worlds. Action figures are sold with a peripheral (dubbed the "Portal of Power") which plugs into the Wii, Xbox 360 or PS3. When a player puts the action figures on the portal, they're instantly imported into the game.
That alone is a pretty cool thing to witness, but Skylanders' real hook is that the action figures are portable, letting you take them to a friend's house and play the character in their version of the game, retaining all of the achievements and level-ups you've already amassed — even if it's on a different console.

Skylanders Giants: Innovator or money-spinner?

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/gaming/skylanders-giants-innovator-or-moneyspinner-8208303.html

Creative characters, ground-breaking design and 48 toys to collect, but does Skylanders Giants represent value for money this Christmas? Andy Robertson investigates.

‘But mum I need Stumpsmash.’ It’s a refrain heard in toy shops up and down the country. Replace Stumpsmash with your child’s (or inner child-like gamer’s) Skylander monster of choice and you have the making of a hunt that spans supermarkets, big shed retailers and local toy stores.

Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure was unique in its ability to store progress in the toy figures that came with the game via Near Field type technology much like that now included in the Wii U GamePad. Skylanders Giants looks set to follow up the success of the first game by extending the range of toy figures and introducing new gameplay elements.

PS3/X360/PC Preview - 'Skylanders Giants'

http://worthplaying.com/article/2012/10/16/previews/87274/

Last year's release of Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure was a surprise hit for Activision. The video game and toy combination was both innovative and fun to play, not to mention a bit addictive. Unlike Nintendo's Pokémon franchise, "collecting them all" in Skylanders meant tracking down the toys in real life in order to use them within the game. With the sequel, Skylanders: Giants, just around the corner, we decided to join other media and Activision reps on a trip to the northern California office of Toys for Bob, the developer behind the Skylanders games, to see the magic behind the plastic.



Toys for Bob is housed in an old hangar that was converted to an office. Once inside the building, everything is decked out retro tiki-island style. There are faux thatched roofs, leis, a surf board with a Skylanders poster attached and actual tiki statues to set the island feel. If you have a hankering for gum, there's a big '70s style spaceship filled with gumballs.

It's the kind of environment that caters to open-ended creativity, which even spilled over to the bathrooms. The converted hangar has urinals in all the bathrooms. Since the women had no use for the urinals, they turned them into glorified plant holders and plastered the walls with male pin-up photos — just like a teenage girl's bedroom. You can tell they have fun here.

After a quick look around, we were escorted to seats facing a projector screen where Paul Reiche, the Toys for Bob studio head, gave us an overview of the company's history and how it came to develop Skylanders. The presentation then shifted to Giants and the lore behind the new characters.

Spyro takes another leap onto the iPad in Skylanders: Lost Islands

http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPad/Skylanders%3A+Lost+Islands/news.asp?c=45605
Activision has just released another iPad title set in its increasingly popular Skylander universe. It's called Skylanders: Lost Islands, and it's a freemium build-'em-up that tasks you with restoring the lands of the Mabu to their former glory.

'Skylanders': How the toy franchise became a success story

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/news/a410226/skylanders-how-the-toy-franchise-became-a-success-story.html

Now one of the most profitable franchises in the game industry and with more than 30 million toys sold, Skylanders' success has been remarkable. In October 2011, Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure launched in stores but with a unique twist - the player can introduce characters into the game by putting toys onto a portal.

An initial 15 million toys were produced, which were all sold out not long after Christmas. Because the toys are hand-painted, it took six weeks before they could re-stock. Even though Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure can be played with just the three toys that come with the bundle, people went out in their droves to add to their collection.

In Pictures: Angry Birds theme park opens in Finland

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/17921633

FIFA 13 Demo closes in on 2 million downloads

http://www.footballfancast.com/2012/09/football-news/ea-sports-fifa-13-demo-closes-in-on-two-million-downloads

Electronic Arts Inc. announced today that anticipation for EA SPORTS™ FIFA 13 has reached record levels—1.99 million people in 73 countries around the world downloaded and played FIFA 13 in the three days after the demo launched earlier this week for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system, and PC. This is a 29 percent increase compared to the first three days after the FIFA 12 demo last year. Two weeks from launch, fans around the world have pre-ordered over 875,000* copies of FIFA 13—up 37 percent year over year in Europe and a 62 percent increase year over year in North America.

Click the link to read the story

Angry Birds by the numbers

EA Sports infographic

The Sims

Latest Xbox 720 rumours

Xbox 720 rumour roundup...

v

Franchises that may not survive the next generation
Leaked Xbox 720 developer
Next Xbox to be subscription based?
Disk-free new Xbox would be a "dramatic advantage"
Why we are not ready for a download only Xbox 720

Fifa 13 demo out now

That's it, i'm going home to play the Fifa 13 demo.

EA are a symbol of churning out lazy releases year after year, whereas the likes of Rockstar Games will only release a game when they are ready - which is why we have still no word of GTA5.

http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/leisure/9922618.Fifa_13_demo_out_for_PS3__Xbox_360_and_PC___play_EA_Sports__latest_football_game_now/

Demos are very important for companies. Now publishers can release a demo on Xbox Live or PSN and get a very good idea on the 'buzz' of their product based on number of downloads.

Back in my day, demos used to appear on computer game magazines - you can imagine how much cheaper this process is.

Some believe EA have a poor reputation in the business regarding value for money - they know people will buy their yearly updates, especially those who wish to play online - numbers online will plummet as they jump ship to playing the newest version. They also have the EA Season Ticket - this is another example of digital distributionm - that gives you early access to the product through a download as well as discounted downloadable content (also known as DLC)