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.

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.

Rumour: Activision to release Skylanders: Battlegrounds 'mobile starter pack' on iOS

http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPhone/Skylanders%3A+Battlegrounds/news.asp?c=45676
If you're an iPhone- or iPad-toting Skylanders fan, prepare to get excited. An image has surfaced online for an all-new mobile title called Skylanders: Battlegrounds.
As you can see from the image below, the game is part of a "mobile starter pack" that features three Skylanders - Double Trouble, Jet-Vac, and Cynder - a Hidden Treasure item, and a portal.

Yes, it actually contains a portal, which we presume will work via Bluetooth.

This portal means that Skylanders: Battlegrounds should be compatible with all current Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure figurines, as well as the forthcoming Skylanders: Giants toys.

Naturally, the above image could be completely fake, but we've got our fingers crossed that it isn't.

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.

The Skylanders Franchise Is Kiddie Crack

“Went to three stores yesterday—all sold out,” the desperate tweet read. “Had to go black market. Help.”

The frantic dad is talking about Skylanders (for his 5-year-old daughter of course, not for him, no, definitely not). Unless you’re a tween or the guardian of one, you probably don’t know about Skylanders, a new franchise from Activision that skillfully mixes the most addictive (and lucrative) features of Pokémon and Beanie Babies. It’s a videogame series and a line of collectible figurines—cute toy monsters unlock new pieces of in-game content.

Since its debut in October, this opiate of the schoolyard masses has scored more than $200 million in North American sales alone. Here’s how it gets its hooks into kids—and some grown-ups too.

The Stages of Skylanders Addiction

Try it, you’ll like it
Kids buy the game, which is available on PC and all consoles. It comes with a few action figures and a plastic “portal of power” that reads RFID tags in the toys. Plop any of the figures on the portal and poof—that character materializes onscreen in the game.
Cost of game: $60-75

One more can’t hurt
Once your kids have played through the game with the three characters that came with it, they’ll beg for an Adventure Pack. The additional figurines have new powers or can access new parts of the gameworld.
Cost of all four packs: $80

I can quit anytime
Each situation requires characters with different attributes. Players can trade figurines with one another, but a serious aficionado will want to own all 48 characters (including the forthcoming Giant and LightCore figures). They can be bought individually or in packs.
Cost of all additional figures: $381

It doesn’t control me! I control it!
Activision has also released some limited-edition toys, like a version of Cynder the Dragon made exclusively for people who attend Toy Fair in New York. The unrepentant Skylanders addict turns to eBay for these hard-to-find items.
Cost: Up to $1,000

Don’t look at me!
So that’s a total outlay of at least $1,521 to be an elite Skylanders player. The next iteration of the franchise, Skylanders Giants, comes out later this year, along with several new lines of alluring action figures.
Cost: Your immortal soul

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/09/st_skylander/

How children are transforming gaming: we chart the trends shaping the next generation

http://www.edge-online.com/features/young-bucks/

Their fingers may be stubby, but children seem preternaturally adept at grasping the true function of new technology: games. If you’ve seen parents taking their young children out for a meal lately, you’ll probably have witnessed the child’s inevitable request for a smartphone to play on. Maybe you’ve also heard them utter the cry of a generation: “It’s only 69p!” Or perhaps they’ve simply demanded an App Store password.

No longer restricted to a brief spell of pestering outside a local game shop, children’s access to games is now untrammelled, whether at home on browsers, or out and about via smartphone marketplaces. And this means that our kids are quietly reshaping the entire entertainment industry right under our noses.

Of course, given our medium’s history, it wouldn’t be remiss to expect the driving force behind industry shifts to be men aged 16-34. And yet, according to entertainment consulting company KZero, the single biggest group purchasing virtual goods is children under the age of 15. At the same time, the growth in virtual goods revenue is skyrocketing, rising from $0.9 billion in 2007 to $9 billon in 2011. This year alone, it’s estimated that kids could end up spending a staggering $7 billion on virtual items. At least they can’t leave them lying all over the floor.

Rovio Teases “Angry Birds Star Wars,” Toys To Debut Monday

Red Bird is Luke in the mashup of two pop culture galaxies. A line of toys is expected to be announced on Monday.