During Activision's press conference at Toy Fair 2013, they announced that their Skylanders franchise has reached over 100 million toys sold. So everyone that was doubting how well a video game would do that required you to buy $10 toys to go with it, I guess we know the model works. On top of all this, the Skylanders franchise surpassed $500 million in total revenue, making it the fastest franchise than any other kids game to reach the milestone. It even outsold Star Wars!
Skylanders Giants, the sequel to Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, made over $195 million in the United States alone. Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg said:
Before the launch of Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, we knew we had something special. The key to longterm success is continuing to bring breakthrough innovation every time. […] And now with Skylanders SWAP Force, we are pushing the genre we created forward with another big innovation: customization. The idea that kids can customize their own characters in the physical world, and have their unique combinations recognized in the virtual world, is an idea as big as the concept of bringing toys to life itself.
Skylanders SWAP Force is the third installment in the franchise. Scheduled to release this fall, SWAP Force features a new line of toys that are made up of two halves and split at the waist. These user-swappable characters can be customized by the player to create customized Skylanders. The 16 new Skylanders will be made available at launch and will have over 250 unique combinations.
Skylanders SWAP Force will be released on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii U, as well as Wii and Nintendo 3DS.
You can follow Senior Editor Lance Liebl on Twitter @Lance_GZ. He likes talking sports, video games, movies, and the stupidity of celebrities. Email at [email protected]
