Skylanders Developer Vicarious Visions Is Now Working On Destiny

That's great news. Disney Infinity cancelled, now Skylanders. All that's left is for SCamiibo to die and all will be right with the World again.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE Amiibo*

@SLIGEACH_EIRE
Don't forget about LEGO Dimensions.

In all seriousness though, annualizing a franchise like this might spell money for a couple years, but also ensures its eventual death. And "Imaginators" is about as non-idea as it gets, so if they're running out of mental juice, maybe it really is time to close the curtains.

Spyros, Giants, Swap, Trap, Superchargers, and Imaginators all since 2011...consumer fatigue inevitable. Our family enjoyed Swap Force, the last game without stuff other than characters to buy. It just became too much after that.

Is going from Skylanders to Destiny a promotion?

@Pod Oh ya, sorry, I completely forgot about that. My bad. LEGO Dimensions is crazy expensive too. Skylanders at least were reasonably priced.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE I like Amiibo - they are Timeless. They aren't annual purchases - and even if they don't do much in-game - they are all nice pieces to own

I think the perk of our remaining two Toys-To-Life is that Lego Dimensions is just expansion packs and treats it like such. Meaning that we don't need to buy the game all over again. We just update and away we go.

And for Amiibo, they have never really been Toys-To-Life. Sure they were promoted as such but let's be honest, they turned into Collector's Items and something to have on a shelf right? And also they are the best quality Toys-To-Life on the market

The article fails to mention that there are two developers who work on Skylanders. Vicarious Visions only did the third and fifth games (Swap Force & Superchargers), whilst Toys for Bob have done the first, second, fourth, and sixth (Spyro's Adventure, Giants, Trap Team, and Imaginators). Even if Vicarious Visions stop developing games, I doubt Toys for Bob will. Even if it becomes a bi-annual franchise, I doubt we've seen the last of Skylanders.

I can't wait to play Imaginators at christmas. I've heard nothing but positive things saying it's the best one.

Wow, into the pit it goes! (It was either this or cod)

@Nik-Davies What you said. Toys for Bob, makers of some really really bad video games other than Skylanders, did most of these games over the years. I still think Skylanders needs a hiatus - we own every game and about 100 figures - but VV could well be done and the games continue in 2018. At this point I wouldn't mind Imaginations 2 that is just a $60 disc or download, no new toys. Maybe some 2 headed crystals like an hour glass so you can flip them over, 1 on each end, use both if you lay it down. Just a thought.

@rjejr I wouldn't mind if they took a year off (maybe just release a couple of Adventure Packs next year or something) and come back in 2018. What I think needs to happen is another gameplay change. One of the things that made Swap Force so much better than it's predecessors was just the simple art of jumping. It made such a difference. I would be interested to see them change it up and perhaps make it so we could control the camera, like some of the 3D Mario games.

@Damo I admit, yes (even when I re-read the article to make sure I didn't miss it) xD. But my point is, they haven't been the main developers of the franchise, and if they did depart, I don't think it would have too much of an effect. Activision might even bring in a different studio to take their place for example.

@Retron Calm down dude...

Not sure about anyone else, but I was getting increasingly annoyed by how much Activision were going after my wallet with each release.

I loved the simplicity of the first game for my son. It was just "buy the starter pack, buy some Skylanders (at least one of each type)". Then with each iteration it was,

• "now you need at least one of each type of the more expensive giants,"
• "now you need one of each type of the more expensive swappers,"
• "now you need at least one of each type of crystal, plus some trap masters,"
• "now you need to buy cars as well as Skylanders"
• "now you need imaginators crystals and senseis"

Each one comes with a new portal, which is just annoying as hell. Imagine if, every time you bought a new Assassin's Creed or Gears of War, it came with some slightly-upgraded version of the previous game's BS accessory.

I actually bought Imaginators for my son as an Xmas gift, but considering he didn't play Superchargers half as much as he played Trap Team, I think it would be the last even if a new one came out next year.

I just dont see the appeal of these toys to life games ..

About time this series has been bleeding parents dry for years.

@McHaggis couldn't Superchargers be completed with just three vehicles?

@Nik-Davies I mispsoke before, Toys for Bob is OK, it's Little Orbit that makes all the bad games. Just wanted to clear that up.

Don't think they can do camera control in mutiplayer. And if they did, graphically it would probably look like Disney Universe on Wii, which was way ugly. Even launch title Knack on PS4 didn't have camera control, and that was a PS4 exclusive. And they tried something new w/ cars, which personally I think killed the franchise more than the price of the toys did, as they really only worked single player in a multiplayer game. Take a year off, make a toys free game that people can buy to use their current toys in. Then find another franchise to do toys to life w/ for a new generation of kids. TMNT or Transformers or something new I don't know about like those Lego D sets. Skylanders is probably done but toys to life will never end, there are always kids, kids always need toys. Just have to wait for the next wave of kids.

@Damo Wiki (which is public so could be wrong) shows that while VV did take part every year in the making of Skylanders games like you said, a few of those years were what I would call secondary markets. They only did the 3DS version of Spyro's Adventure, the Wii U version of Giants and the mobile versions of Trap Team. I think Skylanders could continue w/o 3DS, mobile and Wii U versions, just like some devs drop Wii U, PS3 and Vita versions of their games.

2011 Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure Nintendo 3DS
2012 Skylanders: Cloud Patrol iOS, Android, Kindle Fire
2012 Skylanders: Lost Islands iOS, Android
2012 Skylanders: Battlegrounds iOS, Android
2012 Skylanders: Giants Wii U
2013 Skylanders: Swap Force PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
2014 Skylanders: Trap Team iOS, Android, Kindle Fire
2015 Skylanders: SuperChargers PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U, iOS
2016 Skylanders: Imaginators - Crash Edition PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4

Toys for Bob have done most of the main games on consoles.

Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure 2011 PC, PlayStation 3, Wii, Wii U (Japan), Xbox 360
Skylanders: Giants 2012 3DS, PlayStation 3, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360
Skylanders: Trap Team 2014 3DS, Android, iOS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Skylanders: Imaginators 2016 PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One

So I think there could be another game made w/o VV involvement. Though I'm ok if they don't, there's always Knack 2.

I just disagree. Activision makes more money off the Skylanders then the actual game. Plus they also released that BattleCast game too this year. Skylanders is really popular in our household. Even my hubby collects Skylanders. I just don't see it disappearing completely. They might just decide to not release it every year.

Maybe now that this is happening we could potentially see something great happen with Spyro, like get the Crash Bandicoot treatment with an HD remaster of the original three PS1 Spyro games. That would be amazing, I grew up playing Spyro 3 later playing 1 and 2, but one can only dream

Every good thing must come to an end.....not sure if this was even good tbh. Games were fun but that pocketbook got drained too fast for one game. It's not like my kids play with the figures out side of the game anyways but it was a cool concept.

@Joeynator3000 Says the avatar that's about to explode! 😝

@Spoony_Tech Shush you. lol

I watched the first episode of Academy out of shere curiosity and while it isn't horrible, there's hardly anything standing out about it, not even their powers. The story I have seen thousands of times, each and every character is nothing more than a stereotype and you simply can't get invested whatsoever. Maybe if I watched more of it but with limited time and lots and lots of good shows to watch on Netflix, I won't.

With Skylanders (hopefully) dying, I can only hope for Spyro to get his franchise back. Even if it may be a bad game or at least not as good as the PS1 trilogy, he at least has his own game again and isn't one in million Skylanders.

I hope they're at least taking a year break or something and not a full cancellation. A break would make the next game bigger and better. If Skylanders is actually canceled, I'll be really sad, because it's been one of my favorite console games over the past four years that I've played it. It gets a lot of undeserved hate despite pioneering the TTL genre. Sure, using Spyro as their guest star in the first game just for nostalgia's sake (hence why I waited until 2013 to get into Skylanders) was a bad move, but they've definitely learned from their mistakes and have not only toned Spyro down and made a name for themselves, but they've also cut back on the paywalls and put more emphasis on the starter pack. Overall I feel that Skylanders should get some more credit someday. It's an extremely fun yet overlooked platformer/beat-em-up, and if more people would've just tried it out instead of judging a book by its cover, maybe it would finally get that love. This cancellation rumor may not be true since, as NL said, Destiny could be their next side project, and Christmas hasn't hit yet to boost all those sales, but whether it's gonna be canceled or not I thought I should get this out. People really shouldn't be cheering for the series' end and mocking its fans, because the end of this series will be pretty darn sad for them. Instead of ranting on and on about "poor Spyro," just don't buy it if you don't like it. It's ok to hate it, just don't shove it in everyone's faces if you do. I never really got into Crash Bandicoot and I don't yell about it everywhere. Plus, Crash got a trilogy announced when he was in Skylanders, so Skylanders has in no way prevented a new Spyro game.

@gortsi maybe, I haven't played it myself. Though maybe I should to get my money's worth .

@3dsgeek333 |sf>I also enjoy Skylanders and I've bought both the console and 3DS entries of each version. The 3DS versions were completely different from the console games during the first 4 titles. (In fact, the 3DS versions always had jumping and had a much higher difficulty level than the console versions.)

However, It's actually not surprising that the game has taken such a hit in sales this year, considering that both the 3DS and the Wii failed to have a version of this entry and last year had all those special Amiibo w/ their vehicles within the starter packs. Last year was the only year where I ended up buying 3 starter packs for 3 different consoles, whereas this year dropped down to only 1 starter pack.

The earlier entries also had more of an emphasis on "minigame challenges" that unlocked depending on which characters you collected, whereas recent entries only rely upon collecting one modern character from each element.

Activision should know by now that oversaturation only works with CoD, they killed Guitar Hero in the exact same way as they're killing Skylanders. All their franchises outside of CoD would be more successful with the platform model.

I don't see Lego Dimensions dying anytime soon as there's still just 1 base game with everything new working with that one game. Amiibo really depends on the January Switch event I'd say.

I would be sad if it cancelled. Sure they have a pushy model for earning money, but it is the only rpg suitable for a 7-year old in our native tongue. This alone makes it very accessible outside English speaking countries.

I'm glad. I guess Skylanders was okay for a kids game, but that's about it. No matter how much kids like the game though, it absolutely isn't worth the ridiculous amount of money their parents spend on characters that don't really change the game in any significant way. Of course, some other Skylanders/Disney Infinity clone will show up, and the whole cycle of parents buying toys for a game their kids will forget about in 6 months will start all over again.

On a side note, I spent today binge watching the entire series of Skylanders Academy and really enjoyed it. Surprisingly, it had a cocky and sarcastic humour which I enjoy and was often very self-aware.

As someone who has bought the last 4 games to play with my kids I cant say im suprised but slightly disappointed. Games are decent for what they are and not nearly as bank breaking or price gouging as many in this comment section have let on. Compared to other toys/hobbies (pokemon, lego, etc.) Skylanders really arent that exspensive honsetly.

@SafariSuz I think part of the cancellation is not only the sales' fault, but also Activision's fault. They tend to bleed their series dry for a few years before throwing the devs in the trash like a baby's old toy. I've always loathed Activision, but I stuck with Skylanders because despite all that Activision did to botch the series, you could see that both Toys for Bob and Vicarious Visions put their hearts and souls into everything they could fit into the game. I thought it would be some cruddy paywall mania with Spyro as their puppet until I actually tried Giants. I know V.V will be ok from here on out since they work on Crash Bandicoot titles and Destiny now, but I definitely feel sorry for Toys for Bob. Skylanders is what made them a big developer, so if Activision lays them off, there is pretty much a 0% chance of Skylanders ever having a reboot like Guitar Hero tried.

TLDR: Activision sucks.

I think they lost a lot of people with Trap Team. Its the best game in the series (havent played the two new ones yet) but the amount of new characters and all the traps you needed was incredible. The price of the traps, new at the time was impossible, and its just a piece of plastic, it not even close to the quality of the actual figures, which on that generation where amazing on the design and details. You can see how they lowered production costs on the last game. They also seem to run out of ideas, most Imaginators Senseis are similar to past skylanders (not talking about Villain Senseis). I plan to get the full set, but some traps are going for $50-80 used, and theres no way I will pay that.

@redd214 I agree, games are pretty similar, but they are also fun, specially to play co-op, and Im an adult.