The Skylanders franchise kickstarted the toys-to-life craze, which prompted rivals to emerge. Disney Infinity started well but faded to cancellation, however, though LEGO Dimensions is still adding various waves to its original release. Nintendo's own amiibo range is an alternative take on the model, of course, and despite modest sales over the last nine months remains relatively prominent in key upcoming releases.
As for Skylanders, though, Activision has confirmed the game series is sitting out 2017, with no new entry on the way this year. Skylanders Imaginators is going to be there on day one (3rd March) for the Nintendo Switch, but that's a port surprisingly missing support for Traps and vehicles, two types of toys from previous entries in the series.
The IP's focus for the year will apparently be new toys and 'digital content', which could mean phone apps or various other smaller releases - the Skylanders Academy animated show is also returning to Netflix in 2018.
The series certainly isn't dead, then, but it has somewhat lost its lustre after a number of years churning out annual releases and new ranges of toys. It'll be interesting to see what sort of Skylanders game we see, if any, in 2018.
[source kotaku.com]
Comments (40)
Maybe not dead, but dying
OP. HEEERE WE GO.
The ship has officially sunk. In terms of games, anyway
Good. It's a great franchise, but needs a year out. Especially as Imaginators was so good. Gonna take a good idea to top it
I think much like all these kinds of crazes (Guitar Hero/Rock Band, skating games) it's on its way out. Give it another year or two and Activision will pull the plug.
Imaginators is fun , I think they released the games to close together it became to expensive year after year but I think it is still a good concept and I hope they don't completely stop.
Yay! More time to polish the inevitable 7th game.
nice
I think this is a sign that they have moved on.
Not sure why toys-to-life ever became a craze, to be honest.
Spyro, as a game character, is officially dead.
was hoping for a remake collection but not so sure now with Activision.
Activision strangled Spyro. He was as iconic as Crash Bandicoot was at one time. He deserved much more love; great character.
I think it should be pointed out that besides not supporting vehicles and crystals the starter pack doesn't come with a portal, the Skylanders are scanned on the Joycon. This kind of changes the game for anybody who has spent the past 5 years playing couch co-op.
I think it's good they are taking the year off but honestly I would have liked to see a new game but without any new toys, it would keep the series alive and there are so many toy owners out there it would probably sell for the holidays.
I'd also be OK if it died, gone on long enough, but I really doubt toys-to-life is over. I think as more smartphones get built in NFC there will be more of these types of games and toys, not less. Maybe more cards, less toys, but the toys won't go away. I wouldn't even be surprised to see toys with the game built in on USB or a cart on Switch. The more game companies go digital seems like the more swag they make.
And another one bites the dust!
Anybody else not even realize that Skylanders Imaginators was a port?
@KirbyTheVampire The concept is cool, but it can get very expensive. I can see why it didn't last for very long.
Which rumor was it that said that Skylanders was downscaling... shoot, I can't remember.
Maybe they're just taking the Ubisoft route and not making a new game this year because they're secretly probably working on a movie based on it... maybe lol
Fatigue.. I see the Lego games possibly going this direction also.. too many too soon!!
Skylanders is really not my cup of tea. I actually don't know anybody that plays the games at all. But whoever does and is bummed there won't be one this year, just give it time. Every franchise needs to breathe once in a while.
Good...one less thing I'll have to get my kids for Christmas this year. I don't mind picking them up, but when they ask for more figures, then it gets too expensive to me, plus, they keep on forgetting what figures and portals go for each game (leaving me putting a sticker on the bottom of the portals and separating figures for them). Still though, I think the series are starting to plummet, so maybe that's why it's taking a little break...one game per year can make a franchise die rather quickly (seems that Call Of Duty hasn't yet, but how much longer can that go on). Goes just like movies...a sequel every year kills movie franchises, it's good to keep people wanting and make them wait an extra year before making something else.
Activision should have made a Skylanders moba. They should have also not wasted their time with the DoA Switch port.
Well.. I'll be grabbing the Switch port when it arrives to fill out my library. I think Skylanders has a lot of potential still - just need to make different style of games and cut back on the new figures a bit.
Thank god there isn't a new Skylanders game this year. This year is turning out to be better than 2016 already!
To be honest, all the Skylanders franchise has done is make the same game over and over again, release some new toys along with it, and sell you their figures/games for ridiculous amounts of money which will probably be worth half the amount you paid at launch in a week. Its even hurt Spyro and Crash, with Spyro being permanently a Skylanders character. Thankfully, Crash was just a cameo, similar to Bowser and Donkey Kong in Superchargers.
Nice to see they're focusing on updating Imaginators instead. Yearly game releases have been getting stale, and Imaginators is severely lacking in post-game content right now.
The fact that Nintendo passed on a partnership with these guys is funny now. Granted I'd still buy Amiibo regardless of game content. I just wanted detailed figures. Game features are an added bonus.
Pretty sure they need this year out to come up with another "innovation" to justify another entry. Hope they can't and the series dies.
Do you guys ever read the comments? As I mentioned last time: imaginators on Switch uses the NFC tag reader built into the console. It can't use vehicles and traps because it doesn't have s portal.
Sounds like Disney Infinity all over again. They took a year off after releasing Infinity 3.0 and then.... boom.... Disney Infinity got cancelled. Spyro needs a comeback, Skylanders has just processed him too much.
It does seem like publishers are starting to figure out there's too many games out in a year. Ubisoft have said they're scaling back, Activision are giving this a rest in a year we expect another Lego Worlds starter pack, and I'd bet EA are going to avoid another Battlefield vs Titanfall vs COD scenario like last year.
Admittedly these are all dreaded "yearly sequelitis" producers, so 'maybe' that has something to do with it....
I'd argue amiibo has stalled too, as Breath of the Wild aside there haven't been any amiibo released in the last 12 months which I've felt were must-haves, and I own over 20 of the things. Lego Dimensions is the best and least cynical to me, as you get a proper toy for your money, hours of new content, and it's all for the same base game released two years ago. To me, Lego Dimensions is the definitive example of the "game as service" model.
Maybe now we can finally have a proper Spyro game instead?
Just remove that dreaded linky energy between players and you'll have a winner!
It's been five pretty intense years for the franchise though.
Activision needs a shot in the arm to get it out of it's stagnant Yearly releases of its titles. This is a good move.. COD needs to take a break as well. if COD ends up failing what will the company do? They should have this worked out before it can happen.
@JohnnyC: Lego Dimensions is fun, but their customer service stinks. I tried to get a new toy tag since one from a set I bought was defective, and they wanted me to jump through 50 million hoops just to get a replacement. I'll enjoy the stuff I have for it now, and maybe grab Supergirl if she's not a permanent exclusive, but that's it. And since Infinity's out, the only other figures I'll be buying is amiibo.
Good parents need a rest from these wallet eating monsters.
I don't think the series is dead at all. I think it's a matter of over-saturation. Maybe, just maybe, Activision is learning that pumping out games from their franchises every year is a mistake.
I feel a reboot coming in two holiday seasons.
Thank you!
Bye bye, toys to life! I won't miss you!
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