Vicarious Visions
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Another Activision Blizzard studio is working to unionize
On Tuesday, quality assurance staff at Blizzard Albany went public with the news that they had filed for a union election with National Labor Relations Board.
'Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2' heads to Nintendo Switch on June 25th
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2 will hit Nintendo's portable console on June 25th, Activision announced on Wednesday.
'Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2' will hit Switch later this year
Plus, it's coming to Xbox Series X/S and PS5 on March 26th.
Blizzard is gobbling up Vicarious Visions
Game publisher Activision is folding one of its oldest support studios into Blizzard.
If 'Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2' is a feast, local multiplayer is dessert
Local multiplayer is the star of the new THPS.
Remastered 'Tony Hawk' games add eight new pro skaters to the roster
When 'Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2' return on PS4, Xbox One and PC this fall, they'll have all of the original skaters as well as eight new names representing the current generation.
'Tony Hawk's Pro Skater' remasters include original soundtrack songs
The 'Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2' soundtrack will include songs from both of the original games.
'Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2' HD remaster lands in September
Na-na na-na na-na na-na Birdman!
Skylanders Trap Team review: Broccoli Guy's unjust desert
Skylanders' success is borne of equal parts solid game design and marketing savvy. Its central conceit – buy small plastic figurines in order to summon in-game characters – is instantly appealing for kids, and its Gauntlet-styled action-RPG gameplay makes it a guilty pleasure for adults. The franchise's "toys to life" mantra, despite its potential for audience exploitation, rewards dedicated fans with bonus content and unlockables that mirror the size of their toy collections. There are now hundreds of Skylanders toys to collect, but to date, the series has maintained a delicate balance that ensures a fun experience both for hardcore collectors and for casual fans. Skylanders Trap Team, the fourth major entry in the series, is the first Skylanders game to upset this balance. Trap Team still offers a fun journey at its core, but longtime fans will be disappointed to find out that they need to purchase several new figures in addition to an expensive starter set in order to explore the game to its fullest.
Skylanders: Trap Team bridges the gap between console and tablet
Skylanders: Trap Team will be revolutionary, for both the series and potentially for Activision's entire publishing operation, when it releases on October 5th. It doesn't dramatically change the central play of Toys For Bob's popular action figure adventure games. Catching villains in teensy crystal toys like sinister Pokemon isn't, in practice, so different than just using a regular Skylanders action figure even if it is a charming shift in the fiction. What is a dramatic change, however, is that Trap Team will be available on iPad and Android tablets the very same day it hits PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Not a spinoff, either. Activision's bringing the full console game to mobile devices. Playing the game on an iPad Mini, Trap Team is a handy demonstration of just how far mobile game development has come in the past five years. While it may not have the graphical flash of the PlayStation 4 version of the game Activision showed Joystiq shortly before San Diego Comic Con, the exact same level plays just as smooth and looks every bit as nice as a polished Xbox 360 game. New character Snap Shot pops into the stage when you put his figure on the Skylanders portal and fights off a soda-swilling monster with the same aplomb. Developer Vicarious Visions, a studio with a long history of adapting Activision's big console games to portable devices, has brought Trap Team to tablets with no sacrifices to the action. But it's the touchable technology surrounding tablet Trap Team that's most impressive.
Skylanders: Swap Force swaps next-gen release date, out tomorrow
Skylanders: Swap Force will launch tomorrow on PS4 and Xbox One. The Activision-published action game was initially expected to arrive at each console's launch, November 15 for PS4 and November 22 for Xbox One, respectively. We were impressed with the current-generation version of the game, as our review noted that the game's "main quest is straightforward but challenging on the higher difficulty levels, and its optional content will keep older fans hunting for secrets long after the credits roll." It's a safe bet that the toy-wrangling game will operate similarly on PS4 and Xbox One.
Skylanders Swap Force review: Swappin', not stoppin'
Skylanders is a tough sell for adults. No matter what sort of gameplay lies beneath the surface, it's difficult to reconcile the fact that playing Skylanders means you're playing with children's toys. If you have a healthy inner child (or, at the very least, no sense of shame), you'll discover that the Skylanders series is secretly a total blast. Similar in premise to Gauntlet Legends and the Diablo series, the Skylanders games are lightweight, action-heavy dungeon crawlers that offer a surprising degree of depth, with gameplay bolstered by expansive skill trees and stat-boosting loot. Skylanders: Swap Force continues that tradition, and if you can stand a few funny looks when your friends see you playing with figurines with ridiculous names like "Grim Creeper" and "Stealth Elf," you'll discover that this is the best Skylanders to date.
New Skylanders teased in trio of Swap Force videos
Activision touts the swappable possibilities (or "swappabilities," if you will) of its new Skylanders toy line debuting next month alongside the multiplatform action-adventure game Skylanders: Swap Force in the new trailer above. Warning: contains farts. Swappable farts. Swap Force's character-combining mechanics are further explored in today's second trailer, which can be seen after the break below. A third trailer introduces the short-fused character Countdown, who joins a recent quartet of newly announced figures. Skylanders: Swap Force will launch next month for the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, Wii, Nintendo 3DS, and PC platforms. Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions will premiere later this year.
Skylanders: Swap Force tags in four new characters, trailers
Activision has released a quartet of new trailers featuring the latest playable additions to the cast of Skylanders: Swap Force, giving an early look at some of the game's figure-swapping possibilities. Above, you'll get an early look at Boom Jet, an engine-propelled Air character capable of firing volleys of rockets at enemies. Like other Swap Force Skylanders, Boom Jet's base can be removed and attached to other swap-capable figures, giving their in-game counterparts the ability to hover over rough terrain. A trailer for fellow Swap Force initiate Grilla Drilla can be seen below, along with preview videos for the new core (non-swappable) Skylanders Slobber Tooth and Zoo Lou.
Skylanders: Swap Force GameStop pre-orders net exclusive 'Dark Edition'
GameStop is looking to entice Skylanders: Swap Force early adopters with an exclusive pre-order bonus: the Dark Edition Starter Pack. Outside of the requisite copy of the game and Portal of Power, the Dark Edition Starter Pack includes five exclusive dark variant figures: Dark Washbuckler, Dark Blast Zone, Dark Stealth Elf, Dark Spyro and Dark Lockjaw. On top of that, some sticker sheets with special codes, trading cards and a poster are included in the bundle. Skylanders: Swap Force's main hook involves hybrid figures – each figure includes a bottom and top portion that can be interchanged with other compatible toys from the new lineup of 16. Portalmasters can tame a new torrent of toys this October, on Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, PS3, 3DS, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
New hybrid figures jump into the Skylanders: Swap Force toybox
When you're tasked with previewing the latest and greatest in kid stuff, it's hard to not feel at least the slightest bit jealous. In my day, our molded lumps of China-manufactured plastics rarely interacted with technology in any meaningful way, and we liked it just fine. Even so, if you lopped a good 20 years off my current age, it would be impossible to avoid the charms of Skylanders, a series that's successfully merged the worlds of physical and digital play – all with a booster pack-style setup that's only mildly predatory on parents' wallets. As backwards compatibility quickly becomes a thing of the past, Skylanders: Swap Force offers compatibility with every figure Activision has sold since 2011, along with a slew of new features that promise to make this installment the biggest and best its pint-sized audience has seen yet.%Gallery-191171%
Skylanders: Swap Force to hit PS4 and Xbox One at launch
During an E3 demo today, Skylanders executive producer Scott Krager announced that the newest entry in the series, Swap Force, will launch "day and date" for both the XBox One and PlayStation 4 -- though the specific release date (or dates) for these consoles is still unknown. In the meantime, some good news: in keeping with the series' tradition of cross-platform compatibility, the next-gen versions of Skylanders: Swap Force will use the same figurines as the current-gen titles, due to release for 3DS, Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii U October 13 in the United States.
Skylanders Swap Force debuts worldwide this October
Activision announced that its kid-friendly action-adventure sequel Skylanders Swap Force will launch worldwide in October. As part of today's announcement, the company also added PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of Swap Force to its multiplatform lineup, joining previously announced ports for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U, Wii, and Nintendo 3DS. The Skylanders series allows players to summon playable characters via collectible toy figures. Skylanders Swap Force introduces a new series of toys that can be split in half and reassembled for unique mix-and-match ability combinations. Figures released for previous Skylanders games are also compatible with Swap Force. Series creator Toys for Bob is taking a break for this year's Skylanders release. The console versions of Swap Force are helmed by Vicarious Visions, who previously tackled the 3DS port of 2011's Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure. The Nintendo 3DS version of Swap Force is being developed by Heroes of Ruin creator n-Space, while developer Beenox is working on the Nintendo Wii version. Skylanders Swap Force will launch in North America on October 13, Australia on October 16, and Europe on October 18.%Gallery-190681%
Skylanders surpasses 100 million toys sold
Children everywhere are surrounded by tiny monsters, but there's no cause for alarm – unless you're a parent on a budget, that is. Activison has announced that 100 million Skylanders toys have been sold, reports Destructoid. The news comes from Activision's press conference during Toy Fair 2013. Last month, Activision revealed that the franchise has topped $500 million in sales in the United States alone, with $195 million of that number driven by 2012's Skylanders: Giants.The publisher recently announced its latest assault on parental wallets, Skylanders Swap Force. The new game, which features a new line of figures with interchangeable parts, will land on (and presumably fly off of) retail shelves this fall.
Toys for Bob and Vicarious Visions on keeping annual Skylanders 'magic' alive
Since first launching in 2011, Activision has turned its toy-powered gaming franchise Skylanders into an annual release. The third game in the series, Skylanders: Swap Force, is set to arrive this fall and will allow players to mix-and-match parts of 16 new toys for over 250 in game character combinations. Despite the franchise's success, solidifying it as an annual title in Activision's portfolio, it may not be immune to its new schedule. Activision has walked this road before, with the once-popular Guitar Hero franchise buckling under its own weight of too many releases in too short a time period. But Paul Reiche, Studio President at Toys for Bob [above, left], believes that innovation is the key to growing the franchise; innovation that will keep the "magic" alive for children. "The way that we're going to succeed is by ensuring that every year we have a meaningful innovation both in the toys and in the software as well," Reiche told Joystiq. Though Toys for Bob first developed Skylanders and launched its successor, Skylanders Giants, in 2012, developer Vicarious Visions has taken over to help the third entry in the series – a studio that developed ports and iOS games in the Skylanders universe and, at one time, helped Activision port the Guitar Hero franchise to mobile and Nintendo platforms.
