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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%
Meet Skylanders Swap Force in this presentation
Now you can see Skylanders Swap Force as it was originally unveiled, in a 13-minute demonstration featuring lots of gameplay footage. Yes, you will see Skylander body swapping. You'll also see an old west shark sheriff.
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.
Skylanders Swap Force switches things up with a little this and that
Evoking the classic Fatboy Slim video "Weapon of Choice" starring Christopher Walken, here's the promo for Skylanders Swap Force, which was announced earlier today. Now we just want a Christopher Walken-suited Skylander.
Skylanders Swap Force assembles this fall, developed by Vicarious Visions
Skylanders proprietors Toys for Bob will step aside for the latest franchise installment, Skylanders Swap Force. Vicarious Visions is handling development this time, which Activision says will allow Toys for Bob the space and freedom to come up with their next thing.The main toy gimmick of Skylanders Swap Force is simple: 16 new special figures have inter-connecting torsos and bottom halves. Once you've combined two pieces, you place the resulting amalgam on the portal to realize your creation within the game. I replaced the tentacle-laden bottom half of a squid with the electricity wheel of a robotic Skylander, making my new squid-machine hybrid much more agile. Tentacle feet aren't an ideal form of transportation on land.Skylanders Swap Force is still early in development, so I wasn't able to see much in the way of gameplay – there was only one small area and a miniboss encounter, and it was a hands-off demo. Vicarious Visions has added jumping, though, one of the most requested features missing from the last two games.Of course, Skylanders Swap Force is compatible with all the previously released Skylanders figures. Swap Force will also present 32 new core Skylanders figures – 16 are new and the rest are updated versions of older figures. Considering the potential of lost halves, Activision tells me its customer support team will be ready to help replace or otherwise assist with any issues the new figures incur. The Skylanders Swap Force starter pack will come with a copy of Skylanders Swap Force, the new portal, two Swap characters and one standard Skylander. Old portals from Skylanders and Skylanders Giants will be incompatible with Swap Force.Skylanders Swap Force will launch on the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, Wii and 3DS. The Wii version is being developed by Beenox, while the 3DS version is coming from n-Space.%Gallery-177993%
Four new Skylanders domains: Kaos Alliance, Nano, Super, Swap Force
The Skylanders franchise has become a beast of its own, bringing Activision $500 million in US retail sales since its launch, and there's more still to come. At least, that's according to four domains registered by MarkMonitor's DNStination, all to do with the Skylanders brand. MarkMonitor handles Activision's other Skylanders domains.The new domain registrations, uncovered by Fusible, went live on January 30 and are SkylandersKaosAlliance.com, SkylandersNanoForce.com, SkylandersSuperForce.com and SkylandersSwapForce.com. We detect a hint of classic Power Rangers spin-off names within these domains, but no more information about them exists so far.Activision registered the Skylanders Giants domains at the beginning of 2012, and that timing seemed to work out pretty well.
