News
0 CommentsActivision posts 'better-than-expected' Q1 2013 earnings, but is cautious about rest of year
By Samit Sarkar on May 08, 2013 05.08.13
Activision reported "better-than-expected" financial results for the first quarter of 2013 today, but according to CEO Bobby Kotick, the company expects to encounter a more challenging back half of the year. The publisher brought in net revenues of $1.32 billion during the quarter that ended March 31, a 13 percent improvement over the same period in 2012 and 14.1 percent ahead of the company's projections. Activision also showed a marked year-over-year jump in net income from $384 million to $456 million, a 13.75 percent increase. Activision's earnings were buoyed by the impressive sales performance of StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, which was the top-selling Windows PC game in North America and Europe even though it launched with three weeks left in the quarter. In addition, Diablo...
Culture
8 CommentsSkylanders Giants toys headed to McDonald’s Happy Meals this month
By Dave Tach on Apr 10, 2013 04.10.13
Activision and McDonald's announced a partnership today that will bring characters from Skylanders Giants, the latest installment in the popular video game/action figure mashup, to Happy Meals this month. From April 12 through May 2 in North America, Happy Meals will include figurines inspired by in-game characters Spyro, Gill Grunt, Drobot, Chop Chop, Ignitor, Jet-Vac, Tree Rex, Crusher and Kaos. The figurines will not be playable within Skylanders Giants, but the children's meals will include a coupon for $10 off of the Skylanders Giants Starter Pack, which includes playable characters, retails for $74.99 and is available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. The cross-promotion will come to "other select countries later this year," according to a press release...
Feature
17 CommentsFrom two-person team to Activision workhorse: the rise and rise of Vicarious Visions
By Chris Plante on Feb 13, 2013 02.13.13
I'm here to see one of those games: Skylanders: Swap Force, the latest in a children's game series that has sold more than 100 million toys and made more than $1 billion. The brothers are self-made millionaires now. But their "creative DNA," Karthik tells me, hasn't changed since their days building computers in their parents' basement. Sitting in Vicarious Visions' massive office — a renovated factory just outside of Albany, NY — it's a struggle to imagine the company's humble beginnings. Why don't you just make a game? Why don't you just make a game? There was nothing to do in Rochester, N.Y. Upstate New York. It was 1991, and the Bala family had just moved to town. Mind you, upstate New York in the '90s was rough. More people were moving out than were moving in....
News
4 CommentsSkylanders reaches over 100 million toys sold
By Emily Gera on Feb 07, 2013 02.07.13
Activision's Skylanders franchise has already reached over 100 million toys sold,, it was announced during Activision's Toy Fair 2013 press conference. The popular franchise hit over $500 million in total revenue sales on top of this, based on the video game and collectible toy collection. Skylanders Giants, the sequel to Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, made over $195 million in the U.S alone. The next installment in the Skylanders series, Skylanders Swap Force is scheduled to hit this fall, featuring a new line of figures both outside and in the game. The toys, which are made up of two halves and split at the waist, are user-swappable characters that can be customized to allow players more choice. The ability to swap out halves of all the 16 characters that will be made available at...
Report
2 CommentsActivision not concerned with running out of Skylanders ideas
By Samit Sarkar on Feb 06, 2013 02.06.13
For Skylanders Swap Force, new lead developer Vicarious Visions came up with a unique toy and gameplay mechanic — swappable figures — that has the potential to bring the phenomenally successful franchise to ever greater heights when Swap Force launches this fall. It will be the third annual main Skylanders game, and although the Swap Force characters are an impressive, novel concept, you may begin to wonder how long Activision and its Skylanders development teams can continue their yearly pace of innovation in the series. "[There are] a lot of really hard problems that were solved in bringing this innovation to the franchise," said Vicarious Visions' David Nathanielsz, senior executive producer of Swap Force, during a demo of the game in late January. "We solved those hard...
News
6 CommentsSkylanders Swap Force: The new figures, Starter Pack and Portal of Power
By Samit Sarkar on Feb 05, 2013 02.05.13
Skylanders Swap Force is launching this fall along with 16 two-part Swap Force toys, and publisher Activision will also debut a number of other Skylanders figures such as new characters and returning favorites, the company announced today. The Swap Force Starter Pack will include a copy of the game, two Swap Force figures, one regular Skylander and ancillary items like stickers and a poster. It will also come with the new Portal of Power, which is required to play Swap Force; it lights up in a variety of colors. According to developer Vicarious Visions, the new platform offers the same surface area as the old one. A Swap Force figure's base is about as large as that of a Giant Skylander's, so similar space limitations as in Skylanders Giants apply. In addition to the 16 special...
