darkSpyro

I'm not saying I think it will fail, I'm just saying, if it did, how would it?

Glitches. Many, many glitches.

I also think that there will be many flawed swap-landers. As in, top half won't work, save properly, ect.

Infinity

I see three reasons it could possibly fail, I don't think it will I'm excited for it.

1. Gameplay having a different feel to the point that it doesn't seem like the third game (sometimes happens when a different studio takes over)
2) People view it and infinity as too much money grabbing in the same manner.
3) Just flat out terrible reviews.

Games like Skylanders aren't as affected by reviews, much like LEGO games. still you never know.
A slightly jocular possibility:
In this or some future game, they try and make an epic drama and emotionally impacting story with epic scale, character deaths (NPCs, of course), individual character personalities appearing in cutscenes and what not (I'm drooling at this point), etc. but not being Square-Eenix, they fail dramtically and create a game that critics, players, and kids all hate, and make Sonic06 look good!

I would love if that happened, hate playing it, but it turning into that would be like a train wreck, just don't ruin my Stealth Elf and Terrafin.

I'm not liking a lot of the new characters, but I expect the game might still be decent.

Quote: MugoUrth

I'm not liking a lot of the new characters, but I expect the game might still be decent.

Pretty much this. TFB is seriously lacking creativity.

I got to wonder: How much of the character designs are by Vicarious Visions. I know Toys For Bob is still helping with character designs, but still.

Quote: HotDogAndZap

Glitches. Many, many glitches.

I also think that there will be many flawed swap-landers. As in, top half won't work, save properly, ect.

I agree with glitches...and I'm ok with them not being perfect...but nothing OBVIOUS should hit the shelves...they should consider patching MANDATORY on this release just because of the sheer number of skylanders now in their code base---and the fact that this is a new release on a new gaming engine. To not consider this --- and have a flawed release --- will surely help it's untimely demise.

I also suspect gameplay at this point---if it's another 16 levels of "more of the same", with no new spin on upgrades, gameplay (we do know about the new zones)...well it ain't going to end well.

The magnets being too powerful and affect the electronic equipment nearby.

Too little fighting in the story mode, and too much puzzle.

Quote: Mrmorrises

Too little fighting in the story mode, and too much puzzle.

I just want to kill the puzzles with fire.
That's why I spend 60% of all income on those pass things.

-Any time a game changes its formula/developer, there's a risk of people absolutely hating it (or the reverse, but that doesn't happen much).

-And then there's burnout. Two games over two years with a ton of characters at least $10 a pop, parents might be more reluctant to buy new toys.

-Then there's Disney Infinity - while there's no saying which game is better, it IS different and something else, and that may be enough for people to move over even if for a while.


I'm personally weary on the game(due to developer change) until I see more of it, and I'm not digging the new characters at all. I also really liked the gameplay of the first two games, and worry that the levels might become too linear.

1) SWAP Force are all humanoid bi-ped male characters. I want at least one four legged and a couple females.
2) The Forgotten 8 don't return... Come on, make em lightcores!
3) The game is like giants where a month after a release the game gets stale an you find your self just collecting the figures and not even playing with them in the game.

Quote: TheBakonBitz

1) SWAP Force are all humanoid bi-ped male characters. I want at least one four legged and a couple females.
2) The Forgotten 8 don't return... Come on, make em lightcores!
3) The game is like giants where a month after a release the game gets stale an you find your self just collecting the figures and not even playing with them in the game.

3 is not true! I always play skylanders Giants and a lot of time!

The majority I've heard including myself, beat the game in a week and found all collectibles and beat nightmare in a month. I don't know, maybe others take longer to beat games? But I'm a gamer...

the display of damage is boring

I'm probably gonna make this the last Skylanders game I get, unless the fourth one just looks absolutely amazing. Some people may have already made that decision in Giants.

I make my game last, I mean, i got Giants the day it came out, and only finished it last month (still got nightmare mode to do!) Its not like i have periods of not playing it for months though?

notthing?

Right now, there's a few things working against them.

1) Infinity. There's no doubt that Infinity will be some tough competition for Skylanders. Will it surpass them? I don't think so, maybe not right away anyways. I think Skylanders will have to adopt some of the strategies though: cases for character, preordering etc.

2)Releasing figures. The amount of backlash for how character releases have been handled, especially recently makes me believe that customers will be speaking with their wallets a bit more this time around. If there's no, as one user put it, "clear cut end goal" in terms of collecting, that's going to deter people. Yeah, I'm still a bit pissy that LC Hex looks like she won't be coming out till October. I certainly hope they're listening anyways about some of the other things- overflow/under amount of stock. That's one thing that definitely needs to be addressed.

3) and probably the biggest new one that I haven't seen anyone talk about: Pokemon. It was just announced that XY is coming out October 12th Worldwide- that's the day right before Swap Force is set to come out in the US. Whereas last year the game came out a few weeks afterwards, I can't see parents getting their little ones a $35 game on Saturday, then going back and spending $75 on Swap Force, not to mention other characters, the next day. That's not going to happen. Even though I have plenty of money to get it, I'm not going to go out and blow the money on both games in 2 days. I'll be getting Pokemon Y, and then picking up some choice figures once we learn what comes out on release day, and go with Swap Force another week.

buy the sf bag and put all figurines in it... and only take them out when used with game... never take'em out and play with them as toy or feed them to the dog...

if all do this nothing will break....

People will worry what could go wrong with SSF. That's one.

Quote: Swap Force Fan

People will worry what could go wrong with SSF. That's one.

other than disney infinity will kill it, it will do just fiiiiiiiiiiiiine..

1. Releases. Giving one country figures first is fine because it's unrealistic to expect simeltainous releases when it's very hard to get a game released at the same day worldwide. Giving one country figures a month first, then tons of exclusives, other countries rarely get stuff first and hardly any exclusives, and some areas just never, ever receive stock of particular standard figures... That's frustrating and unfair. Even for areas which ARE well stocked, you have to worry about when everything will come out, because the way that they release these toys is awful- they seem to do it as they go along more than anything, launch days never have proper stock.

2. Glitches- people above mentioned this, they really have to fix these, even if it's mainly affecting stuff like Heroics and Quests which are optional it's just awful how many glitches affect these games. They had NO excuse not to patch the PS360 versions of Spyro's Adventure so that Lightning Rod's Heroic would work. (On a side note, THE 3DS VERSION OF SWAP FORCE HAS TO DO A COMPLETE OVERHAUL WITH THIS BECAUSE THE GLITCHES IN GIANTS 3DS WERE UNBEARABLE! That won't affect brand success however as they never even bother to advertise the 3DS games properly...

3. Too much puzzle and dialogue without enough action- the thing we came for. The fun level of replaying Giants suffered from this.

I think the most probable downfall is that someone (probably in Asia, I know people who do this sort of thing) finds a way to code RFID chips with Skylander data (or Chinese "protos") and then sells them at such low prices that the official market goes out of business...

I am just very worried this will become a Call of Duty 3. Activision wanted a CoD every year and formed Treyarch to make a game, then the following year the original makers Infinity Ward would have their game out. CoD3 is considered the worst in the franchise by many gamers, myself included. That being said, Treyarch has improved DRASTICALLY since CoD3, and now the fanbase is divided between IF and T3 fans.

Lets be honest: Giants in a lot of ways feels more like an expansion than a true sequel. And I agree many of the newer characters just don't look as appealing as older characters, but the neat thing about Skylanders is that some of my favorite characters I did not like when I first saw them. Slam Bam or Voodood for example.

Quote: Doomslicer

I think the most probable downfall is that someone (probably in Asia, I know people who do this sort of thing) finds a way to code RFID chips with Skylander data (or Chinese "protos") and then sells them at such low prices that the official market goes out of business...

You would be looking at the mother of all lawsuits. Not gonna happen...internationally though, it would be interesting to see how they can litigate it.

Quote: ShinkenRed

I am just very worried this will become a Call of Duty 3. Activision wanted a CoD every year and formed Treyarch to make a game, then the following year the original makers Infinity Ward would have their game out. CoD3 is considered the worst in the franchise by many gamers, myself included. That being said, Treyarch has improved DRASTICALLY since CoD3, and now the fanbase is divided between IF and T3 fans.

Lets be honest: Giants in a lot of ways feels more like an expansion than a true sequel. And I agree many of the newer characters just don't look as appealing as older characters, but the neat thing about Skylanders is that some of my favorite characters I did not like when I first saw them. Slam Bam or Voodood for example.

Given the number of characters, they need an 18-24 mo cycle I think. They need a longer game and I need a breather between all of this damn figurine buying. It's not going to get EASIER for developers to lug behind the baggage of old characters when each new release hits. I'm hoping the tech VV brings to the table with the gaming engine etc has longevity...and scalability.

Quote: yelvy

I make my game last, I mean, i got Giants the day it came out, and only finished it last month (still got nightmare mode to do!) Its not like i have periods of not playing it for months though?

I'm pacing myself as I'm having to play Heroics, get all stars, accomplishments, hats, quests, Nightmare etc. and I'm still not technically 100% done so I know what you mean. My concern is making sure there's more to do than monotonous replaying to build up skylander stats---ie more content. If they have an online model, patches and additional content should be a priority. I'd love an extra 2-3 chapters unfolding when certain tasks are accomplished...the side missions are a good start.

Bottom line---they need to walk the fine line to prevent burnout, continue to build a loyal fan base, and push the tech forward. Being their own IP is a huge strength over the very constrained Disney model imo.

For me--I'd love the levels to become non-linear, and have the gameplay be impacted based on where you go and what you do. It's been done before, but not yet in this franchise.

Quote: GhostRoaster

Quote: Doomslicer

I think the most probable downfall is that someone (probably in Asia, I know people who do this sort of thing) finds a way to code RFID chips with Skylander data (or Chinese "protos") and then sells them at such low prices that the official market goes out of business...

You would be looking at the mother of all lawsuits. Not gonna happen...internationally though, it would be interesting to see how they can litigate it.

Please, they sell R4's on the streets. The Chinese protos frquently come with blank RFIDs, it's an untapped market (considering that Skylanders that definitely work in game [a few protos do, but whether or not you get one is luck] cost 2-5 times their American price).

Quote: Doomslicer

Quote: GhostRoaster

Quote: Doomslicer

I think the most probable downfall is that someone (probably in Asia, I know people who do this sort of thing) finds a way to code RFID chips with Skylander data (or Chinese "protos") and then sells them at such low prices that the official market goes out of business...

You would be looking at the mother of all lawsuits. Not gonna happen...internationally though, it would be interesting to see how they can litigate it.

Please, they sell R4's on the streets. The Chinese protos frquently come with blank RFIDs, it's an untapped market (considering that Skylanders that definitely work in game [a few protos do, but whether or not you get one is luck] cost 2-5 times their American price).

Untapped or not, I believe Activision has an army of lawyers to get paid to prevent someone getting paid for their work. Of course it happens--and then of course you have technical hobbyists that do it "because they can". Given how aggressive I've seen them, it goes to show that nothing has "really" surfaced that has gone unchallenged. Are you willing to post a link here? If you do, you can see the legal arm of Activision take hold.

For me, the game's magic is lost if all you need is a programmable chip. The toy collecting is more engaging than the game itself lol.

So, please yourself ;-)

Quote: GhostRoaster

Quote: Doomslicer

Quote: GhostRoaster

You would be looking at the mother of all lawsuits. Not gonna happen...internationally though, it would be interesting to see how they can litigate it.

Please, they sell R4's on the streets. The Chinese protos frquently come with blank RFIDs, it's an untapped market (considering that Skylanders that definitely work in game [a few protos do, but whether or not you get one is luck] cost 2-5 times their American price).

Untapped or not, I believe Activision has an army of lawyers to get paid to prevent someone getting paid for their work. Of course it happens--and then of course you have technical hobbyists that do it "because they can". Given how aggressive I've seen them, it goes to show that nothing has "really" surfaced that has gone unchallenged. Are you willing to post a link here? If you do, you can see the legal arm of Activision take hold.

For me, the game's magic is lost if all you need is a programmable chip. The toy collecting is more engaging than the game itself lol.

So, please yourself ;-)

Actually it's just as cheap to buy the Chinese protos with RFID cards. problem solved :P
If LEGO's lawyers can't touch the industry, neither can Activision's. But Skylanders hasn't hit off much in China, so it probably won't happen. If the link is on a Chinese site, kiss Skylanders goodbye (seeing as how protos are sold).

Skylanders looking awkward once swapped.

1. Releasing by waves that are spread too thin and expect it to last nearly a year. After what they did for giants they are better off making the waves smaller but allowing them to repeat within a three to five month span, that way everyone can get the figures in a relatively easier time.
2. Characters that just don't seem appealing to play. With many releases being shown now in the other thread what to expect for swap force, the game is almost at a pass to me at this point. They look bad for most of them and the appeal to the game is wearing thin. Only for sales or if the game is slashed half price would I even bother to pick it up.
3. Too many figures and those seeing yet a s3 after a s1 and s2. Seeing as though eruptor is getting a new variant in the 3ds starter there's a point to saying that most shouldn't be making a return and just takes up more space in getting new figures in general when you know who will be a shelf warmer. Terrafin and Chop chop are nice but they are overdone in being seen. Eruptor is just as bad in this and probably worse from having a s1,s2,LC and now a s3 variant? Not everyone needs to upgrade this guy over and over again. Pass. The staples Spyro and Cynder would be expected to be in SF and understandable at a diff fig per game, but too many others get the ridiculous saturation that in most cases not many would buy another form to play through. There should have been even less reposes done.
4. Too many methods of one figure. One word, Shroomboom. It's unnessary and downright insulting to shove one character four times in waves to be obtainable while others are lucky to even get one, s2 zap for example. Let alone the character is not that interesting when oversaturated to begin with. I expect one or two might get something close to this treatment in SF.
5. Repetitive character themes. We get it, many of the airlanders are birds but how many do you have to make? Sonic Boom, Jet Vac and now Hoot Loop for magic and now yet another wind type bird? There's even another whale type that is being shown at e3. With such a low dev time to meet the yearly quota the game is starting to show its wear when you can only see they just run with certain themes for characters for elements and not much else.

I am surprised more people are not concerned about the magnets. If used as intended I see no harm, while the two halves of the characters are integrated everything should work perfectly. However, at some point someone is going to leave half of a figure sitting on top of their TV or game console for a few hours or days and discover they ruined their picture screen or wiped out their memory.

These things will be viewed as being toys and the damage magnets can do will be forgotten. When magnets fight electronic devices, magnets will win.

Quote: Hot Dog 542

Skylanders looking awkward once swapped.

This is definitely happening, I can't see myself actually using the swapping during normal play, I'll check it out, but I would rather the characters looked like a complete character.

Quote: talon4000

Quote: Hot Dog 542

Skylanders looking awkward once swapped.

This is definitely happening, I can't see myself actually using the swapping during normal play, I'll check it out, but I would rather the characters looked like a complete character.

thiis !!!!!!

Quote: ShinkenRed

I am just very worried this will become a Call of Duty 3. Activision wanted a CoD every year and formed Treyarch to make a game, then the following year the original makers Infinity Ward would have their game out. CoD3 is considered the worst in the franchise by many gamers, myself included. That being said, Treyarch has improved DRASTICALLY since CoD3, and now the fanbase is divided between IF and T3 fans.

Lets be honest: Giants in a lot of ways feels more like an expansion than a true sequel. And I agree many of the newer characters just don't look as appealing as older characters, but the neat thing about Skylanders is that some of my favorite characters I did not like when I first saw them. Slam Bam or Voodood for example.

its already a cod... there is two companies working on the game franchise. so there is gonna be a new game every year... we got skylanders 4 coming, next skylanders5 and then it flop lie a mother f... and acti will find something else... just hang onto the ride and enjoy the fun as long it last...

My wife will find out just how much I'm spending on this game....so far that is all.

Quote: NINJAsk11

Quote: talon4000

Quote: Hot Dog 542

Skylanders looking awkward once swapped.

This is definitely happening, I can't see myself actually using the swapping during normal play, I'll check it out, but I would rather the characters looked like a complete character.

thiis !!!!!!

I'm not so much concerned about how dorky/cool they will look when swapped but the mind blowing gameplay options that will come out of swapping for certain combos. It should be fun.

What do you think may go wrong with Swap Force?

Nothing.

Only thing I think may go wrong is... Losing a half of a Swap Force Skylander.

Although I probably wont cause they are kinda big to lose.

I think the new Skylander designs are awesome they are not losing creativity.

Quote: wreckingballbob

Only thing I think may go wrong is... Losing a half of a Swap Force Skylander.

Although I probably wont cause they are kinda big to lose.

I think the new Skylander designs are awesome they are not losing creativity.

That would be something but... Who will loose this!?!? a little boy 4 year old!?!?

Little kids have the magical power to lose anything

I think I am the only person who dosen't think DI will be a problem for SSF since the prices for DI figures are the same price for lightcore skylanders here in Ireland and the playset packs are 44.99 here,also three packs are 39.99 so I don't think DI will be a problem but I think this game may have some game breaking glitches like the Weapon Master glitch.

Quote: spyroflame0487

Right now, there's a few things working against them.

1) Infinity. There's no doubt that Infinity will be some tough competition for Skylanders. Will it surpass them? I don't think so, maybe not right away anyways. I think Skylanders will have to adopt some of the strategies though: cases for character, preordering etc.

2)Releasing figures. The amount of backlash for how character releases have been handled, especially recently makes me believe that customers will be speaking with their wallets a bit more this time around. If there's no, as one user put it, "clear cut end goal" in terms of collecting, that's going to deter people. Yeah, I'm still a bit pissy that LC Hex looks like she won't be coming out till October. I certainly hope they're listening anyways about some of the other things- overflow/under amount of stock. That's one thing that definitely needs to be addressed.

3) and probably the biggest new one that I haven't seen anyone talk about: Pokemon. It was just announced that XY is coming out October 12th Worldwide- that's the day right before Swap Force is set to come out in the US. Whereas last year the game came out a few weeks afterwards, I can't see parents getting their little ones a $35 game on Saturday, then going back and spending $75 on Swap Force, not to mention other characters, the next day. That's not going to happen. Even though I have plenty of money to get it, I'm not going to go out and blow the money on both games in 2 days. I'll be getting Pokemon Y, and then picking up some choice figures once we learn what comes out on release day, and go with Swap Force another week.

Very good points!

everything.
Glitches
The Magnets
Losing half of a swap-ables
Wasting money
EvilBay and Varients
Waves either to short or to long
Short story
Bland gameplay
That the HD effects are not for the Wii
The characters are just.....URRRG I MEAN LOOK AT HOOT LOOP, WHAT IN THE WORLD HAPPENED TO IT??!?! I think it flew into a car window.
Then that puffy things obviously is a Woobat who ate Sonic
S3...SERIOUSLY?
Scalpers
Prices

Quote: kappapopm

its already a cod... there is two companies working on the game franchise. so there is gonna be a new game every year... we got skylanders 4 coming, next skylanders5 and then it flop lie a mother f... and acti will find something else... just hang onto the ride and enjoy the fun as long it last...

Just because they made the third game in a relatively short time doesn't make it like cod though the company is notorious in the department of milking things dry. Games usually come in 3s for major releases, and the more that keep saying there will be a skylanders 4 it has to get through the third first and to be honest there's already many that aren't getting this game nor the figures. Swap force has a lot to contend with this time around so it's possible that TFB can and will be working on a different toy type of game after this which would be more plausible due to the fact of how many figures have to be in the game and portal memory for one. I really dislike how several keep saying there's going to be so many games for this, it all depends on the sales figures and quite frankly this could be it. I don't see what else you could really do with the franchise.

i think the graphics would be so good tht peeps would faint evrywhere around the planet, lol

Too short of a game-Needs to be like SSA but with the harder levels like Giants
Shortage and slow release of characters- I'm adult and would prefer to purchase a code for each character. Type it in and just play. No portal and a huge amount of skylanders to deal with. Just click and pick the character.

Heroic challenges need to be different- Like those and was disappointed that they repeated in the giants game.

Quote: tigerdr

I don't see what else you could really do with the franchise.

I keep thinking that but they've so far bringing in incremental technology and creative enhancements. If they change up gameplay and bonus content AND work towards a more robust playing experience they'll have a lot of life yet. I am concerned about the continued luggage of previous characters; the fact they aren't bringing in the adventure packs from SSA is a bit of a concession but then again it's the same experience (over and over). In my mind, if they can bring in optional branching in the current levels to extent playability and keep the bonuses varied and fresh they'll do fine.

Story wise they better start twisting it up on the bad guys--and I think we'll see one in this game to set up the future.

Character design-wise this round looks very distinctive so it very much feels like TFB has more of a secondary role here; these overall seem more hit and miss than the first two. It seems like all of the short guys look like Megaman.