darkSpyro

Not sure if anyone caught the advertisement today on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in the US, but they announced that the suggested retail price of the game is permanently $39.99...not just a Black Friday special.

"Last, but certainly not least, be sure to keep an eye out for special Black Friday deals on Skylanders SuperChargers Starter Packs, which will be available at participating retailers for just $39.99 MSRP."

The above is from Web Site, but commercial seemed to have worded it differently. May be mistaken, but I don't think so. Odd there are fewer carrying the 39.99 price tag for Black Friday in my opinion.

Btw, if you have a MS system, Microsoft's web site has it for 34.99.

Oh yeah, I saw that commercial to. It featured the wave 3 Skylanders.

Link for the commercial?

Here's the commercial:
It actually aired in September, but the one that aired after the Eruptor float had the reduced price at the end.

^That may have been it content wise, but there was an explicit mention that "STARTING Black Friday, the suggested retail price of SkyChargers would be $39.99 at select retailers."

I'd be very surprised if its a permanent reduction. They'd definitely want to get full retail for it as long as possible, and only start cutting the cost of it next year as they lead into the next game.

Although...if it is permanently reduced, it's a pretty aggressive price cut towards Infinity and the insanely priced Lego Dimensions. (and I guess would put it on par with Smash Bros which is the closest thing Nintendo has for amiibo use)

Quote: spyroflame0487

I'd be very surprised if its a permanent reduction. They'd definitely want to get full retail for it as long as possible, and only start cutting the cost of it next year as they lead into the next game.

Not necessarily...if your add-ons (figures/vehicles) aren't moving from stores, an early drop in price is prudent. You need as many people as possible with starter packs out there to peddle your figures. Also, this is most definitely an indicator of early sluggish sales...as big as Activision is on milking customers of their money, they've clearly had that behind closed doors meeting to discuss their game plan...they've opted to press the panic button in an attempt to drum up sales. It'll be interesting to see what this means for the long term game plan for the Skylanders franchise.

I was eyeballing the Skylanders scene last night to see how well they were selling locally and it was pathetic. There were plenty of el cheapo Skylanders starter sets available and oddly enough even a Splat and a few Pop Fizz, which amazed me considering they had a buy one get one 80% off sale on all that. They were just as well stocked up on the prior waves as they were on Sunday. I don't think that the one get one for 80% off was exciting many people.

Now the $65 Lego Dimensions were flying off the shelves and they sold out of every starter other than about 5 PS4 sets by 9 PM (which is when I made it there). I was rather surprised by that as I wanted a $40 Lego set personally and felt $65 was too much to interest anyone. The figures themselves were about 50% sold and I think those were only at buy one get one for 40% off wasn't it? So that tells you where all the demand is in Toys to Life.

Infinity didn't appear touched at all and no one was looking at those. I don't think I seen any Amiibo on sale and no one was looking at them either. Those both looked nearly as they did on Sunday. So it's very well possible that SC is going down to a fixed $39.99 MSRP as I doubt many sets will be selling at any higher than that. What's telling is if they start moving the figures down to $10 after Christmas.

I was a little miffed as the reason I went out last night was for Five Below $5 Swap Force characters was advertised, but it ended up being 3 packs of Giants cores and just one Swap Force character (Rip Tide) was in the wheelbarrow. Oh well! I'll finish my "Swap Force reposes on the cheap" collection some other day.

Given they advertised it in a commercial (I noticed it as well, was watching for the Eruptor float with my sons), I'd say Activision is feeling the heat this year. Just ran through Best Buy and Target post BF craziness, and they really weren't hit all that hard. Target had plenty of Wave 3 figures, which you figure would have been the first to go.

BTW, Splat is sooo gonna be a shelf warmer. A pink girl figure (I think it looks great, but ...) in a game primarily targeted at pre-teen boys? Not going to happen.

^Interesting post BFF observation, defpally. It would not surprise me if MSRP drops permanently across the board soon on figures and vehicles.



IMO Splat is a very interesting character that has a lot of color. There's enough purple in the vehicle that I think they bridged the targeting dilemma successfully I think. Holy carp though the Thump Truck is one heavy vehicle--totally the anti thesis of Splat. I think fans are starving for originality and imo Splat does very well in that area. I don't think boys will necessarily send their moms to go buy the character for them (I had two boys in front of me purchasing Splat when I grabbed mine), I think today's kids are wired differently from us. But what do I know? Nothing. There's some pink/purple in Roller Brawl (granted Undead makes it guy friendly) and I think she's totally bad to the bone.

Quote: mastermc54

Quote: spyroflame0487

I'd be very surprised if its a permanent reduction. They'd definitely want to get full retail for it as long as possible, and only start cutting the cost of it next year as they lead into the next game.

Not necessarily...if your add-ons (figures/vehicles) aren't moving from stores, an early drop in price is prudent. You need as many people as possible with starter packs out there to peddle your figures. Also, this is most definitely an indicator of early sluggish sales...as big as Activision is on milking customers of their money, they've clearly had that behind closed doors meeting to discuss their game plan...they've opted to press the panic button in an attempt to drum up sales. It'll be interesting to see what this means for the long term game plan for the Skylanders franchise.

doom and gloom possibly. either they are not going to make a sky 6 or if they do, it'll be the last one of the franchise for awhile. Lego clearly won this year and most likely they are at the bottom heap since infinity has star wars and has sold more as well. The problem with being the oldest in the business is that while they were able to stay on top, they have a bigger means to go stale, repetitive and for the fanbase to grow away from you. Clearly it has as most have moved onto infinity or lego or gave up skylanders altogether.

If in fact it somehow thrives, it's going to be yearly of smaller releases altogether. Most likely very few figures per wave until they finally stop making it.

Wave 1 and 2 have always been the lionshare of the release. Wave 3 onwards have always had fewer inventory counts. It's anyone's guess but I'd assume Activision is 2nd or 3rd this year simply because I'm not convinced they are successfully snagging more recruits than the are losing...not dramatically upgrading gameplay mechanics is attributing to the ho hum factor now.

Although I'm pretty sure everybody on these forums has their Superchargers starter pack, the new lower MSRP of $40 has hit Best Buy...it brings it down to $32 if you have GCU.

Here is something interesting. The TRU website now has the figures and vehicles with the "TRU tax" marked down on them. They are the same price as other retailers. Did we reach the point where they are going to start reducing prices down to where they used to be?

Quote: defpally

Here is something interesting. The TRU website now has the figures and vehicles with the "TRU tax" marked down on them. They are the same price as other retailers. Did we reach the point where they are going to start reducing prices down to where they used to be?

They do this sometimes, I've seen it with giants, swap force and trap team. They do this with power ranger and TMNT too. They will remove the "tru tax" and pricing will be abt the same as target/walamrt for a period then it will go back up. I am going to assume atm they are doing it so ppl don't buy it from target/walmart etc cause of a $1 diff since its the holidays. Also for the unaware they think the price dropped abit so they think its a deal.


Thou with the slump, it could def be a perm thing, i guess we will have to wait and see.

Activision has been fishing for higher prices on each release. I'd argue to say they've hit consumer limits on how much they will pay. Considering the fact that there's EVEN MORE competition, conventional economics would suggest they should've STARTED with a lower price from the onset...we'll see if they get burned. I only buy when there's a sale now. When they were all $10, I didn't really think much of it. 20 vehicles has a $100 uplift for them, and 20 characters has $60 uplift with no sale. IMO they just need to stick with $10 across the board for stuff, unless it's something like traps.