darkSpyro

Quote: GamerDrone

It needs to be a combination of things.
1) Drop back to original pricing. The price has inched up so much that I don't think people really consider them because of it.
2) No new gimmick. Just build out what exists. Release some more giants, which is redundant since the Trap Masters are as big as Giants. Also, some more Swap Force wouldn't be bad.
3) Bring back the original cards!!!! Bad move changing these.
4) No starter packs. Release a game and the figures separate. They've proven it can be done when the Skyiimbos were released in their own packages.

The starter is easily the best value. At full retail you get 2/3 figures, a game and a portal for $75 and a new game is $60. I've never understood the argument over the starter pack. Don't get me wrong, I'm tired of portals, etc. At the $40 range it's not even a conversation starter. That being said, I like options, and if they launched the game at $40 at LAUNCH with no figures/portal I'd be happy, especially since many are done buying the figures. Unless the game pulls me in, I'm not sure I'm going to be on a figure buying march next time. One idea might be to include the game and figures for $50 and opt out of the portal--this allows people to use their current portals and try whatever the gimmick is.

I like middle ground. Offer a starter pack as it's what supposed to be - get you started,with figures that usually unlock stuff in the first levels - and a Digital and Portal Owners to those that can't/are okay with buying their own first figures. One for parents,other for veteran fans,but keeping a physical option this time unlike SC.

What's so funny is that they have all of these packaging options for figure variants (dark starters, figures for specific systems etc) but they don't address specific needs of their customers. Maybe they are licking their wounds from the portal owners pack in Giants. The problem there was price. That and the fact that SSA portal required batteries, it was a no brainer to upgrade to USB power based.

Quote: Pokemon2

How about just one starter pack, no Dark Edition, no Skymiibo, same figures in all versions, 1 variant per e!ement, 40 figures, no gimmicks. Just go back to basics, go back to Spyro's Adventure in a lot of ways. That will please fans.

I had a discussion with somebody irl and this is excactly what we came out on. I was fine with SSA having FEW variant (Dark Spyro, Legendaries) 36 figures and simply no gimmic. Over the years, only Jumping was a great addition on the games IMO. I've had it with variants, gimmics and stuff like that. Giants was fine, Swap Force was okay, Trap Team was meh

Well... Not sure what's actually worse between a lot of things I want and fewer things the majority of which I don't care that much about.

Or, to say it in other words, I prefer 36 brand new Skylanders and then the various traps rather than 40 figures where 20 are vehicles (two of which are console exclusives), 8 are revamps and only 12 are actually completely new (again with 2 of them being console exclusives) and then... variants.

Sure, 36 new Skylanders might have been too much and I understand this year's thinner cast might have been a direct consequence of that choice but I sincerely don't think having lots of options is a bad thing.

I know many people may disagree violently with what I'm about to say but Skylanders has always been a matter of choice: the average consumer isn't like the hardcore collectors who browse this forum, he/she simply chooses a few figures he/she likes or which seem interesting (maybe one per Element) and call himself/herself done.
Even when the game forced you to buy at least a Gimmicklander for each Element or type (Trap Team except for Light and Dark and SWAP Force) it still gave you a choice, same for traps' molds.
Even Giants had at least two Skylanders per Element!

This year if I want something brand new for Water is either Dive-Clops or... Dive-Clops
Customers don't really have a choice if they don't want another Gill Grunt or Terrafin.
Ironically where they do have choice is, guess what?
Vehicles!

See what's my problem with this year's toyline and why I don't find Trap Team's wider cast that bad...?

Well, part of that is they didn't really market the "reposes" as radically different as they are. Gil Grunt isn't your regular Gil Grunt in new duds. In general though, reposes should have given way to new characters rather than altering existing ones. I don't think the get that people really don't want their "old favorites" to keep returning like they act like we do. I remember them proudly announcing Gil Grunt was returning, and half the posts were like "Really? Again?".

Yeah I'm actually sick of all of these series 2, 3, 4, etc. just do like the competition and release more unique characters rather than alternate versions of characters from 4 years ago, er 5.

Quote: GameMaster78

Yeah I'm actually sick of all of these series 2, 3, 4, etc. just do like the competition and release more unique characters rather than alternate versions of characters from 4 years ago, er 5.

You now, now that I think about it there is actually no such thing as reposes in Disney Infinity or Amiibos.
Ok, technically there are multiple versions of the same Nintendo character but they don't work as playable characters so I don't know if I can count them and Black Suit Spiderman has also been given a completely different moveset (kinda like Dark Spyro in the 3DS versions) but it's still only a single character.

It's fun that Nintendo and Disney keep coming up with new but already seen faces while Skylanders which potentially can create infinite original characters prefer to rely on reposes...

Quote: Drek95

Quote: GameMaster78

Yeah I'm actually sick of all of these series 2, 3, 4, etc. just do like the competition and release more unique characters rather than alternate versions of characters from 4 years ago, er 5.

You now, now that I think about it there is actually no such thing as reposes in Disney Infinity or Amiibos.
Ok, technically there are multiple versions of the same Nintendo character but they don't work as playable characters so I don't know if I can count them and Black Suit Spiderman has also been given a completely different moveset (kinda like Dark Spyro in the 3DS versions) but it's still only a single character.

It's fun that Nintendo and Disney keep coming up with new but already seen faces while Skylanders which potentially can create infinite original characters prefer to rely on reposes...

In a sense yes there are reposes in DI. Hulkbuster is pretty much a bigger and stronger version of Iron Man Captain America the First Avengers in a repose of OG Captain America with new moves and Black Suit Spiderman is pretty much just a recolor with new moves.

Alright, so for fun we will say this.

8 crystals
Black suit
Hulkbuster
Movie Cap

11 variants/reposes in 3 years for DI out of how many unique figures? It still impresses me we get more unique figures per year for DI than we do for Skylanders. Dimensions so far is just straight up unique figures. No variants.

For Skylanders, we hit 11 variants by time of Giants release and that's only factoring in the 9 Legendaries between SSA and SG, Dark Spyro and Punch Pop Fizz. That's not factoring in reposes and the other variants Giants gave us. Then SF, TT and SC went way overboard of course.

Hope Sky 6 does away with most variants and reposes, while managing to be a good game.

Quote: Drek95

You now, now that I think about it there is actually no such thing as reposes in [...] Amiibos.
Ok, technically there are multiple versions of the same Nintendo character but they don't work as playable characters so I don't know if I can count them [...]

Errr. This is kinda misleading.
Some games treat 'em differently, some don't.

I have six different Marios (Three different poses, three more recolors)
Five different Yoshi.
Two of each Luigi and Peach.
Four each Donkey Kong and Bowser.
Two Mega Mans (Mega Men?)
And there's an argument to be had for saying there's three Links, two Samuses (Samuii?), two Princess Zeldas, a seventh Mario, and two Pits).

Forthcoming: ROB #2, Kirby #2, Meta Kinght #2, King Dedede #2, Isabelle #2 & #3 (of course, there's also the AC figures that have cards for them as well...).

Quote: UncleBob

Quote: Drek95

You now, now that I think about it there is actually no such thing as reposes in [...] Amiibos.
Ok, technically there are multiple versions of the same Nintendo character but they don't work as playable characters so I don't know if I can count them [...]

Errr. This is kinda misleading.
Some games treat 'em differently, some don't.

I have six different Marios (Three different poses, three more recolors)
Five different Yoshi.
Two of each Luigi and Peach.
Four each Donkey Kong and Bowser.
Two Mega Mans (Mega Men?)
And there's an argument to be had for saying there's three Links, two Samuses (Samuii?), two Princess Zeldas, a seventh Mario, and two Pits).

Forthcoming: ROB #2, Kirby #2, Meta Kinght #2, King Dedede #2, Isabelle #2 & #3 (of course, there's also the AC figures that have cards for them as well...).

Shoot, I forgot to mention the amiibo.

And there's undoubtedly more reposes to come from Nintendo. I''m sure SFZ will have its own amiibo line.

Amiibo figures are reposes in the core meaning of the word. There's no Kirby with different armor/ outfit, it's literally a Kirby in a different pose.

Quote: Bifrost

Amiibo figures are reposes in the core meaning of the word. There's no Kirby with different armor/ outfit, it's literally a Kirby in a different pose.

Dont forget the subpar use.

Yeah, didn't want to include Amiibos at first because they do work as playable characters but their general concept is different from being just that.

For example I wouldn't like if one of my Skylanders became a simple costume for other characters, one day.
With Amiibos this is not only accepted but opens up for many possibilities.

It did sounded misleading, sorry.

It's accepted with Amiibo because they do *so* many other things.

While I still want a Skylanders-esque Amiibo game, imho, the overall implementation of Amiibo has been pretty fantastic. So many games use them that, if I buy one, chances are, I have a dozen or so options for games that I get *some* bonus for.

I don't get that with Skylanders (or any other TTL franchise). Obviously, Dimensions only has the one game. With Skylanders and Infinity, the toys work forwards, but not backwards and in Infinity, they only work in their expansions or Toybox mode. For Skylanders, when I buy Thrillipede, I'll have a $15 toy that works in one game (Two, if you count Racing). When I buy Ryu, I get a $15 toy that'll work in Smash, Mario Maker, probably Wooly World, some word puzzle game and bonuses in a half a dozen other titles (Hyrule Warriors, for example).

Quote: GameMaster78

Yeah I'm actually sick of all of these series 2, 3, 4, etc. just do like the competition and release more unique characters rather than alternate versions of characters from 4 years ago, er 5.

That has been their fault from the beginning. They made all of our characters from the first game meaningless. Skylanders always had the advantage of being the originator and the one who gives you original characters and story. Infinity just makes you run around a world you already know and never even gave you a storyline for every character like Kingdom Hearts did. So Skylanders should have seen this potential and run with it and made our original characters mean something. Take them further in line, make a few new friends, allow people who never got old characters ACTUALLY get them so they can experience the fun in an ever expanding new world and plot. But no, Activision had to just keep pumping out more and more figures, reposes, chase variants, light-cores, gimmicks, Eon's elites, etc... All of this just to make an extra buck while they are always stuck with the leftovers. They never listened to us scream and rant that all their initial sales were scalpers. So they figured just keep releasing more and more new and they would keep making money with characters always flying off the shelves. Then what scalpers stopped, supply increased and now stores don't want skylanders on their shelves anymore. Yet instead of making things worthwhile they keep pumping it out.

Make us a game we want to play again, have us dust off the old favorites instead of buying Eon's Elites, and make a game about all of the figures we have bought up to this point. We have spent the money, give us our due. Give us what every fan has wanted since the beginning, a worthwhile game with cool characters that come to life. Not rushed games with an ever expanding list of characters we can't keep up with, and never have a chance to fall in love with because the next set is already there. If you really want to make this game Pokemon where we have to collect them all then stop giving up on every game's characters so quick. How many people couldn't finish their trap collection because they NEVER gave us the yawns or the single tech totem, or more dark and light traps. How many people won't have all the adventure packs because Darklight Crypt is GONE!

If Activision was smart they could have kept selling the characters for every game, not reposed them, which means paying for new designs and models. They could have instead kept selling the old characters and only make a few new characters to go with the game, while increasing level cap, difficulty, plot development to further the enjoyment of each and every game so that people would be begging for the franchise to never end as opposed to now. If they just allowed everyone to actually get their hands on the characters they want from any game without there being a ridiculous amount to choose from because EVERY game has to have 20 or more new characters. They could have continued to make money the smart way instead of just trying to force people to buy constantly new characters. Greed never pays in the end, and I hope Activision reaps what they sow, and someone smart finally takes the reins and sees all of the misguided actions are just continuing to hurt them.

I would really love an amiibo dedicated game the same style as with Skylanders, but I'm losing my hopes for that, even if certain nintendo branches ( like the us one) have already stated they see a lot of potential there.

Amiibos are selling well so I'm not sure if nintendo will see the urge to create a dedicated game. The fact they are including some of their cahracters in the skylanders games makes it even less likely, which is a shame

I have the felling nintendo is kind of struggling to release their "core" games lately.

Quote: icecube7731

Quote: GameMaster78

Yeah I'm actually sick of all of these series 2, 3, 4, etc. just do like the competition and release more unique characters rather than alternate versions of characters from 4 years ago, er 5.

That has been their fault from the beginning. They made all of our characters from the first game meaningless. Skylanders always had the advantage of being the originator and the one who gives you original characters and story. Infinity just makes you run around a world you already know and never even gave you a storyline for every character like Kingdom Hearts did. So Skylanders should have seen this potential and run with it and made our original characters mean something. Take them further in line, make a few new friends, allow people who never got old characters ACTUALLY get them so they can experience the fun in an ever expanding new world and plot. But no, Activision had to just keep pumping out more and more figures, reposes, chase variants, light-cores, gimmicks, Eon's elites, etc... All of this just to make an extra buck while they are always stuck with the leftovers. They never listened to us scream and rant that all their initial sales were scalpers. So they figured just keep releasing more and more new and they would keep making money with characters always flying off the shelves. Then what scalpers stopped, supply increased and now stores don't want skylanders on their shelves anymore. Yet instead of making things worthwhile they keep pumping it out.

Make us a game we want to play again, have us dust off the old favorites instead of buying Eon's Elites, and make a game about all of the figures we have bought up to this point. We have spent the money, give us our due. Give us what every fan has wanted since the beginning, a worthwhile game with cool characters that come to life. Not rushed games with an ever expanding list of characters we can't keep up with, and never have a chance to fall in love with because the next set is already there. If you really want to make this game Pokemon where we have to collect them all then stop giving up on every game's characters so quick. How many people couldn't finish their trap collection because they NEVER gave us the yawns or the single tech totem, or more dark and light traps. How many people won't have all the adventure packs because Darklight Crypt is GONE!

If Activision was smart they could have kept selling the characters for every game, not reposed them, which means paying for new designs and models. They could have instead kept selling the old characters and only make a few new characters to go with the game, while increasing level cap, difficulty, plot development to further the enjoyment of each and every game so that people would be begging for the franchise to never end as opposed to now. If they just allowed everyone to actually get their hands on the characters they want from any game without there being a ridiculous amount to choose from because EVERY game has to have 20 or more new characters. They could have continued to make money the smart way instead of just trying to force people to buy constantly new characters. Greed never pays in the end, and I hope Activision reaps what they sow, and someone smart finally takes the reins and sees all of the misguided actions are just continuing to hurt them.

Some of this reads like a good fantasy novel, but I do think the idea of increasing value of existing characters could help them sell figures (call it the Legacy Line, where a figure is reboxed to say it works with all games) and increasing content in the new game based on characters. Wow, this sounds a like like Heroics on steroids. Keep characters to 30 with minimal reposes, chase etc. But they've never listened to us before, why listen to us now just because sales are 50% of the last game?

Quote: UncleBob

It's accepted with Amiibo because they do *so* many other things.

While I still want a Skylanders-esque Amiibo game, imho, the overall implementation of Amiibo has been pretty fantastic. So many games use them that, if I buy one, chances are, I have a dozen or so options for games that I get *some* bonus for.

I don't get that with Skylanders (or any other TTL franchise). Obviously, Dimensions only has the one game. With Skylanders and Infinity, the toys work forwards, but not backwards and in Infinity, they only work in their expansions or Toybox mode. For Skylanders, when I buy Thrillipede, I'll have a $15 toy that works in one game (Two, if you count Racing). When I buy Ryu, I get a $15 toy that'll work in Smash, Mario Maker, probably Wooly World, some word puzzle game and bonuses in a half a dozen other titles (Hyrule Warriors, for example).

Totally spot on about Amiibo. They used to be really not worth it beyond collecting, but these days they have a ton of things they do. Practically every game you get has at least some support for them. If you have a WiiU (or New 3DS) you probably should own at least a few of your favorites.

Dimensions only has one game - but it is Legos, kids can have fun with those plenty beyond the game. In fact my biggest problem with the game is keeping them segregated from the rest of our Legos since my youngest always plays with them.

My favorite gimmick so far in Skylanders is Swap Force since it was fun to make combinations (you really need to open those up UncleBob!). Superchargers has some fun vehicles to play with for the kids, but you are right about limited game options for them. You used to have all these console and mobile games, but they have since let most of the mobile games die like Lost Islands limiting use of figures.

Quote: UncleBob

Quote: Drek95

You now, now that I think about it there is actually no such thing as reposes in [...] Amiibos.
Ok, technically there are multiple versions of the same Nintendo character but they don't work as playable characters so I don't know if I can count them [...]

Errr. This is kinda misleading.
Some games treat 'em differently, some don't.

I have six different Marios (Three different poses, three more recolors)
Five different Yoshi.
Two of each Luigi and Peach.
Four each Donkey Kong and Bowser.
Two Mega Mans (Mega Men?)
And there's an argument to be had for saying there's three Links, two Samuses (Samuii?), two Princess Zeldas, a seventh Mario, and two Pits).

Forthcoming: ROB #2, Kirby #2, Meta Kinght #2, King Dedede #2, Isabelle #2 & #3 (of course, there's also the AC figures that have cards for them as well...).

and waddle dee

Not surprised; I like the games, and a lot the extra characters look awesome, but the following make buying them out of the question for me, and I'm an adult with a near full time job and living at home with no expenses.

1. TOO EXPENSIVE. The base game is one thing since the included peripherals excuse the extra $10, but upwards of 10$ for each additional toy, none of which are more than a new skin, a plastic toy and some unlockable content which is no great shakes from what I've heard.

2. What's worse is that even if you are willing to save money and buy them later or just can't get them early on, it is nigh on impossible to find any previous toys and you'll likely pay more than the original egregious price since they've become rare, and they might not even have their packaging, according to the hunting I've done.

3. Not being funny, but I can crochet and I have tons of yarn! It takes me a long time to invent patterns for more intricate and challenging designs, but I CAN and WILL do it once I get over my inevitable frustration. Thus, if there's a character I really like, all I need is a picture, the right colour of yarn, a 4mm crochet hook and what perseverance I can muster to make them myself.

IDK what exactly they should do or how to do it, but they need to make the franchise more accessible in terms of price and where to get any and all of the toys.

Quote: ClassicSpyroLUV

Not surprised; I like the games, and a lot the extra characters look awesome, but the following make buying them out of the question for me, and I'm an adult with a near full time job and living at home with no expenses.

1. TOO EXPENSIVE. The base game is one thing since the included peripherals excuse the extra $10, but upwards of 10$ for each additional toy, none of which are more than a new skin, a plastic toy and some unlockable content which is no great shakes from what I've heard.

2. What's worse is that even if you are willing to save money and buy them later or just can't get them early on, it is nigh on impossible to find any previous toys and you'll likely pay more than the original egregious price since they've become rare, and they might not even have their packaging, according to the hunting I've done.

3. Not being funny, but I can crochet and I have tons of yarn! It takes me a long time to invent patterns for more intricate and challenging designs, but I CAN and WILL do it once I get over my inevitable frustration. Thus, if there's a character I really like, all I need is a picture, the right colour of yarn, a 4mm crochet hook and what perseverance I can muster to make them myself.

IDK what exactly they should do or how to do it, but they need to make the franchise more accessible in terms of price and where to get any and all of the toys.

No, ok, I get what you are saying and agree on the expensive part but... Really...?
You sincerely think each Skylanders is nothing more than a new skin and plastic toy...?

Those are called variants and you absolutely don't need to collect them since they don't add anything gameplay-wise but each of the 126 (128 if you count Bowser and Donkey Kong) currently released characters add a completely new gameplay style which often changes your experience, not to mention they all come with a unique personality, animations, voice actor, stories and such.

You are absolutely free to not buy whatever you want of course but what I'm saying is that you are missing quite more than a new figure you can copy using yarn.

Animations and voice actors are basically part of the skin IMO. The stories never enter into the games, at least not the first two I've played so those can be disregarded as far the actual game is concerned. The only real differences I've noticed are attack types (ranged vs close up), travel and attack speed, and strength of attack. Some character are better in groups than others too, but what differences there are seem negligible to me. In any case I think all my characters pretty much cover all bases, even if I did stop collecting after Giants and a few from Swap Force.

The character is self contained...that we all can agree to. What would make it interesting is having the game somehow be impactful based on the character you use. This was kinda done with Heroics, but we need to go deeper. Without the hook of needing to 100% the game like they've done, most of us have all the skylanders we need for this franchise now. That to me is the biggest elephant in the room.

If they were wise in the beginning they would have put some character related info into the chip like name and colors, then they could have made alt decos to their heart's content and make chase variants in-game. Wouldn't take much space for a color table and name string.

I like that idea defpally!

Quote: TakeYourLemons

The character is self contained...that we all can agree to. What would make it interesting is having the game somehow be impactful based on the character you use. This was kinda done with Heroics, but we need to go deeper. Without the hook of needing to 100% the game like they've done, most of us have all the skylanders we need for this franchise now. That to me is the biggest elephant in the room.

I know this isn't *quite* what you're talking about, but imagine enemies that have an elemental-based power. Now, make some stronger against particular elements in a rock-paper-scissors fashion. Then, on harder difficulty levels, these enemies , upon 'seeing' the element of the Skylander you're using, magically swap out their own element to be your weakness.

Quote: TakeYourLemons

The character is self contained...that we all can agree to. What would make it interesting is having the game somehow be impactful based on the character you use. This was kinda done with Heroics, but we need to go deeper. Without the hook of needing to 100% the game like they've done, most of us have all the skylanders we need for this franchise now. That to me is the biggest elephant in the room.

What exactly do you mean by 'self contained'? Also what are you referring to when you say Heroics? Sorry I've only played two games and that was awhile ago.

Quote: ClassicSpyroLUV

I like that idea defpally!

It kind of blows alt deco collecting away since they are derived and not programmed into the game, but it also hides them from view and they can be surprises (and we know how much Activision likes keeping things quiet). It also would allow them to expand or contract the alt deco list as demand warranted. However, they would have had to of thought of this up front.

Quote: UncleBob

I know this isn't *quite* what you're talking about, but imagine enemies that have an elemental-based power. Now, make some stronger against particular elements in a rock-paper-scissors fashion. Then, on harder difficulty levels, these enemies , upon 'seeing' the element of the Skylander you're using, magically swap out their own element to be your weakness.

I like it. And it's a GAME mechanic that changes based on your figure's power that YOU upgraded.

Quote: ClassicSpyroLUV

What exactly do you mean by 'self contained'? Also what are you referring to when you say Heroics? Sorry I've only played two games and that was awhile ago.

Self contained is the concept you harped on. The character has voice, moves, etc but they do very little to the game itself. UncleBob above talks about how to present a REASON in the game to use certain characters.

Heroics was a concept in the first two games where you had a CHARACTER SPECIFIC LEVEL to play to upgrade a certain power of your skylander. Once you bought that character and unlocked that level, ANY SKYLANDER could play that level and upgrade that power. If you get and play them all, you get a fully powered up skylander. The negative to this was doing each of these levels for each skylander--very time consuming, redundant etc. But the concept was genius and we haven't seen it since.

Hmmm... This whole 'self contained' thing would of been perfect in the original game. Activision would never bother with it now since there's just too many Skylanders! (I'm pretty sure this is why they dropped heroics in the first place)

But I can imagine how it would have worked. Dialogue/story can be altered by who you play as. It would have been awesome! Shame no one puts any effort into this series (Even from the start, tbh)

Yeah,surely these 5 sucessful games have no effort put into polishing and lore. Sure.

Wish they had a small exclusion for their 'we can't know what skylanders they have' rule and have special dialogue in their places,at least. It doesn't need to be groundbreaking, it just had to be like 'oh hi Whilrwind, the Illuminator is really useful' in Swap Force, or 'Hey, Lightning Rod, still lifting?' in Cloud Kingdom. Tons of RPGs do that and no one ever whines that they can't get a handful of dialogue just because they're not the right class or character - in fact, that's an incentive because you'll only pursue that if you like the character.
It's a little bit,but it goes such a long way, just like the Supercharger Quests we have now. You wouldn't figure out Spitfire is a massive showoff or Nightfall really likes to threaten her own allies if they didn't speak up to Buzz while he told them what to do. It doesn't take THAT much effort from calling back VAs and who plays with them gets a nice treat.

Yeah sorry, a bit of an exaggeration there haha!

But what I meant was that right from the start Activision could have made this series SO MUCh better! I haven't played TT or SC but the first three games had a lot of potential but were lacking polished elements. Like you said, small nods to character backstories would be wonderful.

And it's not like they don't try. I recall a character designer or someone else mentioning they sketched out a lot of random cloud levels before someone suggested Lighting Rod's homeland. It just has to play less safe than that; though avoiding risks is Acti's thing and I'll guess they understood Mike's "we don't know your skylanders" as "never segregate with anything but gimmicks or elements ever", which is silly.

Just see how many people suggest certain characters' homelands in the Places You Want to See thread. There is interest for sure.

What I don't understand is that they used to write those elaborate backstories for each character and never mention them in-game (Do they still do this? I'm so behind on Skylanders haha! )

You're right, though. Character designers can do what they can but in the end its Activision's lack of risks that will be it's undoing.

They still have the backstories. What gets me is that some characters don't even have mentioned species in the backstory,so we don't know what the heck Tread Head or Astroblast is to begin with despite their heroic deeds or whatever. But that's nitpicking compared to the rest.

Quote: defpally

(and we know how much Activision likes keeping things quiet)

and we know the reason of this. simply because it allows them to cut certain things out (yawn traps) as most of the public wouldn't know about them and it allowed them to be shady on release dates as to keep people from expecting product. they gambled on hype that's no longer there.

they're in a bad situation because with the competition only doing updates and adding more figures, trying to sell the public on a 75 starter won't fly, and they're going to have have to find some middle ground with it. either sell the game with some figures for 40 bucks off the bat or just try to sell a game, but from how it's looking i wouldn't be surprised if they miss a fall release and put things on hold.

Plus there is far less advertising for the competition, yet superchargers i come across an ad every day along with the 30 buck perm pricing now and things just aren't moving.

I think that the pricing structure was planned long ago as these companies hire some very smart marketing people that know what to do when in consideration on the series life cycle.

With declining sales, they make up loss of profit by raising prices. An example is that they probably believe that sales will down by 25% but charging 25% more will equal itself out. I know it's not that easy, that they most likely use some complex formula to determine what to do with pricing, but you get the basic idea of how things work.

I think what probably threw off their formulas is that they didn't expect people to ignore SuperChargers as much as they had. I feel it's safe to say that this year was really bad for them when the consistent discount sales won't move the product as it used to in prior years. To me, it's very likely that SC wouldn't have sold any better at any lower price point as the franchise is growing so stale, this years concept really sucked and there are better Toys To Life product out there.

I feel that Sky 6 will either be a budget release with a lot fewer figures made at lower quality and a lower price (which typical for toy series at the end of their lives) or they'll try hard with one last killer of a release and hope the fans will return back even with a high price tag but offering them tons of cool things to justify paying that much. Aside from being able to buy and play as the cool villians and past popular NPCs, I don't really see how any gimmick could increase demand and sales. I've heard rumors they may just drop the toys to life and become a toy line, so we'll see what the future holds.

Tiger hits all the points. Competition is leaving Skylanders in the mud. Not only with more fun games, especially Dimensions.

I honestly don't see how Skylanders is gonna survive this year what with the good choices the competition is making (excluding Amiibo).

And I've been saying for the longest why Acti stays quiet. It's so they don't have to answer for their poor choices. Heck I half expect them to never address the yawn traps, the giving away of yawn traps, and to be able to cut everything off without so much a word or explanation. That's probably good business to them, but bad business in the eyes of the smart consumer.

It's bad business for any consumer to advertise content/characters/traps in the game and don't deliver for them. Our non US brethren have been complaining about this since the game's inception. Half-assed deployment of their toys will net unhappy consumers. It will be interesting to see how they react to this. I'm of the opinion that the dev teams need at least another six months to fully flesh out a game we expect, and what's all this talk about "bringing customers back" when this game is built for 6-10 years old. Likely they will NEVER get their fans back--they've moved on. This really speaks to the fact that they have not inspired the NEXT kid generation. That and the parents have lamented to other parents about the cost of the franchise. The gig is up. They need a better mousetrap.

^This!

Quote: TakeYourLemons

It's bad business for any consumer to advertise content/characters/traps in the game and don't deliver for them. Our non US brethren have been complaining about this since the game's inception. Half-assed deployment of their toys will net unhappy consumers. It will be interesting to see how they react to this. I'm of the opinion that the dev teams need at least another six months to fully flesh out a game we expect, and what's all this talk about "bringing customers back" when this game is built for 6-10 years old. Likely they will NEVER get their fans back--they've moved on. This really speaks to the fact that they have not inspired the NEXT kid generation. That and the parents have lamented to other parents about the cost of the franchise. The gig is up. They need a better mousetrap.

Yeah and I want to be clear, I may complain about the lack of good choices and their knack - now - for not releasing stuff stateside, but I have held contempt for this brand due to them messing over countries where stuff wasn't released as well. Heard S2 Drobot didn't come out in Europe or something, and now they're withholding the PB's from Australia, last I heard?

Bad business all around.

Not to overtly defend them, but many of these release issues have to do with retailers not putting in sufficient orders to justify a release in a region.

Yawn Traps didn't release because retailers weren't ordering traps. Sure it was because they didn't market them as unique SKUs and all retailers saw was a mound of Water Traps that weren't selling, but still. They cannot just sell straight to the public due to retailer contracts.

This is what now has me worried about Thrillipede and Buzzwing. Retailers are using heavy fire sale clearance, are they really going to order more they probably have to sell at a loss to clear shelf space? And what if Wave 5 isn't just Thrillipede and has other things people won't buy? Will they repackage cases to have just him, like they did for LC Bumble Blast and Wave 2 when Nightfall failed?

This is something I'm thinking about for Skylanders 6 and is a small part of me being done collecting after this game, even if Sky 6 is good. I've got a feeling we do not see all the waves for Sky6 - the fall this year has been big, but if the slide continues they won't make it all the way through the waves. Retailers simply will not stock it.

Exactly Def. People can keep saying it's different cause they're not just cosmetic redesigns, but actual figures (Buzz and Thrill), but the reason I don't see them coming out is because of the massive amount of sales that's been going on, and perhaps stores not ordering.

It's partly Actis fault, though, for the holding back on product for so long. If Buzz and Thrill don't release, I will be done myself. There is simply no excuse to not allow people to see everything the game has to offer because of their ignorant choices.

I'll just have to bite my lip and keep myself from buying it, even if it seems cool. I already lost trust in them with TT, Bot releasing Thrill and Buzz will just be going too far and goes to show they care nothing for us getting all figures, and releasing games with missing gameplay (the Buzz+Thrillipede challenge).

Balls in their court. Not my problem, not my choice, until their ignorance drives this customer away.

Well if that really happened I would most likely start questioning this brand seriously.
As you all said Activision might not have the fault of Buzz Wing and Thrillipede not releasing properly but it's still their responsibility, overall.

But... It's a big if, in my opinion.
If we all keep saying it's not a matter of aesthetics but of gameplay it's because it is exactly that; Yawn traps didn't kept me from accessing a certain in-game content.
Those two would.

It's not only a difference, it's a big difference.

They might not release equally in all the different countries (has already happened, even if it isn't an excuse) but I sincerely doubt they won't be released at all.

I think they'll release Buzz Wing. There's too much to loose in game if they don't and the backlash would be big.

Hell, they used Buzzwing in their newest video, obviously trying to hype it up.

WOW. Just WOW. I saw the glaring flaw in Skylanders of course but I never realized all the details behind it. Based on what I'm reading here, I honestly can't fathom why Activision doesn't have a web based, internationally shipping Skylanders Direct store on their site. You could buy, order, and pre order any game and any of its figures directly from them and have it delivered right to your doorstep or PO box or local game store, no BS necessary.

I realize they could only have so many spares on hand to sell and couldn't specially make characters for each buyer, thus they would sell out eventually. Even so, more people would get what they want with less headache and Acti would sell their stuff with less loss, resulting in more an happier customers and bigger profit for them.

They could keep the chase variants as in-store only items (obviously, they wouldn't be chase worthy otherwise) which is fine. Most people don't care about variants anyway and those that do probably like the hunt to some extent.

Quote: GameMaster78

Quote: TakeYourLemons

It's bad business for any consumer to advertise content/characters/traps in the game and don't deliver for them. Our non US brethren have been complaining about this since the game's inception. Half-assed deployment of their toys will net unhappy consumers. It will be interesting to see how they react to this. I'm of the opinion that the dev teams need at least another six months to fully flesh out a game we expect, and what's all this talk about "bringing customers back" when this game is built for 6-10 years old. Likely they will NEVER get their fans back--they've moved on. This really speaks to the fact that they have not inspired the NEXT kid generation. That and the parents have lamented to other parents about the cost of the franchise. The gig is up. They need a better mousetrap.

Yeah and I want to be clear, I may complain about the lack of good choices and their knack - now - for not releasing stuff stateside, but I have held contempt for this brand due to them messing over countries where stuff wasn't released as well. Heard S2 Drobot didn't come out in Europe or something, and now they're withholding the PB's from Australia, last I heard?

Bad business all around.

It did. Just this minute looked up at amazon.de and I found no S2 Drobot single pack, but a tripple pack for 7 - 8 €. To get the most characters from the previous games is no problem, there are a lot of sales with them, but the problem are the rare characters and packs. No idea if they had produced them in a lesser number of units and with the later waves it will give at every game re-releases of characters from the previous waves. And what I've seen Acti ship the characters in neutral wave units. Easier for the stores, because they must not order any single character. Good for us, if it is full of characters that we want, but bad for us if not.

Every day that passes people lose interest in Skylanders, the longer they wait for Thrillipede and Buzzwing, the less people will care. If they want to have a hope of a good Skylanders 6 release, they need to get them out in the near future. The memory of finding the last figure for a year needs to not be a frustrating mess - that's when people swear your franchise off. I'd say if it isn't out by mid April, they lose significant followers. Sure previous years go on longer, but the game isn't doing well - they cannot wait that long. They would be best off getting Superchargers behind them and giving fans what they want while stores still have a hope of being able to sell them.