darkSpyro

"interesting way to deal with toys to life". I don't what to think

Well, if you can play without the toys it's not a TTL game anymore.

I don't know what to think of this. Best case scenario for this is that there are things in the game that require older Skylanders and you can rent them out Lego Dimensions style. Worst case scenario, Skylanders are amiibo. It could go either way, tbh. The phrasing was so vague and weird (rightfully so, NDAs and whatnot), but I just hope for the best!

"It doesn't need them" could still just mean low requirements or Instant starter like SC. The wording was very vague.

It sounds like the whole "But it doesn't need them" is just a disparaging opinion on TTL as a whole: that games really don't need the gimmick of having physical figures. That they would work just as well without them. (Of which I disagree because Skylanders would be pretty bland without the toy gimmick)

Plus "A really interesting way to deal with toys to life" could mean anything. You could say that about the Swap Force with their interchangeable parts that change in-game. You could say that about Trap Team's "life to toys" gimmick with the villains. All this points to is that Toys For Bob is experimenting with the franchise in attempt to bring new magic to it, which should be expected at this point.

Quote: angelg

"interesting way to deal with toys to life". I don't what to think

Kind of adds to our "Swappable Armor and Weapons" gimmick. But, could also mean toys will just be online DLC instead.

As long as each character still gets a figure.
I think if they went away from that, they'd be over. They would have destroyed their entire concept. I do not see that happening. I'm desperate for some hopeful villains figures finally!

BUT, maybe the way the toys/figures and portal are used will be implemented differently? Very possible.

The only way I'd be fine with having characters unlocked from the start and without the need to have the figure to play as them is it were like a trial. Like say you can use the character in game 2 or 3 times, or for a certain amount of time, and then it gets locked back away and you'd need the toy. That would let you try them out to see who you really like and who you don't, but still keep the toy gimmick.

SSF and TT 3DS(and tablet ever since the final update) caught some flak for the ingame character switching but there are plenty of benefits.

Wait, what ingame character? I'm very confused :3

TT and SF 3DS have an ingame character collection. You scan in your guy once, you can then select them from a list at any time in a level.

Yeah, that was stupid. I always imagined myself walking into a store with a 3DS and just scanning all figures . But I never bought the game for the 3DS and I never will mostly because of that. I want my figures to be worth something afterwards too.

Incredibly useful for Swappers, however, as you could simply chose bodies and legs from a similar list. I guess Lost Islands did it at the same time,though : P
But they could maybe combine this with the Guest Skylander idea the same games had, and maybe give you 3-5 uses of that Skylander before a rescan, but that's still requiring the figures.

Quote: Swap Force Fan

Quote: angelg

"interesting way to deal with toys to life". I don't what to think

Kind of adds to our "Swappable Armor and Weapons" gimmick. But, could also mean toys will just be online DLC instead.

Agree, it could be mean both of them

After reading it twice, though, I feel like the guy said that stuff as a general and personal comment, with no particular relation to sky 6. I would be very surprised if no toys were made for the next game. Maybe DLCs refer to other features of the game.

I don't know if it's the same in english, but in my mother tongue ( european spanish) the word " interesting", in certain contexts, is used as a subtle way to say "bad" when you don't want to sound rude /unpolite. But I guess I'm just complicating things and she really mean it that way.

Interesting is ambiguous but not as much as in spanish, if I remember my english classes. It's when you can't really call it a great surprise or bad, it's just something of note that's worth looking at.

Quote: TTD

I was listening to the nintendo voice chat podcast and skylanders 6 came up (bare in mind that one of the members have been to the press event so know exactly what skylanders 6 is) and they seem to suggest being able to play the game without any figurines. This could be me looking way too much into it, but I'll just leave this here:

Quote: Nintendo Voice Chat

Jose: This might be heresy to some here but I have not been blown away by either [Disney] Infinity or Skylanders in terms of as a game. Skylanders is very much gauntlet, which is fun but it has these figures shackled to it which is fine but...

Alanah: But it doesn't need them.

Jose: Yeah, skylanders could exist just without it.

Alanah: Yeah, and infinity is awesome.

Jose: It is awesome because it's disney.

Alanah: Was.

Andrew: Yeah, RIP.

Jose: RIP, pull one out, but as far as, again it still just felt like a platforming game that didn't need it. You needed it to get that character but what if that character was available from the start.

Alanah: Skylanders... um, when does this air?

Jose: Um, this will air tomorrow.

Alanah: So I have an embargo for next week on skylanders, I'm going to be writing a preview.

Jose: Okay, okay.

Alanah: Which is a really interesting way to deal with toys to life, I'm actually pretty excited about it.

Jose: So it would be an awesome continuation of what we're basically talking about?

Alanah: Yeah, yeah.

Jose: Oh, okay maybe we should talk to you next week about it just to hear more about it.

Alanah: Yeah, it's just really cool.

Here's a link to the podcast. Skip to 47:30 for the skylanders discussion.

It was awesome because it's Disney... hahah no... They are so ignorent.

Oooooooor... Because she was a fan of Infinity? I mean, I never played the game but I loved how the figures looked and I do want to get some of the Marvel figures at some point

Quote: Bifrost

Interesting is ambiguous but not as much as in spanish, if I remember my english classes. It's when you can't really call it a great surprise or bad, it's just something of note that's worth looking at.

Good to know I get super confused when same words have slightly different meanings.

In fact, the only thing we can say for sure when looking at the NVC podcast is that the embargo ends next week.

Quote: TheToyNerd

Oooooooor... Because she was a fan of Infinity? I mean, I never played the game but I loved how the figures looked and I do want to get some of the Marvel figures at some point

I finally tried Infinity (2.0) a couple weeks ago and I was flopping around lost with my Guardians of the Galaxy set and wishing it was my Gauntlet Legends-like Skylanders. The graphics where horrible and nothing was intuitive. I really needed a child to show me what I was supposed to do. So naturally I feel that Skylanders is far better. I may collect some Infinity figures, but I won't go back to the game it just wasn't for me.

Quote: fairyland

Quote: TheToyNerd

Oooooooor... Because she was a fan of Infinity? I mean, I never played the game but I loved how the figures looked and I do want to get some of the Marvel figures at some point

I finally tried Infinity (2.0) a couple weeks ago and I was flopping around lost with my Guardians of the Galaxy set and wishing it was my Gauntlet Legends-like Skylanders. The graphics where horrible and nothing was intuitive. I really needed a child to show me what I was supposed to do. So naturally I feel that Skylanders is far better. I may collect some Infinity figures, but I won't go back to the game it just wasn't for me.

Well, 2.0 was universally regarded as **** anyway. 3.0 was much better from what I've heard.

Quote: TTD

I was listening to the nintendo voice chat podcast and skylanders 6 came up (bare in mind that one of the members have been to the press event so know exactly what skylanders 6 is) and they seem to suggest being able to play the game without any figurines. This could be me looking way too much into it, but I'll just leave this here:

Quote: Nintendo Voice Chat

Jose: This might be heresy to some here but I have not been blown away by either [Disney] Infinity or Skylanders in terms of as a game. Skylanders is very much gauntlet, which is fun but it has these figures shackled to it which is fine but...

Alanah: But it doesn't need them.

Jose: Yeah, skylanders could exist just without it.

Alanah: Yeah, and infinity is awesome.

Jose: It is awesome because it's disney.

Alanah: Was.

Andrew: Yeah, RIP.

Jose: RIP, pull one out, but as far as, again it still just felt like a platforming game that didn't need it. You needed it to get that character but what if that character was available from the start.

Alanah: Skylanders... um, when does this air?

Jose: Um, this will air tomorrow.

Alanah: So I have an embargo for next week on skylanders, I'm going to be writing a preview.

Jose: Okay, okay.

Alanah: Which is a really interesting way to deal with toys to life, I'm actually pretty excited about it.

Jose: So it would be an awesome continuation of what we're basically talking about?

Alanah: Yeah, yeah.

Jose: Oh, okay maybe we should talk to you next week about it just to hear more about it.

Alanah: Yeah, it's just really cool.

Here's a link to the podcast. Skip to 47:30 for the skylanders discussion.

I have some thoughts I would like to share about Skylanders itself. The game would be good and work perfectly fine without the figures. HOWEVER I think the games we are getting are largely due to the business model of expensive figures and DLC. If Skylanders was a smaller downloadable title or even a $50.00 AA title instead of a $60.00 full AAA game it would be smaller, have way less polish and come out about every 2-3 years. And sales simply wouldn't justify Activision bothering.

Here is what I think Activision is going to do as far as business model. I think they will continue to offer the same retail, go get figures, etc as they always have. BUT they may then also offer the option to purchase the figures digitally as well. Same price as retail, just no need to buy it in the stores. Will it still be a better value to buy in stores? Yes. But the option will be there for people who can't find the figures or whatever or simply hate swapping physical toys around. Additionally they could offer a "timed trial" similarly to how Lego Dimensions is doing it.

If sales are meeting targets I believe the annual model will continue with two full studios building the game. However if sales aren't meeting targets I believe Activision will scale down the game to a two year release with staggered DLC similar to how Infinity was going to work. This likely will mean VV will either be re-assigned another game or shuttered now the Bala Bros. are gone.

I believe Activision would also be very interested in acquiring the Marvel license for stand alone AAA titles so VV could work on that given their background with Marvel Alliance.

Just another thing regarding IGN. Allana is newer to the San Francisco offices and I believe is being assigned the less popular titles to cover for now. I don't believe many (if any) IGN staffers gives two ****s about toys to life or Skylanders in general. Her opinions on this are going to be tainted by this fact.

Personally I think the gameplay and the figures are fun enough I find it worth collecting. And I get the negativity associated with the cost and fatigue of the series, but it's a shame because actually there is nothing else like Skylanders gameplay wise on consoles. A fun, funny light action rpg with plenty of cool characters and a awesome visual style. No one else is making anything like this, and likely won't. So if Skylanders goes away that is certainly a hole in my gaming library that Witcher or Gears of War cannot fill.

One thing of note here is that Alanah Pearce was hired as Seinor Toy Editor. The toy person makes sense as the person writing for the new Skylanders

Quote: TheToyNerd

One thing of note here is that Alanah Pearce was hired as Seinor Toy Editor. The toy person makes sense as the person writing for the new Skylanders

Listening to her on other things though she always seems down on toys to life.

Quote: xboxfanuk

Quote: TheToyNerd

One thing of note here is that Alanah Pearce was hired as Seinor Toy Editor. The toy person makes sense as the person writing for the new Skylanders

Listening to her on other things though she always seems down on toys to life.

Does she? I thought she loved Skylanders. Huh... Granted, I rarely keep up with IGN, so. I only know her from the Comedy Button episode she was on. She seemed to like Skylanders and Toys to Life, then.

Quote: ladala

It sounds like the whole "But it doesn't need them" is just a disparaging opinion on TTL as a whole: that games really don't need the gimmick of having physical figures. That they would work just as well without them. (Of which I disagree because Skylanders would be pretty bland without the toy gimmick)

Plus "A really interesting way to deal with toys to life" could mean anything. You could say that about the Swap Force with their interchangeable parts that change in-game. You could say that about Trap Team's "life to toys" gimmick with the villains. All this points to is that Toys For Bob is experimenting with the franchise in attempt to bring new magic to it, which should be expected at this point.

The entire TTL enterprise is hooking you in with figures. Of COURSE any TTL game doesn't "REALLY NEED" the figures--they just made it that way. I just think folks have finally awoke from their slumber and realized they had enough toys cramped in their house and now want actual REAL cool innovation otherwise don't bother. Not their point just my opinion.

I suspect that the writers will be down on TTL as a default stance---they have "hard data" ie sales to back that stance up. It's up to the effort to persuade them otherwise.

I swear... if there's no figures, they will ruin the entire game for me. It wouldn't even be Skylanders anymore, but I may be overreacting.

That exchange makes it sound like the new game may not even have physical figures.

Jose: This might be heresy to some here but I have not been blown away by either [Disney] Infinity or Skylanders in terms of as a game. Skylanders is very much gauntlet, which is fun but it has these figures shackled to it which is fine but...

Alanah: But it doesn't need them.

Alanah: Which is a really interesting way to deal with toys to life, I'm actually pretty excited about it.

I'm concerned; I wonder if they might go all-in with the cards or something now.

I didn't notice that ti'll now... I think they might actually remove the bases... D: