darkSpyro

"The move is part of a trend of downsizing at Activision, as they explained at the conference. They are laying off 5% of their workforce and they are returning the Call of Duty series (last seen in outer space) to its traditional roots to make it “less risky.” Given that they just released an optimistic earnings report, the reason for this new cautious attitude is beyond me, especially when their “failure” of a Call of Duty wound up the top-selling game of 2016. Whatever the motive, Activision will release less games this year."

So yeah, despite having a good report they went this route to save COD. Link to the article it's kinda old http://www.toonzone.net/skylanders-will-sitting-2017/

I'll be ok with this, as long as it isn't the final nail on the coffin.
Otehrwise I'll just have a new reason to despise Call of Duty even more.

But the article seems to imply that Activision is far from abandoning the franchise and we finally got some actual explanations besides the fact V.V. and TfB might be too busy, which are good news in my book.
We'll see.

Thanks for pointing it out, SkyFan, weird that nobody did it before, considering the day it was posted.

Well thats actully an allot more reasonable explanation than i thought.

Quote: Drek95

I'll be ok with this, as long as it isn't the final nail on the coffin.
Otehrwise I'll just have a new reason to despise Call of Duty even more.

But the article seems to imply that Activision is far from abandoning the franchise and we finally got some actual explanations besides the fact V.V. and TfB might be too busy, which are good news in my book.
We'll see.

Thanks for pointing it out, SkyFan, weird that nobody did it before, considering the day it was posted.

No problem! We honestly needed an explanation to why there wasn't a new game this year

Quote: SkyFan91

Quote: Drek95

I'll be ok with this, as long as it isn't the final nail on the coffin.
Otehrwise I'll just have a new reason to despise Call of Duty even more.

But the article seems to imply that Activision is far from abandoning the franchise and we finally got some actual explanations besides the fact V.V. and TfB might be too busy, which are good news in my book.
We'll see.

Thanks for pointing it out, SkyFan, weird that nobody did it before, considering the day it was posted.

No problem! We honestly needed an explanation to why there wasn't a new game this year

Definitely, the ones we got previously sounded more like "no Skylanders this year, but let's talk about this other series or game instead".
Not explanatory at all.

This makes me think they simply skipped one year for that, and will announce a new title for 2018.
Would still be a good chance to experiment with a 2.0 soluction, even if to simply see how it could be received.

Quote: Drek95

Quote: SkyFan91

Quote: Drek95

I'll be ok with this, as long as it isn't the final nail on the coffin.
Otehrwise I'll just have a new reason to despise Call of Duty even more.

But the article seems to imply that Activision is far from abandoning the franchise and we finally got some actual explanations besides the fact V.V. and TfB might be too busy, which are good news in my book.
We'll see.

Thanks for pointing it out, SkyFan, weird that nobody did it before, considering the day it was posted.

No problem! We honestly needed an explanation to why there wasn't a new game this year

Definitely, the ones we got previously sounded more like "no Skylanders this year, but let's talk about this other series or game instead".
Not explanatory at all.

This makes me think they simply skipped one year for that, and will announce a new title for 2018.
Would still be a good chance to experiment with a 2.0 soluction, even if to simply see how it could be received.

Yep this makes a 2018 release very more likely now since we know this was the reasoning behind no new game.

Like Acti isn't risk-phobic all the time. Their issue is crazy budgets and unreasonable sales expectations, downsizing staff is just so that doesn't get affected by the more obvious issue of everyone being tired of yearly release. It's not making CoD a failure, but the game's getting abandoned much quicker every year. Don't forget Destiny 2 getting shoved out of the door this year and VV and Bungie totally going to take the fall for whatever issues it has.

Quote: Bifrost

Like Acti isn't risk-phobic all the time. Their issue is crazy budgets and unreasonable sales expectations, downsizing staff is just so that doesn't get affected by the more obvious issue of everyone being tired of yearly release. It's not making CoD a failure, but the game's getting abandoned much quicker every year. Don't forget Destiny 2 getting shoved out of the door this year and VV and Bungie totally going to take the fall for whatever issues it has.

Tbh that's why it's coming out this year. I'm pretty sure Acti is tired of delaying it over and over. (Talking about Destiny 2)

Skylanders 7: You can now play as emojis]

Maybe that's why they cancelled it

Quote: King-Pen Krazy

Skylanders 7: You can now play as emojis]

Maybe that's why they cancelled it

Oh please no not emojis X D

Either way, based off of the sound of this it doesn't sound like it was cancelled but pushed to 2018 in my opinion.

>"oh god not emojis"
>uses X D in post

gtfo

Quote: ZapNorris

>"oh god not emojis"
>uses X D in post

gtfo

Emoji are taking over X D

>using X D and not xD like a true laughing face would look like back in my day
>greentext

What if they announced the game next year ,but won't actually release it until 2019/2020

>xD because all caps activates bbc code
>darkspyro thread simulator when


also rip in kill franchise

People often forget that Skylanders requires a HUGE upfront investment. Pressing discs is pretty cheap, but Skylanders has the physical toys that must be anticipated, paid for and made months in advance. Imaginators is pretty well known to have sold poorly, particularly in comparison to other games. Skylanders requires lots of attached sales to stay afloat. That follows Superchargers that also did not do well, and the general decline of all TTL franchises. People are over it.

As far as future use, you cannot get around the fact that to do the franchise as it is now, it means they have to dump a ton of money into it before the first game sells. Stores have to commit to ordering stock. I'd say the franchise as a TTL product is toast. We might get a vastly slimmed down roster in a year or two (Activision does love to give killed franchises a test revival), or maybe something that is toy free and maybe has characters as cheap DLC.

Call of Duty didn't kill Skylanders (although the leaner sales of their top product makes it harder to take risks). Skylanders and TTL killed Skylanders.

Quote: defpally

People often forget that Skylanders requires a HUGE upfront investment. Pressing discs is pretty cheap, but Skylanders has the physical toys that must be anticipated, paid for and made months in advance. Imaginators is pretty well known to have sold poorly, particularly in comparison to other games. Skylanders requires lots of attached sales to stay afloat. That follows Superchargers that also did not do well, and the general decline of all TTL franchises. People are over it.

As far as future use, you cannot get around the fact that to do the franchise as it is now, it means they have to dump a ton of money into it before the first game sells. Stores have to commit to ordering stock. I'd say the franchise as a TTL product is toast. We might get a vastly slimmed down roster in a year or two (Activision does love to give killed franchises a test revival), or maybe something that is toy free and maybe has characters as cheap DLC.

Call of Duty didn't kill Skylanders (although the leaner sales of their top product makes it harder to take risks). Skylanders and TTL killed Skylanders.

No one here or anyone said COD killed Skylanders

Quote: SkyFan91

Quote: defpally

Call of Duty didn't kill Skylanders (although the leaner sales of their top product makes it harder to take risks). Skylanders and TTL killed Skylanders.

No one here or anyone said COD killed Skylanders

Nor did anyone here before you say that Skylanders is dead.

Quote: McMurderpaws

Quote: SkyFan91

Quote: defpally

Call of Duty didn't kill Skylanders (although the leaner sales of their top product makes it harder to take risks). Skylanders and TTL killed Skylanders.

No one here or anyone said COD killed Skylanders

Nor did anyone here before you say that Skylanders is dead.

I wasn't implying that either

Quote: SkyFan91

Quote: McMurderpaws

Quote: SkyFan91

No one here or anyone said COD killed Skylanders

Nor did anyone here before you say that Skylanders is dead.

I wasn't implying that either

I think he was referring to what defpally said.

But yes, assuming Skylanders is dead is just an exaggeration.
It has definitely seen better days, but there is nothing remotely pointing towards that conclusion.

Quote: Drek95

Quote: SkyFan91

Quote: McMurderpaws

Nor did anyone here before you say that Skylanders is dead.

I wasn't implying that either

I think he was referring to what defpally said.

But yes, assuming Skylanders is dead is just an exaggeration.
It has definitely seen better days, but there is nothing remotely pointing towards that conclusion.

Exactly my thoughts

Ok, I'll be more literal since it was confusing to some. Call of Duty focus has nothing to do with whether or not they do a Skylanders game. The thing that is preventing more Skylander games is bad sales, retailer apathy and high up front investment.

Skylanders can't just sell like other games, it has to do tons of add-on sales to be considered a success. You might consider XXX copies to be a success, but XXX is not good enough for Skylanders if they don't move tons of figures post release. If a game or DLC sells poorly, you aren't out of that much - disc are cheap and so is packaging, but if Skylander figures don't sell they have to be clearanced at a big loss. Stores selling them B1G1, 2 or 3 free is not good.

And Starter sales were really low this year from everything that has been seen.

Also literally milking the consumer base dry. As much as the series has fans, you can only afford and keep interest in 300+ bucks' worth of figures every year for so long. A bigger gap or games without new figures would've helped, but we know Activision and their long-term planning, or lack thereof.

This break should've happened long ago, maybe at Swap Force. Let TFB actually finish QA and content on Trap Team so people didn't start to see the cracks, let VV have a moment of sanity and put stuff on SC that isn't cars(don't actually know if they'd do that), and Imaginators not be so horribly rushed and be almost half DLC in chapter length. Now that would be a good timeline.

Quote: Bifrost

Also literally milking the consumer base dry. As much as the series has fans, you can only afford and keep interest in 300+ bucks' worth of figures every year for so long. A bigger gap or games without new figures would've helped, but we know Activision and their long-term planning, or lack thereof.

This break should've happened long ago, maybe at Swap Force. Let TFB actually finish QA and content on Trap Team so people didn't start to see the cracks, let VV have a moment of sanity and put stuff on SC that isn't cars(don't actually know if they'd do that), and Imaginators not be so horribly rushed and be almost half DLC in chapter length. Now that would be a good timeline.

That would've been MUCH BETTER. Trap team really needs to be fixed up I can't stand it....

It's fine for me, but after discovering all the cut content that TFB could've probably given proper closure in 4 months or less, you start getting really frustrated. Kinda like when we got those interviews about the original concept artist for Legend of Spyro and discovered how much we lost in the dev team change...

RIP red Troll whose name we never got because all we have is footage of when you were a villain and a scrapped Giants character.

I'm only questioning the whole "Skylanders is doomed!" thing, everything else is reasonable and I actually agree with most of it.

I agree they should reduce the price of the figures (and thus the sizes) and maybe also the general number of Adventure Packs.
It's great Imaginators is still getting everything it was apparently supposed to have, but being more complete from the start would have been much better.

Aaaaaaaaaand now a couple of instagramers are saying to boycott COD......

CODlanders

Coming 2018

Can this fanbase be any worse?

Quote: Crash10

Can this fanbase be any worse?

Wouldn't be surprised if it can. NEXT UP: several petitions from Instagramers, CANCELL CODWW2

Quote: Crash10

Can this fanbase be any worse?

We could have instagram kids and the sellout youtubers that still can't spell Kaos and Malefor after 5+ years and make a 5-minute video for ****ing everything.

Yes, people that made all those videos titles with "Malefore", IT TAKES 5 MINUTES TO LOOK IT UP - LESS, AURA HAS HIM IN TWO WIKIAS. EFFORT, PLEASE. *breathes in*

Quote: Crash10

Can this fanbase be any worse?

Did you not just see that I put down CODlanders

So yeah, it can defiently be worse

I feel like we already knew about this. SSC and SI poor sales, laying out people earlier this year, focus on CoD and Destiny... I'm not learning anything new.

Quote:

Given that they just released an optimistic earnings report, the reason for this new cautious attitude is beyond me, especially when their “failure” of a Call of Duty wound up the top-selling game of 2016.

It's about profit vs budget, doesn't matter that it was the top-selling game.

Quote: newkill

I feel like we already knew about this. SSC and SI poor sales, laying out people earlier this year, focus on CoD and Destiny... I'm not learning anything new.

Quote:

Given that they just released an optimistic earnings report, the reason for this new cautious attitude is beyond me, especially when their “failure” of a Call of Duty wound up the top-selling game of 2016.

It's about profit vs budget, doesn't matter that it was the top-selling game.

We aren't talking about an optimistic report per say. We're talking about how Skylanders and several others were originally going to get a new game this year but aren't due to Acti's decision to focus on COD

The optimistic report is because of shareholders. They can't really say 'ugh guys sorry we didn't make that up to your standards', it's PR.

Quote: Crash10

Can this fanbase be any worse?

only if we let matt stay

Quote: ZapNorris

Quote: Crash10

Can this fanbase be any worse?

only if we let matt stay

You're probably the biggest problem on insta just saying

Quote: Bifrost

Quote: Crash10

Can this fanbase be any worse?

We could have instagram kids and the sellout youtubers that still can't spell Kaos and Malefor after 5+ years and make a 5-minute video for ****ing everything.

Yes, people that made all those videos titles with "Malefore", IT TAKES 5 MINUTES TO LOOK IT UP - LESS, AURA HAS HIM IN TWO WIKIAS. EFFORT, PLEASE. *breathes in*

Self-consciously checks to make sure I spelt Malefore correctly in my video.

The funny thing is, I mispronounced his name for years until I heard the Skystone intro in Superchargers. I always thought it was Mal-For, not Mal-eh-for.

You can still search on the wiki. Heck, for any typos I even remotely suspect I just quickly put it into google to see if it corrects or picks up the definition I actually want, it's not just names.

Either way, for the uh, "subject of the video", spoilers, the name was clearly spelled out with no e in sight. That's like the constant typo of night/knight I see in a lot of forums, in MOST contexts you know clearly it's "night" but they listen wrong anyway and never attempt to correct.

If Zap was the biggest problem in Instagram I'd read it all the time. Blame that on the repost central or the dozens of accounts putting NSFW/hate speech on the Skylanders tag.

Quote: SkyFan91

Quote: ZapNorris

Quote: Crash10

Can this fanbase be any worse?

only if we let matt stay

You're probably the biggest problem on insta just saying

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT

Quote: King-Pen Krazy

Quote: SkyFan91

Quote: ZapNorris

only if we let matt stay

You're probably the biggest problem on insta just saying

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT

No we will not

So the good thing is the article actually has someone from Activision communicating, rather than leaving us to speculate the worst.

I'm fine with a break. I would even be fine with a downsized release in 2018.

Quote: Bifrost

You can still search on the wiki. Heck, for any typos I even remotely suspect I just quickly put it into google to see if it corrects or picks up the definition I actually want, it's not just names.

Either way, for the uh, "subject of the video", spoilers, the name was clearly spelled out with no e in sight. That's like the constant typo of night/knight I see in a lot of forums, in MOST contexts you know clearly it's "night" but they listen wrong anyway and never attempt to correct.

If Zap was the biggest problem in Instagram I'd read it all the time. Blame that on the repost central or the dozens of accounts putting NSFW/hate speech on the Skylanders tag.

Yeah, I'm not dyslexic, but I have something wrong with me that causes me to mispronounce/misspell words that clearly are not right. I thought the word was cataglory (rather than category) until I was 14 and someone finally corrected me on that.

Quote: King-Pen Krazy

Quote: SkyFan91

Quote: ZapNorris

only if we let matt stay

You're probably the biggest problem on insta just saying

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT

*cracks knuckles*

matt... oh man, where do i begin.

I'm not the one misleading children into believing false news. Trust me, i LEARNED my lesson on jumping to conclusions. (giants wave 4, anybody?) I know now that before ANYTHING can be settled, there needs to be CREDIBLE PROOF. And a kid commenting on the skylanders instagram page's newest post """confirming""" year two in october is the complete opposite of credible. Considering, you, the same kid, told EVERYBODY that he had Power Blue Gold Rusher before it's official Canadian release (almost immediately after i found mine in california, mind you)- even though there was a set CA street date of april 1st, 2016 for it.

You're not credible. You're creating false hype in the fanbase. The children aren't to blame- they don't know better. You, however, need to learn not to lead your followers into false hype due to your lack of research. And i also think it's hilarious how you state in your DM convos that these forums are a bad place, even though we've reported the same """news""" as you many times, and proven you wrong on multiple occasions. If you keep leading yourself and everyone else into false hype without any kind of research, you're just gonna make things worse for you.

I joined instagram fairly late, i know. But as for this place... i've been here for ages. Since before giants was released. So if you, the kid who does absolutely no research before reporting, thinks he's gonna outsmart me by saying i'm "the worst problem on insta" (even though i don't publicly enter drama like you)... honey, you've got a big storm comin.

and one last thing. it's kinda hard to be a good member of the community when you're using racial slurs to describe others in DM convos. and i have screenshots of this, matt. you contradicting, hypocritical, racist little ****.

i refuse to comment further because i've said everything i needed to. I will GLADLY post proof of these claims if needed, either publicly/privately. good day.

Zap, just correcting one of your statements, the children are the ones to blame indeed. If they were smart enough to know if something's fake or not, they wouldn't give attention to fake leaks, so the fake leakers wouldn't be a big thing. So yeah...

Quote: ZapNorris

Quote: King-Pen Krazy

Quote: SkyFan91

You're probably the biggest problem on insta just saying

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT

*cracks knuckles*

matt... oh man, where do i begin.

I'm not the one misleading children into believing false news. Trust me, i LEARNED my lesson on jumping to conclusions. (giants wave 4, anybody?) I know now that before ANYTHING can be settled, there needs to be CREDIBLE PROOF. And a kid commenting on the skylanders instagram page's newest post """confirming""" year two in october is the complete opposite of credible. Considering, you, the same kid, told EVERYBODY that he had Power Blue Gold Rusher before it's official Canadian release (almost immediately after i found mine in california, mind you)- even though there was a set CA street date of april 1st, 2016 for it.

You're not credible. You're creating false hype in the fanbase. The children aren't to blame- they don't know better. You, however, need to learn not to lead your followers into false hype due to your lack of research. And i also think it's hilarious how you state in your DM convos that these forums are a bad place, even though we've reported the same """news""" as you many times, and proven you wrong on multiple occasions. If you keep leading yourself and everyone else into false hype without any kind of research, you're just gonna make things worse for you.

I joined instagram fairly late, i know. But as for this place... i've been here for ages. Since before giants was released. So if you, the kid who does absolutely no research before reporting, thinks he's gonna outsmart me by saying i'm "the worst problem on insta" (even though i don't publicly enter drama like you)... honey, you've got a big storm comin.

and one last thing. it's kinda hard to be a good member of the community when you're using racial slurs to describe others in DM convos. and i have screenshots of this, matt. you contradicting, hypocritical, racist little ****.

i refuse to comment further because i've said everything i needed to. I will GLADLY post proof of these claims if needed, either publicly/privately. good day.

I claimed I had Power Blue Gold Rusher before release? Well then that sounds stupid of me. (I don't really remember much about that tbh but as said if I did then damn I'm an idiot LOL)

one last thing: I tip my hat off to you for the roast you got me there

Quote: Crash10

Zap, just correcting one of your statements, the children are the ones to blame indeed. If they were smart enough to know if something's fake or not, they wouldn't give attention to fake leaks, so the fake leakers wouldn't be a big thing. So yeah...

What cracks me up are the kids that comment on my videos that can't be any older than 11 or 12 that talk about these leaks that other kids have come up with. That being said, the only "leak" that we've gotten this year is clearly a good one if it is fake. Most of the leaks created by kids are only believed by kids. I highly doubt some random kid made that Barbella thing.

Hey, it's Pokégods and Pikablu. Kids love to make up their own lore and lies if it gets them friends, I don't blame them.

My issue is people who are clearly over 13 making videos about this knowing they're decieving them. A certain fellow who'd post (NEW LEAK) at an article with a confirmed character or similar. Or those users having youtube/insta as their personal battleground.

And Zap, not the place for this. Vent all you want on S&N but you just said a bunch you can't take back.

Quote: ninja9351

Quote: Crash10

Zap, just correcting one of your statements, the children are the ones to blame indeed. If they were smart enough to know if something's fake or not, they wouldn't give attention to fake leaks, so the fake leakers wouldn't be a big thing. So yeah...

What cracks me up are the kids that comment on my videos that can't be any older than 11 or 12 that talk about these leaks that other kids have come up with. That being said, the only "leak" that we've gotten this year is clearly a good one if it is fake. Most of the leaks created by kids are only believed by kids. I highly doubt some random kid made that Barbella thing.

Leaks are a thing no matter the game, and I can count many fake leaks that everyone believed, kid or adult (Rayman in Smash, anyone?), but what we see in this fandom is basically a kid's playground, where they come up with surreal fantasies to have fun and their friends just go with it. You know this can't really work on the internet, it gets kinda chaotic.