darkSpyro

Previous titles had a lot less characters to fine-tune in a PVP setting.

activision should announce something rght after it gets leaked like infinity does

i do agree with the op on the fact of the small tidbits is not a great selling point for this year and its going to cost them dearly. When the competitors clearly state what's going to be available, you can pre order it all around and make sure you have it when. It beats having to hunt down these things that after a few years does get old to do. Convenience and being transparent with the user base does go miles. Sure there's fun to have some surprises, but the fact that everything has to be secret doesn't sell you a game.

When skylanders thrives on the gimmicks to try and get people to buy so many figures and invest in each game, there has to be more value of the time and treat those with money a bit more respect on it. All it shows is when there's so much secrecy that the game has enormous issues. The first one seemingly the dark edition wii starter not available for pre order in the states. I think theres going to be availability issues greatly for this game.

Fact is while they are #1, that time's going to pass with so many fighting over the spot. This is the year where they should be taking a page from competitors. If you don't show what you got reasonably, you lose sales. There's atleast 4 brands fighting for money now and its only going to be worse years throughout. Lego has a great chance to take them down a peg and they just might. Infinity is also trying to get them and have a head start on release.

And you know what? I know for a fact in many areas they haven't sold skylanders beyond wave 2 or 3 in most areas. After christmas of trap team was all the same figures. I had to purchase online what I even wanted to bother buying. Gamestop this year had the better selection and target after...walmart dead last. I honestly think that's about the same for other areas as well. They are delusional that people are still buying great numbers. I've seen more used ones and those on ebay being sold as such. It might have taken 4 games to get to over 2 billion but that means they tapped the market and its not going to stay that high again.

I expect to hear acti getting LOSSES this year and its rightfully deserved. not because the game is bad but they are gambling incredibly much not only on the gimmick, but the fact they expect the same people are going to just dive right in and blindly by their games and that's just not going to happen.

pvp hasn't been balanced for some time. Giants had a damage and HP advantage. Swap Force broke it further with characters like Night Shift (3 lives on lower half) and Bumble Blast's heat seeking bees. Hell a few swappers could straight up leave the playing field while still doing damage for a brief time. There could be handicaps and game setting to equalize HP but there are some abilities that brake pvp. I'd love to see it back but if they do try and balance every Skylander against each other it would be a nightmare. I'd love to see a full on separate pvp game. A dedicated fighter would be amazing. Interestingly enough some of us have felt a separate cart/racing game would be nice and it seems racing will be in the core versions, but then we do appear to be getting a separate racing only game in the form of the 3DS and Wii so there you go.

Two months left, no info, not even the price of digital edition.

Quote: Akseyomiht

Two months left, no info, not even the price of digital edition.

I don't think anybody's officially announced it, but it shouldn't be any different than it was last year--$64.99, even with the 3DS version.

-Doug

I'm actually expecting the digital edition to be $39.99. to compete with D.I.'s digital version. No portal and now toys, should mean cheaper price (in theory).

Pricing model for D.I. from Amazon U.K.:

in theory yes... but this is activision....

Quote: CountMoneyBone

in theory yes... but this is activision....

Well if you reverse engineer the value of what's included in the starter:

Super Chargers X 2 @ $12.99 (M.S.R.P.) = $25.98
Vehicle X 1 @ $14.99 (M.S.R.P.) = $14.99
No estimated value for Portal or Software (average console title is still $59.99 so there you go.)

Total = $40.97

Now if you subtract $40.98 from $74.99 you get $34.01

But you get digital versions of Spit Fire and Hot Streak so let's bump that back up to $39.99. Again all theory but based on some math. They could totally make it $49.99 but they need (kind of) to add some value for people to not buy the physical Starter.

Quote: darkchylde28

Quote: Akseyomiht

Two months left, no info, not even the price of digital edition.

I don't think anybody's officially announced it, but it shouldn't be any different than it was last year--$64.99, even with the 3DS version.

-Doug

I hope you are wrong, nothing personal, it's just I don't want Stealths and Steaks

Quote: Tigorus

I'm actually expecting the digital edition to be $39.99. to compete with D.I.'s digital version. No portal and now toys, should mean cheaper price (in theory).

Oops! You're probably right, the post said "digital" and my brain went "tablet" (since there are technically digital Skylanders offered in last year's).

Quote: Akseyomiht

I hope you are wrong, nothing personal, it's just I don't want Stealths and Steaks

No offense taken, I probably am wrong as I read "digital" and processed "tablet" in my brain and so I gave out the launch tablet pricing from last year. An all digital version of the game could end up being any price, but Tigorus is probably correct in assuming that it'll be priced competitively with DI 3.0's digital offering this year.

-Doug

Activision can't get it right because this is a Vicarious Visions game...

Quote: midnightmagic34

Activision can't get it right because this is a Vicarious Visions game...

I'm pretty sure that they're still the publishers of the Skylanders series.

I don't think they are this year...

Quote: midnightmagic34

I don't think they are this year...

They own the IP, they own Vicarious Visions AND Toys For Bob. Where are you getting the idea that they could EVER go without a publisher?

Quote: tigerdr

i do agree with the op on the fact of the small tidbits is not a great selling point for this year and its going to cost them dearly. When the competitors clearly state what's going to be available, you can pre order it all around and make sure you have it when. It beats having to hunt down these things that after a few years does get old to do. Convenience and being transparent with the user base does go miles. Sure there's fun to have some surprises, but the fact that everything has to be secret doesn't sell you a game.

When skylanders thrives on the gimmicks to try and get people to buy so many figures and invest in each game, there has to be more value of the time and treat those with money a bit more respect on it. All it shows is when there's so much secrecy that the game has enormous issues. The first one seemingly the dark edition wii starter not available for pre order in the states. I think theres going to be availability issues greatly for this game.

Fact is while they are #1, that time's going to pass with so many fighting over the spot. This is the year where they should be taking a page from competitors. If you don't show what you got reasonably, you lose sales. There's atleast 4 brands fighting for money now and its only going to be worse years throughout. Lego has a great chance to take them down a peg and they just might. Infinity is also trying to get them and have a head start on release.

And you know what? I know for a fact in many areas they haven't sold skylanders beyond wave 2 or 3 in most areas. After christmas of trap team was all the same figures. I had to purchase online what I even wanted to bother buying. Gamestop this year had the better selection and target after...walmart dead last. I honestly think that's about the same for other areas as well. They are delusional that people are still buying great numbers. I've seen more used ones and those on ebay being sold as such. It might have taken 4 games to get to over 2 billion but that means they tapped the market and its not going to stay that high again.

I expect to hear acti getting LOSSES this year and its rightfully deserved. not because the game is bad but they are gambling incredibly much not only on the gimmick, but the fact they expect the same people are going to just dive right in and blindly by their games and that's just not going to happen.

Yeah, their marketing strategy leaves a lot to be desired. Granted, if they are focussed I'd rather them work on delivering a great game, but there has to be someone on the other side buying it. The dark edition "multiple purchase" problem they've thrown at completionists and the silly card situation (not verified) and the lack of use of traps shows me that they aren't REALLY respecting the buyers of their product. I'm sure to act in kind, as right now I'm going for the digital starter pack only on release day, and maybe one vehicle per area.

I have a feeling online will be nothing more than some racing tracks, and not in the main game. And no PvP. That will probably break me from the game after this year, but I do want to see VV's effort since I've enjoyed Swap Force so much. Now that they've broken me from being a completionist, I am free to do what I want. So I will. Now instead of simply throwing any idea in the book at us and 80 figures like Trap Team maybe they will be focussed. As of now, this is just more of the same and a different shade of lipstick on a pig.

Here's my honest opinion to simplify everything here.......
Activision is being stupid. A few of the Activision/VV staff are cool such as Lou and the two big honchos from VV.
But their marketing sucks. They should have been on top of their game since announcing it. While the competition's progressing on their marketing, Activision's regressing.
True, the others are using brand names. Lego, on one hand, is charging a lot for two reasons. One, Legos are expensive to begin with. A single figure in blind packaging is $4. Two, for the rights of some of the licensing of some of the titles. They have Ninjago and Chima, plus have the rights to Jurassic World, DC, Ghostbusters (release of the Echo-1 set w/ the Ghostbusters) and Back to the Future (DeLorean set w/ Doc Brown and Marty), but they have to fork out money for the others like Wizard of Oz, Scooby Doo and Doctor Who.
Activision has it harder not only on gimmick (more like one-trick ponies) and creating original characters on top of reinventing existing characters. They ought to concentrate on the next game strictly on new characters....no returning characters because it seems like they pretty much bring back the same ones (Gill Grunt, Pop Fizz, Stealth Elf, Jet-Vac, Terrafin, and Trigger Happy). I'm glad they brought back Roller Brawl, but that doesn't excuse them from ignoring the rest of the figures. I'm sure many of you would have rather seen someone else other than Stealth Elf in the Starter Pack. At least they did something right with the new Elites.