darkSpyro

Title says it all. What if Skylanders stayed the exact same, but dropped the toys and made characters available through DLC?


I think it COULD work, IMHO.

Then it'd just be a wallet destroyer for the sake of it. Skylanders' appeal is that it's physical DLC so you still have something when you're not playing, if that's taken away it's just a very greed-driven game with no appeal compared to every other dungeon crawler and 3D plataformer out there. Wallet speaks louder than any good character design when everything is locked behind a digital store, even if each costs like a dollar.

No.
The toy itself is just one of the reasons.
The fact toys store experience, gold and upgrades is another: how would it work without physical support...?
I guess lore implications would come into play as well.

Skylanders simply couldn't stay "the exact same" without the toy-aspect.
It might get modified, reduced or even tossed aside for more in-game innovations but I strongly doubt it will be fully removed.

For example I could see a way to freely play your already scanned characters without actually needing a physical toy to be on the Portal, just like in the 3DS versions.
They could even make it harder and more strategic by limiting the number of Skylanders you can use inside a level.

Great points so far. While I think it could work, I'd much rather keep the toys a thing.

Four reasons why I don't want Acti to go full digital:

1. DLC is a ripoff for the most part. It's like League of Legends, comparing digital skylanders to champions.

2. Skylanders is like collecting Funko vinyl figures except they have a use in-game to play around with.

3. You can save data on the figure to use on another system or with a friend so you don't have to start all your progress over.

4. There are multiple uses for all figures, like customizing and displaying in elegant ways to name a few. I sometimes use figures as game pieces for board games. I also have an idea for a DnD-style game involving figures like Skylanders, which I'll talk about later.

It wouldn't be Skylanders without figures...

I'd say if Skylanders didn't build itself up as being a toys-to-life franchise, then the only issue I'd see is how many characters there are to have in-game and make all backwards compatible.

The toys are an integral part of the series and I would be deeply disappointed if they went all digital.

It could work.

But if they did that, it would make me drop the series cause the toys are what make it what it is.

That said, the mobile games already work just fine with rental/digital Skylanders, but they're spinoffs or ports. A main game without figures would be interesting to see(maybe a more story-driven one so the toys don't eat up development time, inb4 Telltale licensed game), but dropping toys forever definately not.

I wouldn't like to not have the toys anymore tbh, that's one of the things that set them apart from the rest of the games.

If you took away the toy element you have a very unimpressive game if its compared to something like Skyrim .

Its a combination of toys and game that makes the magic .

Then it would fail.

Although, I would like it if they made characters from games such as Spyro's Adventure online DLC for the people who cannot find the characters because they are no longer being produced.

I don't think it would work.

The whole point of the "Toys to Life" Franchise is that they're physical toys which come to life in a video game. Removing the core aspect of it would simply make it exactly like most other games with DLC except that the entire playable roster has to be paid for with nothing really to show for it.

I'm assuming myself and others (including parents) are in the same boat where they only reason I buy these things is because I'm "getting" something out of paying for it. I'm getting a physical toy that also happens to do things in a video game.

Now I will say it appears they tested that theory with the Instant Skylanders, but I'm not sure if we've ever been able to get data on how well those things sold for the game.

The only reason I think they would still make games without the toys is if they have THAT MUCH BACKSTOCK for retailers to sell.

Having physical toys meant that you could go take them around your friends house and play there. I'm pretty sure this was a big thing back in the SSA days!

It would feel like a rip off. Where you have to pay for characters digitally and might not get access to down the road if the servers stop. I feel like selling DLC as figurines is the best way to sell DLC.

- You are not dependent on servers or accounts to access your DLC.
- You get a neat toy to play with and display.
- You can use your DLC at a friend's house.

I prefer my DLC offline.

The toys feel like a big part of skylanders and in a way tie in with the universe/story.

Characters as DLC means that you would need to re-buy character in subsequent games. Sure, there are ways around this but they involve effort from the developers to implement so you can pretty much guarantee that they wouldn't bother.

I feel like that would almost defeat the purpose of the games, but not completely. Still, I would prefer them to keep them in, as I really enjoy them.

No, i like skylanders because of the toys part. While I do enjoy the games, the toys are neat.

Well then it wouldn't really be toys to life now would it...