darkSpyro

People often go on about how Call of Duty is a major cash cow that Activision milks non-stop, while often defending Skylanders. So I decided to do some research, and compare the two franchises in terms of price. I decided to put together the prices of the Skylanders games, including all the toys, adventure packs, giants, and re-releases. And I also put together the price for all the Call of Duty games (and DLC) so far released.

Skylanders

The first Skylanders game alone is extremely expensive. I added in a standard starter pack (at $55, since that's the price for the Wii version on Amazon rounded to the nearest 5th), all 25 toys in single packs, the 4 adventure packs, and the Legendary triple pack. Skylanders comes out to $355.

Skylanders Giants is also expensive. I used the Portal pack (since most people will already have the first game) as the price for the base game. Added in all 8 giants, all 8 new figures, and all 8 lightcore figures. Total price is about $332.

And this DOESN'T include all the junk Skylanders has, including books, posters, backpacks, carrying cases, Halloween costumes, etc etc etc.


Call of Duty

Now what about Call of Duty? I used Amazon to find prices for the games, and rounded them up/down to the nearest 5th. Should be noted that I used Xbox 360 versions of the games. I am not including spinoffs such as "Big Red One".

CoD classic is $15.
CoD 2 is $20
Cod 3 is $25
CoD 4 (MW) is $20
World At War is $20
MW2 is $20
Black Ops is $40
MW3 is $45
and Black Ops 2 is $60

Then, I added in all the DLC I could find for these games. CoD 1 and 2 doesn't have DLC, so I start from CoD 3:

CoD 3's DLC totals to $15.
MW1's DLC totals to $10
World At War's DLC totals to $30 (or FREE if you were a PC player)
MW2's DLC totals to $30
Black Ops' DLC totals to $60
MW3 DLC totals to $60

CONCLUSION

SOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I added all of this on my handy dandy calculator. And here are the final prices:

Call of Duty franchise (all 9 main games and all available DLC): $470
Skylanders franchise (2 games and all toys and adventure packs): $687

So tell me: Which is the bigger cash cow?

If I made any errors, let me know.

Quote:

all toys

Gnarly, Punch, Dark, Royal and the Variant Family say hello.
Skylanders is always gonna be a huge cash cow till it dies off, and even past then.
It isn't WORTH IT, IMO, but if people have cash to burn, and they like it, that's fine, and let them.
(IMO, Giants is a better sequel than BW2... YES I SAID IT.)

I forgot to mention that I didn't include variants of any sort other than the Legendary pack. Variants vary in price, so trying to add those in would be difficult.
Plus it could be considered unfair, since variants can add loads more onto the final price. Some variants go for over $100 each on eBay. I figured that adding those on would end up with people saying "THAT'S NOT FAAAAAIRRR".

And I really just did this to show people that bash CoD for being a milk machine, but then defend Skylanders. Someone once did that on my GB, saying "BUT SKYLANDERS IS FUN", which is subjective and doesn't prevent the fact that Skylanders is a much more expensive game.

I know it's more expensive and I accept that. The most important thing about a game is the fun factor.

I think it's simply because of the swearing kids. I think that's what people generally think of CoD players, and then because of that they just try bashing everything about it in the end. Whereas Skylanders is all kid friendly and family promoting. Sigh. I know it's not true that all the fans are jerks like that, too.

Quote: Ryanator20x6

I know it's more expensive and I accept that. The most important thing about a game is the fun factor.

I'm sorry but I can't find myself spending $300 on a game, no matter how fun it is.

Quote: Nibelilt

I think it's simply because of the swearing kids. I think that's what people generally think of CoD players, and then because of that they just try bashing everything about it in the end. Whereas Skylanders is all kid friendly and family promoting. Sigh. I know it's not true that all the fans are jerks like that, too.

It's also because it's a mainstream thing. Ever notice how if something is mainstream, everyone tries to hate it?

Okay then. Now I can see your point of view.

Skylanders players tend not to be a bunch of pillocks who swear and are bigots...

I don't see why everyone thinks about the cost so much. Me and my brother have a total of 16, ( Or something like that) we got 4 of those today. We collect slow, and only the ones we like. I don't really have an interest in wave 2. I don't even own a giant. You can choose which "DLC" you want.

COD has a ton of DLC. It also has its own merchandise. On your list your not counting the extras, and the other various versions of the same disc. If you add in the DLC (Map Packs) and the other versions of the same game, it would be way more expensive then Skylanders. Plus, Skylanders is wholesome clean fun. I'm seventeen, I hear enough F-Bombs during football practice. It's nice to enjoy a game with my little brother that I don't have to play muted.

*Steps off soap box*

Quote:

Skylanders players tend not to be a bunch of pillocks who swear and are bigots...

I kinda beg to differ seeing how I've been bashed several times in these sections for being a "troll" and all this other junk. They may not swear as much, but they sometimes still do. And even then, they often have the same attitude of "STOP BASHING ON WHAT I LIKE" or "SHUT UP YOU JERK".

Quote:

COD has a ton of DLC. It also has its own merchandise. On your list your not counting the extras, and the other various versions of the same disc. If you add in the DLC (Map Packs) and the other versions of the same game, it would be way more expensive then Skylanders. Plus, Skylanders is wholesome clean fun. I'm seventeen, I hear enough F-Bombs during football practice. It's nice to enjoy a game with my little brother that I don't have to play muted.

As you mentioned with Skylanders, CoD DLC is optional, and isn't necessary. My adding was done in the case of someone with some sort of OCD problem in which they needed to get everything for the game (Skylanders fans have shown me that there's a lot of those people running around).

I'm not counting merchandise for EITHER game. Plus, most merchandise for CoD (posters, t-shirts, etc) are third party, and aren't made/licensed by Activision (whereas Skylanders gear is).

I shouldn't have to count various versions of the disc. Nobody sane would buy the game, and then buy it again as a Platinum Hit. I'm counting the game itself. With your logic of adding in other editions, I should also include the 3DS version of Skylanders (both original and Giants) as well as both the Starter and Portal Owner packs of Giants, which would further jack up the price for no reason. I'm only talking about the base games (or at least as basic as I could get).

If you read my entire post carefully, you would've seen that I DID add in all the DLC for Call of Duty. I took time to research every single piece of DLC ever released for every Call of Duty game (obviously excluding Black Ops 2 since it isn't even out yet), and added them into the price.

Please note that I'm not putting gameplay or "fun factor" into this. If I was doing that, the entire topic would be unfair and biased. I tried to stand on my fence with this, since while I enjoy both games, I find both extremely overrated. This is addressing the factor of cost, and nothing more.

P.S. Have you ever considered just muting the mics? You can play the game without muting the entire TV.

Quote: dark52

I don't think you quite understand what the term cash cow means. It's about overall profit to the company not individual cost to the consumer.

So true. At least when you're buying Skylanders, you're paying £65 for the starter pack that includes hardware that costs more than £35 to buy separately and the software that would normally cost £40. With COD, you pay £50-60 for just the software. COD must be so cheap to produce compared to it's profit. Skylanders, not so much.

Quote: dark52

I don't think you quite understand what the term cash cow means. It's about overall profit to the company not individual cost to the consumer.

And because of its price, Skylanders is bringing in large profit.

It may be more costly to make than CoD (hasn't really been confirmed), but at the same time, the price for buying each individual toy or pack most likely more than makes up for it.

Chances are the toys don't cost $8 to make, so a single toy alone makes profit for them. So imagine people that go out, buy every single toy (and sometimes even duplicates), as well as adventure packs and so on. Activision is making profit because of the individual cost to the consumer (if they choose to get as many toys as mentioned here).

Of course, there's exceptions.

EDIT: Also, we must take note of marketing costs. It's safe to say that CoD is marketed much more heavily than Skylanders is, which in on itself can cost millions. CoD might be cheaper to make, but the marketing alone can easily make it somewhat comparable to the costs of making Skylanders and its toys.

Once again, the profit of the toys alone would make Skylanders more profitable.

I don't really know how the "cash cow" plays in... exactly. But I will say Activision did a damn good job disguising DLC... as toys. The extra Skylanders are nothing but DLC if you ask me. Slightly alternate gameplay styles. Unfortunately, unless you're quite skilled with them, you'll find this DLC to be mandatory as making it through some of the later chapters and bosses with your starting 3 will prove a little difficult. But if you can do it... then this game loses its profitability. <.>

Part of the problem is that Skylanders bridges together two mediums: video games and toys (a merchandise, which you say you fail to take into account). The goal of the VIDEO GAME is to finish the campaign but the TOY element compels you to "collect them all" and the VIDEO GAME offers a little bonus of turning each collectible into DLC in the form of a new playable character.

The short version is that Skylanders is a case of DLC on STEROIDS. But since this is marketed toward kids and disguises the DLC as toys, so they don't really know any better, it's a formula for a winning strategy. >.>

I think comparing how much they made is more effective showing Cash Cows. Cuz' then Skylanders probably wins because of the ten buck figures and the random junk.