Skylanders to return as Giants

Posted by Mikey News

Activision will be showing off its next version of Skylanders at this years American International Toy Fair. In the next version of the game, Skylanders will move away from Spyro and focus on Giants. However every character is forward compatible, so you can still use your Skylanders from Spyro’s Adventure in Giants; If you haven’t figured it out by the title, the figures for Giants are twice the size of the original figures. Another addition to Giants is that is features closer integration into Skylanders Spyro’s Universe. For those unfamiliar with Spyro’s Universe as was I before writing this, it is essentially a web-based Skylanders with mini games and what not, reminds me a lot of Neo Pets.

The appeal of Skylanders is not lost on me, but something that has been nagging is how Activision keeps referring to this game as a new IP. I don’t know of many “new” IPs that use an established character to push their wares, in fact that doesn’t sound like a new IP at all. I could concede that it’s a new franchise as you are using a beloved character in a new setting with new characters, but to call it a new IP is a bit much; It’s a new IP up until the point where you made it a Spyro game. Activision did something brilliant by merging toys and video-games which is something a lot of other companies have attempted, but ultimately failed at. While I haven’t played Skylanders I am interested and even though this new version sounds like a complete money grab to me, there is a part of me that still wants to play it.