If Reignited Sells Millions of Copies, What Will Happen to Skylanders?

FuturisticEggThief · Jun 25, 2018 3:06 AM

Personally I feel the two will coexist until around the early 2020s (Skylanders Academy is an example of why I think this).

Stormy · Jun 25, 2018 3:13 AM

Yeah, it'll probably stick around for a while. Maybe TfB would expand to work on similar games simultaneously with Skylanders. (No idea how big the company is now.)

Aura24 · Jun 25, 2018 6:24 PM

Skylanders will likely still be making games after its hiatus, while Spyro Reignited sells. Activision is still working out on what to do with the toys to life franchise, since TTL is dying and their last few installments didn't sell well.

Plus Toys For Bob noted that Skylanders Spyro and Classic Spyro are different characters, so both can still coexist in some way.

Last edited by Aura24 (Jun 25, 2018 6:24 PM)

FuturisticEggThief · Jun 25, 2018 7:54 PM

Aura24 wrote:

Skylanders will likely still be making games after its hiatus, while Spyro Reignited sells. Activision is still working out on what to do with the toys to life franchise, since TTL is dying and their last few installments didn't sell well.
Plus Toys For Bob noted that Skylanders Spyro and Classic Spyro are different characters, so both can still coexist in some way.

I completely agree on Reignited Spyro and Skylanders Spyro being different characters. They are similar in name and the color of their scales only (Even scale color is slightly different with Reignited having a more blueish purple while Skylanders is more pink in color). Every other aspect of their designs are entirely different.

Aquila King · Jun 25, 2018 11:06 PM

All negative feelings I had towards Skylanders have been lifted ever since the Reignited Trilogy was announced. big_smile

Kind of hard to argue that Skylanders is 'ruining Spyro' and 'a fate worse than death' when OG Spyro lives again!

Spyrofriend · Jun 27, 2018 4:21 AM

I think they will coexist in some fashion, and I expect there will be another skylanders game at some point, to go alongside a new Spyro set in the OG style.

Swaffy · Jun 30, 2018 9:42 PM

Skylanders Spyro was a publicity stunt to sell the first game
the OG is back
and he's gonna flame red's bum

riverhippo · Jul 01, 2018 6:37 PM

I dont think Skylanders and Spyro games are mutually exclusive necessarily. The only reason we didnt have a spyro game was because Activision put those tools to do so into making skylanders. If they had known Spyro would sell well by itself with Skylanders, theres no doubt they still would have done both.

Skylanders is up in the air, but it's not out yet, and will return in some popular capacity eventually. But when it does, it doesn't mean Spyro is dead again.

Aura24 · Jul 01, 2018 7:07 PM

I can imagine the comments when more Skylander games are made while Reignited is released:

"Why is Skylanders still going?! Spyro is back in his own games again, get him out of that toys to life 'trash'!"

Mr. John · Jul 02, 2018 6:30 PM

Skylanders is dead, and buried. Spyro is back hooray! Ahem excuse me, for that. Anyway joking no worries I hope they can co-excist in some fashon I don't know what Skylanders fate will be as the toys to life thing, seems gone and done now. Spyro? I hope it continues after this in some way. Till then Spyro: Reignited Trilogy all day, baby woo!

Last edited by Mr. John (Jul 02, 2018 6:31 PM)

riverhippo · Jul 02, 2018 10:14 PM

I have the unpopular opinion that a new Spyro game involving Skylands can go very well. A lot of people would scoff at that and it would be a bad PR move for sure, but just imagine a game where it plays like Spyro games do, but has the environment and lore of Skylanders. It can be done, and I think it would be awesome.

36IStillLikeSpyro36 · Jul 03, 2018 2:42 AM

at this point, i don't even care about Skylanders as a concept. i'm not interested in it but i can see the appeal. and it would be cool for fans of that series to have a game with more Spyro influence -- i feel like overall, games like Spyro never really got the attention they deserved (like FPS games, battle royales etc have gotten.)

....... but the problem i will ALWAYS have with Skylanders though, is the aforementioned "toys to life" scam. selling you a game, and then making you pay more afterward to get the full experience you already paid for. though come to think of it, i don't even know, do they still do that?

riverhippo · Jul 03, 2018 4:56 AM

They did for 6 straight titles in 6 years. But I think they are done with the model. I don't think they are done with the IP in the slightest.

The latest thing Skylanders IP is doing is the launch of a mobile game that is basically summoner's war Skylanders skin. A game that is "freemium" and takes a long time to mature a collection through regular play along with a brutal RNG system. I tried it during the beta, and I immediate was upset because I knew that I could totally play a game like that, but it would completely demolish all the time I want to put into the other games I love. So I ditched it.

My personal opinion is that we need to meet some game publishers halfway. Activision is greedy for sure, and will do whatever it takes to scrap as much money from its base as possible to make their shareholders happy. Sometimes that breeds bad business practices, and backfires. But other times consumers are OK with certain pay models and quality game development. Skylanders toys to life scheme died off, the first evidence of this was Disney Infinity pulling out, so fast they discontinued working on characters and stories already promises to fans of that series. The fans were mad, but it was all understandable. Activision will always try to look for new ways to make money off of us. We'd prefer they just make a good game and make money that way. But to them it's always been more lucrative to make money with gimmicks. I imagine if and when new Spyro games and content comes, it might have a pay model that is not as ideal as "buy once and its yours". It might have DLC (like Crash N. Sane Trilogy's bonus levels). It might have separate chapters of a compelling story that release once every few months. I hope it's not really slimy whatever it may be, but I think as fans we need to understand that a simple buy-to-play model may not be good enough for Activision. We may end up having to decide whether having new Spyro games is worth having a loot box system in that game, or something to that extent.

Stormy · Jul 03, 2018 5:47 PM

As a Summoners War player, yeah, that game model doesn't really leave much time for other games. It works for me because I don't have the time to sit down and play a "real" game for a hours at a time. Passive grinding and slow progression allow me to make chores and stuff less boring. BUT one good thing about the game is that you can play just fine without paying a cent - it's just that apparently a lot of people really want to pay for stuff, and that keeps the game going for people who don't want to or can't.

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But anyway, I always roll my eyes a bit when people say game companies are being "greedy" for trying to make money. Companies don't exist to be nice to us; they have to make money, by definition. It just so happens that in most cases, keeping us happy does actually make them the most money, hence why toys to life is being discontinued now that people don't like it anymore. I was talking about this in Spam a while ago, but I highly doubt they're going to pull the loot boxes thing in a Spyro game as it's been pretty well proven that people hate that, and it will actually make Activision less money due to both the negative publicity and people refusing to buy more of their products. Plus what would be the point of loot boxes in a single-player, offline 3D platformer anyway? There'd be no way to justify it at all.

Now with Skylanders, on the other hand, it actually makes perfect sense to transfer their toys-to-life scheme to a free-to-play, "gacha" grindathon. It was already about collecting the characters in the first place... so the transformation is natural.

Aura24 · Jul 03, 2018 7:04 PM

I can still see this happening~

36IStillLikeSpyro36 · Jul 04, 2018 2:53 AM

Stormy wrote:

But anyway, I always roll my eyes a bit when people say game companies are being "greedy" for trying to make money. Companies don't exist to be nice to us; they have to make money, by definition.

companies exist to make money, but there are people behind those companies. companies aren't self-aware, living entities; the actions of that company are entirely decided by the people who run it. they have a responsibility as the living beings in question, to make their money in a way that isn't extremely scummy - following the same principles in their business, that they're more or less expected to follow in other aspects of their lives.

Stormy · Jul 04, 2018 12:04 PM

Well yes, individuals running a company can certainly be greedy. However, it's most often not in the company's best interest to make decisions that people would consider as such. If a game company does something "scummy" people respond accordingly and stop buying the product or even boycotting the company, so the greedy individuals made a bad decision and actually hurt the company. The people who made those decisions could even be fired for hurting the goodwill of the company in the public eye.

No one has to buy a game; it's entirely voluntary on the consumer's part - if it was something everyone was forced to buy it would be different and I'd be more inclined to agree that it's "greed" driving these decisions - but it's not, so game companies, as well as the individuals who run them, have an incentive not to do anything people will hate. It's a small distinction but an important one IMO. Putting microtransactions in a video game you already paid for isn't immoral - it just makes it a crappy game that everyone rightfully hates. Nor is toys-to-life, for that matter; in fact, there were people who actually legitimately enjoyed the collecting aspect of it.

(I'm tired and I edited this post like 20 times so I hope it still makes sense and isn't too ramble-y.)

Last edited by Stormy (Jul 04, 2018 1:02 PM)

Aquila King · Jul 04, 2018 8:45 PM

Stormy wrote:

Well yes, individuals running a company can certainly be greedy. However, it's most often not in the company's best interest to make decisions that people would consider as such. If a game company does something "scummy" people respond accordingly and stop buying the product or even boycotting the company, so the greedy individuals made a bad decision and actually hurt the company. The people who made those decisions could even be fired for hurting the goodwill of the company in the public eye.
No one has to buy a game; it's entirely voluntary on the consumer's part - if it was something everyone was forced to buy it would be different and I'd be more inclined to agree that it's "greed" driving these decisions - but it's not, so game companies, as well as the individuals who run them, have an incentive not to do anything people will hate. It's a small distinction but an important one IMO. Putting microtransactions in a video game you already paid for isn't immoral - it just makes it a crappy game that everyone rightfully hates. Nor is toys-to-life, for that matter; in fact, there were people who actually legitimately enjoyed the collecting aspect of it.
(I'm tired and I edited this post like 20 times so I hope it still makes sense and isn't too ramble-y.)

I sort of both agree and disagree with you there. hmm

While a bad business decision on a game company's part would indeed push a certain portion of consumers away from buying a game, I'd say that they'd still be likely to make enough money off of the scores of others who would buy the game. Same's pretty true with most business ventures really. Actually intelligent conscientious consumers who evaluate beforehand whether a game is worth buying I'd say represent a small enough fraction of the fanbase that game companies can still bring in a hefty profit off a mediocre or even generally bad game. So long as it isn't an absolute piece of utter garbage that is.

This doesn't mean companies can't go too far in making a bad product. Just look at Star Wars: The Last Jedi for instance and the results of the Han Solo movie afterwards. That's a perfect example of what you're describing up above, where a company makes a downright terrible business venture, and the consumers naturally respond by no longer seeking to buy their product. The only thing is, it has to be really friggin' TERRIBLE to drive a general consumer reaction to that point. If it's simply mediocre, in the minds of the fanbase and general consumers, they'll still buy it but simply not like it as much; and therefore the company will still make a decent profit.

As much as we don't like it, a C is still considered a passing grade. When a company is pouring literally millions of dollars into the development of a product, there's little incentive to create an A class product that could easily sell pretty much the same as a C class. Any difference in sales is usually negligible, and often times it's the C class products that garner the least amount of risks, thereby in some sense gives incentives to companies to not take the necessary risks that would make their games an A. C class mediocrity is the for the most part the majority, while the F's and A's of any industry (gaming or otherwise) typically remain as a lower minority. That's why Hollywood is over-saturated with B and C grade movies, and the game industry's pretty much the same now too.

Essentially what I'm getting at is, game companies will continue to make mediocre games because humans just naturally accept the mediocre. Of course we want more than that, but with the exception of a few purests out there who only consume the exquisite of everything, most humans will continue to buy mediocre products because we find them to be overall acceptable. That's just human nature.

Stormy · Jul 04, 2018 8:54 PM

All very true. smile I'm not saying every product is going to be fantastic; they're still going to cut corners and be mediocre where they can get away with it. But usually it stops aggressively terrible media from being created (which, tbh, everyone in the gaming industry with half a brain should realize microtransactions in Spyro would be an aggressively terrible idea that would do them more harm than good) or at least teaches the companies a lesson when they do release something truly bad.

Aquila King · Jul 06, 2018 7:56 PM

Stormy wrote:

All very true. I'm not saying every product is going to be fantastic; they're still going to cut corners and be mediocre where they can get away with it. But usually it stops aggressively terrible media from being created (which, tbh, everyone in the gaming industry with half a brain should realize microtransactions in Spyro would be an aggressively terrible idea that would do them more harm than good) or at least teaches the companies a lesson when they do release something truly bad.

Yeah, I guess it sort of depends on what most people consider 'aggressively terrible'. hmm

I personally find a turn-based RPG's to be aggressively terrible, yet there's a good portion of people out there who love type of game. lol

Stormy · Jul 07, 2018 10:36 AM

Me! I love turn based RPGs actually. tongue That's just a genre preference; I meant it more like... well, microtransactions in a console 3D platformer.

riverhippo · Jul 08, 2018 4:26 PM

I like to look at the optimistic business side of things. And I think I can modify what you said to accurately portray their general consensus.

...everyone in the gaming industry with half a brain should realize micro-transactions in Spyro would be an aggressively profitable idea that would do them more good than harm...

We as gamers have the first reaction and ultimate approval of such a business decision, and I'm not saying they would do it, but I'm just confident that it's definitely on the table for consideration behind closed doors.

36IStillLikeSpyro36 · Jul 08, 2018 4:40 PM

classic Spyro is from the days when there were no microtransactions or DLC or lootboxes or anything in games - you purchased the game, you had the game. nostalgia glasses are fueling a lot of the hype surrounding the Reignited Trilogy.

the classic Spyro fanbase also has an insanely rabid subset that vandalizes Wikipedia articles and screams at Skylanders fans just in the small hope that doing either of those things will bring back the classic series.

it wouldn't be a good idea for them to put extra monetization options into these games, no matter how well the base products sell.

Last edited by 36IStillLikeSpyro36 (Jul 08, 2018 4:41 PM)

Stormy · Jul 08, 2018 5:31 PM

^ This, and I think maybe some people overestimate how hyped people are, too.... There's definitely hype there, but enough for people to buy unnecessary things within the game? No. If anything, the hype and nostalgia surrounding it would just make people angry that those things are there. And I'm sure they know this, or their market research people are not doing their jobs.

riverhippo · Jul 09, 2018 8:03 PM

36IStillLikeSpyro36 wrote:

classic Spyro is from the days when there were no microtransactions or DLC or lootboxes or anything in games - you purchased the game, you had the game. nostalgia glasses are fueling a lot of the hype surrounding the Reignited Trilogy.
the classic Spyro fanbase also has an insanely rabid subset that vandalizes Wikipedia articles and screams at Skylanders fans just in the small hope that doing either of those things will bring back the classic series.
it wouldn't be a good idea for them to put extra monetization options into these games, no matter how well the base products sell.

I agree. Buy they will try. Activision wants to give us games we will buy. They have succeeded here. The next step is for them to try and get as much revenue from it as possible. Doesn't mean they'll stop making games we will like, and it doesn't mean there will be micro-trasactions in the games that make use hate the model. But they will do something that stretches out from simply 'make a game people want to play'. Direct sales from the quality of the game was how the game industry worked in the late 90s. It's not how it works anymore. If our opinions about quality games without micro-transactions should be the profitable way that publishers release games, then why are those games a dying breed? I feel like if I as an individual want to play a game with Spyro in it that was made in 2018, I have to be prepared for DLC and extras that aren't pro bono.

We've seen in the last year the market react to the backlash of current loot box mechanics, and some countries outlawing them completely because they get categorized under gambling. Spyro will not have any of these because, yeah, the backlash would bring the hype to a halt. I'm thinking more outside the box. I wonder what ways Activision could possibly gouge us for money, and the scariest thing about it, how could they do it and still make us happy? And if the answer is no, then I don't think Activision would have traveled down this road if there weren't options for them.

Last edited by riverhippo (Jul 09, 2018 8:04 PM)

#1 Jun 25, 2018 3:06 AM

If Reignited Sells Millions of Copies, What Will Happen to Skylanders?

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