Activision thinking about how to continue investing in Skylanders, says Wii’s death contributed to series’ struggles
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 13 Comments
Over the past few years, the toys-to-life market seemed to be on the way out. Disney Infinity is dead. LEGO Dimensions hasn’t seen as much content as it once did. Activision also didn’t have a new Skylanders in 2017 for the first time in many years.
So at E3, it was somewhat surprising to see Ubisoft announce Starlink. And while Activision doesn’t have something completely new for Skylanders this year, it sounds like they’re still committed to the series.
In an interview with GamesIndustry, Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg had this to say about the state of Skylanders and the overall toys-to-life market:
More: Activision, Eric Hirshberg, interview, Skylanders
Activision still believes in toys-to-life, Skylanders the 11th most successful game franchise of all time
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Wii, Wii U | 2 Comments
There’s been some talk as of late about the decline of the toys-to-life business. For the most part, amiibo is still doing quite well, and LEGO Dimensions entered the scene last year. But Disney Interactive recently closed entirely – marking the end of Disney Infinity – and Skylanders hasn’t been performing quite as well as it used to.
Despite this, Activision still appears to be very much on board with toys-to-life. The company announced Skylanders Imaginators today, reaffirming its commitment to the market.
Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg also told TIME that the publisher believes in the potential of toys-to-life. In his remarks, he mentioned that “Skylanders is now the 11th most successful game franchise of all time after just five years.”
When asked about the situation of Disney and concerns about the toys-to-life category, Hirshberg said:
I certainly can’t comment on Disney’s business, so that’s a good question to ask them, and they’ve obviously got good reasons for making the decision they did. What I will say is, we’ve said publicly that some of our more recent games haven’t met our expectations, and yet we’re still here making games, so we obviously still believe in the potential. We created the category, and Skylanders is now the 11th most successful game franchise of all time after just five years.
More: Activision, Eric Hirshberg, interview, sales, Skylanders, top, Toys for Bob, Vicarious Visions
Activision on why this was the right time to bring back Guitar Hero
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 4 Comments
Guitar Hero games were releasing yearly between 2005 and 2010. From that point on, however, the series went on hiatus. It’s only just now that Guitar Hero is returning in the form of Guitar Hero Live.
So why bring back the franchise after all of this time? Activision’s Eric Hirshberg told GamesBeat:
We had the right idea and the right execution. We set a very high bar for ourselves internally. It’s obviously a strong brand and a strong franchise. It’s something people had a lot of love for. But it was clearly also out of gas. It was in need of meaningful reinvention. We made a deal with ourselves that we wouldn’t bring it back just to bring it back. We wouldn’t bring it back unless we felt like we had reinvented it for the next generation of gamers and hardware, and we have.
Activision CEO says you can’t count Nintendo out for the long-term
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 9 Comments
Nintendo can’t be counted out in the long-term, Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg has said.
Hirshberg, when asked about Nintendo’s current situation and what could be done to turn things around with Wii U, he stated:
It’s probably a better question to ask Nintendo. They are obviously not off to the start they’ve probably hoped they would’ve had with the Wii U, but they also have some of the world’s best IP and some of the world’s best game makers. I’ve always said they’ve been through rough hardware cycles before, but when you have the kind of game makers and beloved IP like they do, you can’t count [Nintendo] out for the long-term.
Activision’s lineup of Wii U releases have continued this year with The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark, and the upcoming Skylanders Trap Team. However, it’s looking like Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will not be arriving on the system.
More: Activision, Eric Hirshberg, interview
Sledgehammer working on 2014 Call of Duty, new entries getting 3-year dev cycle
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 4 Comments
Infinity Ward and Treyarch have acted as the two big developers behind Call of Duty. But today, Activision confirmed the addition of one more major team: Sledgehammer Games.
Starting with this year’s Call of Duty, new entries in the series will take on a three-year development cycle. Infinity Ward, Treyarch, and Sledgehammer will rotate on yearly releases. Sledgehammer will be responsible for the unannounced 2014 title.
Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg said during a financial call today:
“This will give our designers more time to envision and innovate for each title. Simultaneously, it will give our content creators more focus on DLC and micro-DLC which, as you know, have become large and high-margin opportunities and significant engagement drivers. Finally, we’ll give our teams more time to polish, helping ensure we deliver the best possible experience to our fans – each and every time.”
(Activision) needed a third studio capable of delivering the level of excellence required for the West’s biggest interactive entertainment franchise (and that Sledgehammer Games fits the bill.) They demonstrated their skill on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and on their past highly-rated games.”
