Activision discusses the Disney competition for Skylanders: SWAP Force
A portion of a Telegraph interview with Activision's Eric Hirshberg...
T: In terms of competition for Skylanders, despite it being an obviously successful idea, it's pretty much largely unrivaled, and as far as I'm aware until this year it was the only game doing anything like it does. Obviously Disney Infinity came along, but it doesn't seem to have halted the Skylanders buzz whatsoever. So what do you think makes Skylanders so popular compared to even, say, massively well known franchises? Obviously for Skylanders you've created all-new fiction for it, but it's been embraced so well. There's something extra special about it that people have really responded to.
E: In terms of competition, I think it was only a matter of time before competitors came into the genre we created, and that's almost inevitable. In terms of our creative process, we really don't focus on our competitors. It's no different than in any other parts of our business, we have strong competition everywhere, and focusing on them doesn't help you make a better game. We try to stay focus on what got us here in the first place, which is breakthrough creativity and really delightful and charming ideas, and a tremendous commitment to the craftsmanship and quality. So those are the things we remain focused on. One of the key elements to Skylanders that I think is actually a huge advantage for us is the fact they're new characters; it's a new story, and a set of characters that are designed for this experience. They haven't been repurposed from anything else, they don't have any other limitations from any other storylines or media. When we sit down to design Skylanders we have one thing in mind, and that's what's going to be the most fun for kids to interact with, and that's how we design their powers, their personality, their storyline. So in every case it's been designed from the ground up to honour this fusion of physical play and digital play. That's how we got to the original idea, that's how we got to the storyline of kids being portal masters, that's how we got to the design of each character, and that's how we got to the idea for this year's game, which is would it be fun to be able to swap parts and make your own versions of the Skylanders? And it's because we start with that clean slate, that blank white canvas, that we're able to just follow our instincts as to what would make the most fun for the game. And y'know, that's exactly where we wanna stay focused.
T: In terms of competition for Skylanders, despite it being an obviously successful idea, it's pretty much largely unrivaled, and as far as I'm aware until this year it was the only game doing anything like it does. Obviously Disney Infinity came along, but it doesn't seem to have halted the Skylanders buzz whatsoever. So what do you think makes Skylanders so popular compared to even, say, massively well known franchises? Obviously for Skylanders you've created all-new fiction for it, but it's been embraced so well. There's something extra special about it that people have really responded to.
E: In terms of competition, I think it was only a matter of time before competitors came into the genre we created, and that's almost inevitable. In terms of our creative process, we really don't focus on our competitors. It's no different than in any other parts of our business, we have strong competition everywhere, and focusing on them doesn't help you make a better game. We try to stay focus on what got us here in the first place, which is breakthrough creativity and really delightful and charming ideas, and a tremendous commitment to the craftsmanship and quality. So those are the things we remain focused on. One of the key elements to Skylanders that I think is actually a huge advantage for us is the fact they're new characters; it's a new story, and a set of characters that are designed for this experience. They haven't been repurposed from anything else, they don't have any other limitations from any other storylines or media. When we sit down to design Skylanders we have one thing in mind, and that's what's going to be the most fun for kids to interact with, and that's how we design their powers, their personality, their storyline. So in every case it's been designed from the ground up to honour this fusion of physical play and digital play. That's how we got to the original idea, that's how we got to the storyline of kids being portal masters, that's how we got to the design of each character, and that's how we got to the idea for this year's game, which is would it be fun to be able to swap parts and make your own versions of the Skylanders? And it's because we start with that clean slate, that blank white canvas, that we're able to just follow our instincts as to what would make the most fun for the game. And y'know, that's exactly where we wanna stay focused.
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