Skylanders Giants Message Board older than one year ago

SWARM
Bring the Sting!
Element: AIR
Character Type: Giant
Bio: Swarm was once a prince from a proud race of mysterious insect warriors that had built their entire civilization inside a giant honeycombed pyramid. Growing up as one of the 9,000 members of the royal family, he was never permitted to leave the hive. But unlike his brethren, there was a magical quality to Swarm that caused him to grow much larger than the rest of his kind. No longer able to fit amongst the rest of his colony, the young prince broke the long standing tradition and stepped out into the open world - where his size and strength would be put to good use in the legendary battle between the Giants and the Arkeyans.

Skylanders Giants builds upon the breakthrough fundamentals of the Skylanders Spyro's Adventure™-- merging the physical and virtual realms with an innovative line of cross-platform toys with "brains," which players everywhere can magically bring to life in the world of Skylands. Using the mystical Portal of Power®, players once again lead a team of heroic Skylanders in a new adventure to save their world. Portal Masters will journey through new areas of Skylands, encountering new enemies, solving fun puzzles, overcoming different hazards and obstacles, and finding a variety of collectable rewards and treasure. Skylanders Giants introduces sixteen new characters to build on the magic of Skylanders Spyro's Adventures, including super-sized giants with powers to match, as well as the new LightCore™Skylanders that light-up in the game and in the real-world as players transport them to Skylands using the Portal of Power. Additionally, the game features new Hero Challenges, more Battle Mode gameplay, and advanced integration across console, handheld, mobile and Skylanders Universe. Skylanders Giants is in development by Toys for Bob for Wii™, Nintendo 3DS™, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 system, Windows PC and mobile devices.

Get More: GameTrailers.com, Skylanders: Giants - E3 2012: Interview, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

The person writing up Activision’s financial press releases has it easy. Going back the past few years, each release touts “record” or “better-than-expected” results, largely on Call of Duty’s back.

That hasn’t changed with the company’s first quarter 2012 results, which were, unlike much of the industry, “better-than-expected.”

Activision has a second weapon now, too: Skylanders. More than 30 million of those little buggers has been sold since Skylanders launched last October, and Skylanders Giants is out later this year.

After reading Activison’s financial results and listening to the call with investors and analysts this afternoon, here are the bits that stood out. The first one stuck me as particularly interesting:

• Revenues from downloadable content for Call of Duty “decreased significantly,” which Activision attributes to making players wait too long for it. Presumably, that won't be the case with Black Ops II.
• The reduced revenue from downloadable content was “partially” offset by Call of Duty Elite memberships.
• The Infinity Ward lawsuit goes to trial on May 29, barring another delay, and the company is putting aside money to potentially pay the lawsuit, should the decision go against Activision. If that happens, the company could owe more than $1 billion to Jason West, Vince Zampella, and others. Activision “does not believe such a result would be justified,” but is actively preparing for the lawsuit to have such a large financial impact.
• More than 30 million Skylanders toys have been sold since last October.
• Activision is positioning Skylanders to be Activision’s next $1 billion dollar franchise.
• More than two million users have signed up for annual Call of Duty Elite memberships.
• No new details on Bungie’s next game or any indication it would be revealed at E3.
• Likewise, no new details on Blizzard’s next MMO, except that it’s still coming.
• Diablo III already has more pre-orders than any other Blizzard game.
• World of Warcraft is holding steady at 10.2 million users, the same number as last quarter. Hmm.
• Someone asked about next-generation development investments, but it declined to comment.