Even 18-months since launch it is hard not to notice the Skylanders video game series, with many department stores and specialized shops often having displays with the game and the plethora of figures that can be used via the games “Portal of Power” system. For those who do not know about the “Portal of Power” system, all the characters you buy figures of for the Skylanders series can be brought into the game through Near Field Communication. A potentially costly but nevertheless popular system with gamers around the world.
In Australia it has proved very successful with Activision managing to sell $100,000,000 of the game and figures since launch – with the next multiplatform game Skylanders: Swap Force set for release on almost every platform later this year.
Sydney mum Kelly Drew has lost count of the number of Skylanders figurines her kids Finnegan, 7, and Mackenzie, 5, have amassed, but “it’s at least 50. I’m certainly no expert but each character belongs to an element and as you work through the game you need different elements to fight the baddies,” she said. The only problem Finnegan had with the toys was that he was only allowed to play with them on the weekend. “I just like their powers and the look of them,” he said.
To put the sales into perspective:
1. The number of Skylanders toys sold globally over the last 20 months is three times the Australian population.
2. If all of the Skylanders toys sold in Australia were lined up they would follow the course of the 1,170 km Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race.
3. The number of Skylanders toys sold in Australia and New Zealand exceed the population of New Zealand or the population of Sydney.
or to simply put it…. a lot of the toys have been sold.
Philip Earl | EVP Activision Publishing, Asia Pacific
Just over 18 months ago, bringing toys to life in a virtual world was an untested concept. Now Skylanders is established in the Australian toy market and embraced by parents and kids across the world. We’re thrilled to see Aussie kids embracing Skylanders toys and games both in the virtual and physical worlds.
Georgia Sotiropoulos | Big W Head of General Merchandise
What we saw at BIG W was that Skylanders really captured the imagination of children and our customers are telling us October’s release of Skylanders SWAP Force can’t come soon enough.
