What Killed the Skylanders Franchise?
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- čas přidán 5. 06. 2024
- There was a point when Skylanders was the most prevalent game in the modern world, with the total series earning over 3.5 Billion dollars. Now it hasn't had a new game since Imaginators in 2016. What happened? Follow along as I follow the breadcrumbs and try to find out What Killed the Skylanders Franchise.
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TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Toys to Life
1:51 - Spyro
2:53 - Spyro's Adventure
4:38 - Giants
6:28 - Swap Force
7:42 - Trap Team
8:40 - Superchargers
9:44 - Imaginators
10:29 - Other Endeavors
11:10 - Answers & Reasons
12:21 - Toys to Death
Music Used: pastebin.com/TVAxVeaC - Hry
My strongest memory of Skylanders was owning a legendary trigger happy, I thought of it like a shiny pokemon and was very sensitive when it came to using that figure. Never played after Swap Force and only owned the first one myself. It still honestly looks like a fun game to replay nowadays.
I have him to
My strongest memory of the brand was when I won a Trigger Snappy from a Frito Lay competition.
Still have it to this day.
For me it was the 3 pack with legendary bash,chop chop,and spyro
It took me until superchargers to get trigger happy even tho I wanted him before and I started the series with swap force
YOU HAVE A LEGENDARY TRIGGER HAPPY?
The toys to life market is probably the most unique trend we’ve seen and possibly won’t see something as unique for quite some time!
ik kinda wish someone would make this and make it better with a unique twist
Toys to Life needs to make a comeback!
@@FTChomp9980 yeah. It could have changed gaming. And if I could find a way to make it compatible with PC’s, I’d do that for a game.
@@FTChomp9980there still making Lego games :)
I'd say Virtual Reality is a unique 'trend'?
I think there were a few major factors that led to the fall of Skylanders. It was no one thing, rather a combination of these factors slowly eroded fan interest and sales.
*1. New paywalls for each game.* One of the most gratifying consumer experiences in my entire life has to be the transition from Spyro's Adventure to Giants. The reason for this was everything in Giants was unlockable from the Skylanders I had collected from Spyro's Adventures with the exception of a few Giants exclusive areas but we were already given a Giant in the starter pack. I could literally experience everything in the new game using my old Skylanders and a single new Giant from the starter pack.
But none of the following games were this consumer friendly. To unlock all the gates in Swap Force you NEEDED to have a Swap Force Skylander from every element and the same goes for Trap Team. Suddenly the player was forced to shell out 80-100 more dollars for each new installment. That's enough to demotivate lots of players, what's the point in getting the new game if it costs to much to unlock everything?
*2. Less focus on story.* One of the interesting things about Skylanders was how the world and lore was slowly developed. Giants is an extremely natural continuation of Spyro's Adventure which focuses off the ancient Arkeyan Empire which was alluded to in Spyro's Adventure. The game also ended with Kaos's mom being teased which carried over to the next game and when Swap Force rolled around it ended with a cliff hanger of Kaos and Glumshanks being split in half and swapped.
Unfortunately, this is where the continuous story ended. Skylanders Trap Team completely ignored that Kaos had swapped with Glumshanks. This was more than just a continuity error, it was a blatant disregardal of the canon and it broke player faith in the story of the Skylanders. If such a major story physical transformation was completely ignored, it send the signal that major continuity changes in the game were unimportant and disposal. If the game didn't care about its own story, why should the player? This is where the story also stopped carrying over from game to game and that hurt player engagement.
*3. Less interesting level design and gimmicks.* Most Skylander fans would agree that the final 2 games in the series simply were not that good and lacked interesting gimmicks. Swapping you Skylanders and trapping Villains in traps were some of the coolest things I've ever done in a video game, they are miles better than having a random boat you can't scan into the game. I cared about characters, not vehicles and static vehicle was a huge step down from trapping digital villains in my physical traps.
The level design and gameplay was also simply lacking. I never played Imaginations but Supercharges was enough to lose my interest and I never bothered to get the next one.
*4. Skylanders became too ubiquitous and that made them less cool.* Skylanders in the end suffered from oversatuation. When you have too much of a cool thing it makes those things less cool because they are everywhere and their coolness has been diluted. When the first Skylander game came out, there were only 32 Skylanders each with a cool backstory and unique abilities. There varied enough to be distinct but also few enough to keep track of.
But slowly, that number climbed up and up and up. And eventually, you have 100's of Skylanders which is simply too many to keep track of! Each Skylander starts to feel less distinct, less unique, and less essential. They began to feel disposable and the player was overwhelmed with how many Skylanders there were! And the only thing to do when being overwhelmed is to take a step back, which is what many players eventually did.
*5. Increased competition.* This last one is not Skylander's fault but increased competition from Disney, Lego, and Nintendo surely hurt Skylander sales. A kid (or their parents) only has so much money to spend of Toys to Life and some kids went with a Skylander competitor instead of Skylanders. You can't blame them too much either Disney, Lego, and Nintendo are trusted brands while Toys For Bob was a company no one had every heard of. It makes sense that the competitors not only diluted the market, but poached many sales from Skylanders.
All of these were the factors why Skylanders sold less and less as time went on and eventually ended. No single factor did the franchise if you were to ask a Skylander player why they eventually did not buy the sequels, these are likely the reasons they will give you.
Wise as ever, Master Obi Wan. The cost of the portals alone was enough to discourage my parents from letting me buy the games after Swap Force.
After playing games like the Spyro Reignited Trilogy and Crash 4, I grew so much respect for Toys For Bob and their work on Skylanders. TFB are INCREDIBLY talented and passionate devs that know their stuff. I never played a Skylanders game, but the game's design was genius, and world/characters were memorable and engaging. While not perfect, the charm made me see these games as more than just prophet margins to Activision
Unfortunetly the main culprit of why It got low Is because It never got evolved the game It kept the same game as Spyro Adventure started.
Greddy Gaga's
I miss Skylanders and toys to life stuff in general, but their death was inevitable. Still doesn’t stop me from having so many good memories surrounding the first three games. I miss my Jade Flashwing :”)
Me too. I play it so much and have a ton of fun.
Me too I was addicted
My favorite was ignitor
I still own my series one flashwing to this day
I still have a legendary trigger happy. I love that little gremlin.
A remastered collection of all the games together with the characters available digitally would be cool too see.
I would rather wait longer for all six games to come back rather then get one or two of them
@@amymcelroy4130 yea
I want this so bad. Just a way for the games to live on. On newer platforms
If they do remake them,I can see either all six of the games in one base package,or like up to trap team with the others being dlc
I think they should make it so that SSA, Giants, and Swap Force are one game. Then Trap Team, Superchargers, and Imaginators could be a second game.
My childhood was Skylanders! Thanks for giving them a proper video.
Same
The concept was so cool !
Same
I still play Skylanders
@@JustEpic_Ytme to
I'm one of those Skylanders kids who is still waiting for a comeback of the series. Even if it's not Toys to Life, I want to relive the nostalgia of playing the games with my friends.
no joke i managed to do this by playing on an emulator and sharing my PC through parsec
you and me both
I always wondered what Happened to our Favorite childhood games
Me too
The community is keeping it alive now.
@@the_reptilian_researcher_360And that’s really cool !
Me too😔
I’m glad this was my childhood
I’ve only played Swap Force, but that alone just makes me wonder how the franchise would turn out, if it had continued.
Same but I wanna try the rest of the games too
You played the best one, so good for you.
@CrookedLlama In my opinion, It definitely was the best one
Nice pfp
Back when I played the games on my old ps3, I was more of a fan with trap team. Swap force was a close second, then giants for third. Miss the series, and I still have all my sky landers with me…too many to count lol
Money killed it. It was so expensive and kids lost interest as well.
Well, at least it's still good to know that ActiVision still remembers Skylanders, since Eruptor makes a cameo in the "Off Beat" level of Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time.
I have a feeling that the Skylanders franchise would last longer if there wasn't one game every year. The series is quite enjoyable (although my first and only game was imaginators) and I'm a little annoyed it was milked to death.
You say that but it’s likely long term sustainment was impossible because there was just far too much money you needed to invest
I had the first sky landers on the Wii and PS3 but looking back buying into it was definitely a bad idea given how quickly it be knew a money pit
Literally the only reason it was accepted was because the toys gave a degree of separation that didn’t make it feel as scummy
Like imagine a mortal combat game where you get Scorpio, goro and Kanin with the base hand but every other character was $4 DLC and there was like 100 characters to collect
It’s a lot more revealing when you look at it in that light
Yes and no. The annual releases helped to keep the interest in the franchise, kids don't have the attention span to wait several years for a sequel. They would move on to something else. But on the other hand the games were obviously being rushed and dropped in quality, so that didn't help.
I personally bought all 6 games, but pretty much stopped buying any figures after Trap Team, simply because I've had too many of them already, and the new character designs were meh.
Bro imagine a game where they did not release new toys, and had the characters digital, but if you had the toys it would let you unlock them early or more powerful
This game was literally my childhood.
I really miss skylanders I have so many good memories of this franchise, with swap force and supercharges being my favorite entries
superchargers was my most favorite too, im sorry but spitfire is one of the most badass skylanders of all time, wish it will comeback.
I miss Skylanders to death. I’ve fully played each game like 5 times
You are a different breed, the games are cool but many times the gameplay is such a slog.
Nightmare trap team kaos is actual torture
@@SporianSummit my Dad and I played it and literally went through most of our skylanders
One of my favorite franchises, damn
Same, it’s one of my favorites too
Coincidentally this video came out just when I was watching Skylanders videos because I was feeling nostalgic for the series, Trap Team was the last great game imo, despite how money grubbing it was looking back at it, I feel by Superchargers and Imaginators, the magic was kind of lost for me
Yeah…
Trap Team was fun, unfortunately it was the beginning of the end
At least they are not making skylander nfts.
I remember Disney infinity
congrats ur first
@@jebediahkerman813 no i am
@@jebediahkerman813 fir first figrfst fist
I had the second comment 😎
Why does so many people care when there first like you haven’t even finished the video I just don’t really get it
As a kid skylanders was my favorite thing to play I seriously wouldn’t eat dinner sometimes because I was playing skylanders so seeing it dead hits me in the heart
I played everything after Giants, and I don't give a crap if Superchargers was poorly received, it was personally my favorite. With how important nostalgia is in our society right now, I think one final Skylanders game seven years later could be that sendoff we need.
Sky landers was so much fun. I have a lot of memories playing it on my ps3 with my brothers and trading characters with my neighbors
Interesting, informative and well edited video, kept me pulled in all the way trough! I had no idea the Skylanders franchise was so big, it came out about the time i got too old for things like this.
I got a huge pack of skylanders as a gift from my grandma years ago, and Ive NEVER used over 3 quarters of them. Which sucks, because there were quite a few neat ones. Game-unique ones like giants and swap force, and even a rare-production one coated with a layer of paint that made it glow in the dark.
Oh my god i remember when i was younger, buying new skylanders in game mania and trade some with friends in my neighbourhood, i had alot of friends who played it and we would always go to eachothers place to play Skylanders. I had so many figures and i believe i played on the xbox. I was always so jealous of some friends who had figures that i always wanted. I also watched Skylander academy and honestly this video brought so much nostalgia and i miss the time when they were popular!!
This was such a big part of my childhood
My favorite games of all time! I am surprised you made a video about it.
5:24 Skystones is actually in regular Trap Team too, not just the 3ds version.
As a proper Skylanders fan with a decently sized collection, and probably hundreds of hours in total. I would like to say my take on this.
Skylanders Trap Team killed the franchise. I mostly think this because of how the game really cracked into the greedy side of Activision with traps, cores, trap masters, items, levels, and even minis. However I think that this was what led to such lackluster games as SuperChargers with the higher ups realizing that they don’t need to try as hard to make a lot of money. People were also becoming burnt out of the series by this time which is another factor to why the series died off. People grew older and with no new games since 2016 there hasn’t been anything for a new generation to pick up and play. Again this is just my opinion on what happened. I know many other people who think differently, but I do genuinely feel passionate about this series. I would literally kill for another game… as long as it isn’t SuperChargers.
Also if anyone is wondering I do actually enjoy Trap Team, and I find the game to be one of my favorites in the franchise. However I do fully understand how many people find it bland, or to some; bad.
Edit: After now watching the full video I can see many similarities to what I said in my comment, but after finishing this edit I actually want to try to replay all of the games again.
Just remembered about this comment, and how I said I would update on my progress through the games.
Blazed through SSA, and Giants. Took about a week for both. However I’m currently taking a little break, and I might continue onto Swap Force tomorrow.
My Strongest memory of skylanders was getting the chaos crystal, I was given a tiny scavenger hunt from my parents. I found it on top of a door and started freaking out. If they come out with another skylanders game, which I hope they do. and it still has the portal and a lot more characters, im getting it immediately. when I was younger I gave that game and all my characters to my cousin, just for him to sell it.
"What Killed the Skylanders Franchise"?
My brother in Christ, it had a "Gotta collect 'em all" formula that was so expensive that you'd never be able to collect them all 😭 I get that it _worked,_ but *yeesh.*
Really, I found Superchargers as the one thing that caused the game to die for me, mainly because that one was what I found as the most focused on its gimmick. In fact, the vehicle in my starter pack broke near immediately when I started playing it, putting me in a permanent softlock because of a level that needed it (Not as an optional thing, I NEEDED it to progress) until I bought a new one just to keep playing (News flash, I didn't)
Real ones never forgot, Skylanders for life 😤💪
someone finally mentioned this game, NO ONE WILL EVERY BEAT MY COLLECTION OF EVERY CHARACTER BECAUSE OF MY BROTHAS!
you knew I love the "what killed" videos AND Skylanders?! You rock!
I remember playing sky landers imaginatinators and accidentally naming my character FUCK and I got yelled at my mom so much from it
What killed it for me was during swap Force was the increase in prices and the very very small number of figures that where available in my area
My only memory of Skylanders wasn't playing it (which I never did), but from when I worked at a target from 16-20 years old. The Skylanders craze was real and kids absolutely wanted those little creatures. Sometimes we would get limited exclusive drops and droves of parents would storm in to get them. Even had a scuffle over a particular one between parents getting them for their kids.
I loved playing Skylander Giants on my Nintendo 3DS I used to play on. It was so fun and so different. It’s sad Skylanders isnt around anymore. I think it should comeback with a reboot.
Skystones was also one of my favorite parts of Skylanders. I even remember that there was a promotion where you could get a pack of cardboard skystones in certain cereal boxes. I did have some laying around, but I think I got rid if them recently.
My favorite series of all! I play it all the time. I hope Microsoft revives it soon, so I can play new games.
Same! They actually have the ability to do it too!
This game was an important part of my childhood, but i couldnt beat a level because i didnt have enough characters to play as 😂
This video gave me nostaligia tho, thanks for that
I just got intense nostalgia from remembering the Tv show on Netflix.
Haven’t even watched the full video but I can tell it’s gonna be good
I used to watch a bunch of skylanders videos when I was younger but I never got the game since my parents wouldn’t buy the characters for me 😢
I've never had my heart sink so fast at the sight of a thumbnail or video title.
Great video!
Fly high skylanders😭😭🕊️
I loved this and Disney infinity soooo much
I’m just sad that both of the series have been discontinued
I was literally talking with my siblings about skylanders about like 3 hours ago, and i thought of you, thanks for the video, and the clarification, i started with skylanders swapforce
Man I remember I actually had every sky lander (except dark spyro) for the first game, and a ton of others with every game before superchargers because by then me and my brother had gotten into Lego dimensions, man I used to play the hell out of those games as a kid, I even still have the figures in a big bin
Its referenced in crash bandicoot 4
I have a bunch of nostalgia for skylanders and always wonder if it could come back somehow
I hope we get another skylanders game
When moving house i kept a few of the original skylanders from spyros adventure. It was my entire childhood man❤
I remember watching the Netflix series every time a new season came out
And watching gameplays of the games :)
Fun times
Same 😢
@@JustEpic_Yt I miss Skylanders, it was fun, the show was also great
Thats why you dont get too greedy when your the most popular company
I only played SSA through Swapforce on the wii and im happy thats as far as i got, i recently got hyperfixated on the first game so now i have an almost complete collection that i bought a display shelf for, the nostalgia is real
Nice video
The skystones games were also in imaginators
I hadn't played games for about 15 years. I thought skylanders looked cool so I gave it a try and absolutely loved it. I have played through all of the games except Superchargers which I am now on chapter 19.
dude i have every single skylanders game and almost every single toy, i have not played it for around 3 years now but if they release a new one i would get all those toys back out from the attic because those games were my childhood and i still have a place in my heart for them, i remember being heartbroken when there was no game in 2017
I was hoping you were gonna make this
I remember going to my cousin’s house after school and playing “skylanders” and “plants vs zombies” all day. I was a girly girl but my cousin introduced them to me and I became obsessed. My favorite was this one blue elf girl. I forgot her name but she fr was an icon to me. Also I was more into “Disney infinity” bc it was like the only game I had on my Xbox and I still remember girl bossing as Elsa💀
Such a nostalgic franchise :(.
there is 1 plus side to be a Skylanders fan after the franchise ended
you can find small easter eggs to the franchise in the modern Crash & Spyro games
1 of the dragons in reignited holds a Trap Team Trap
an Eruptor balloon can be found in the background in a Crash 4 level (also a fun reference to the Thanksgiving Parade balloon)
great video
I want Microsoft to revive the franchise!
As much as I would want the franchise to be revived I don’t want it to be done with Microsoft considering what they did with Minecraft
Just like it did with banjo-kazooie...
Swap Force was the most nostalgic for me
Spyro getting his revenge killed it.
when i discovered my wii was still working after all those years we thought it was broken cause some of the races on mario kart didnt work i played skylanders giants again, that game was one of my favorites from wii and i still have all of my skylanders in a box, i was able to get one of each element and i remember chop chop being favorite for me and a robot dragon i forgot his name was the favorite of my brother, sadly i think i have lost one being like a tree with maces for hands and i also dont know where eruptor is, it makes me happy people still talk about this game
Let's hope they're waiting for og players to start missing the franchise and then release a new game for them to buy
I gotta say it is sad for the Skylanders franchise to end, but even so I still love it no matter what. I still love enjoying Skylanders even though I'm now 19 (and its 2023), I'll never let Skylanders go EVER! In all personal honesty, I love Skylanders Imaginators, sure it didn't really get executed very well, but I do like the idea of bringing my imagination to life (since I have a big imagination)! However my most favorite Skylanders game is of course Swap Force, because I loved the swapping combinations idea.
Anyway, I do have like an idea of resurrecting The Skylanders franchise, which I like to share now.
My idea of a Skylanders SPINOFF game!!!!
I call it: "Skylanders Yin-Yang" you see...
It is a spinoff that solely focuses on the Dark and Light elements. Why? Well, its pretty obvious why: ever since the Light and Dark elements were introduced in Trap Team, then Superchargers and Imaginators, they overall have had the LEAST amount of Skylanders! In other words, the Fire, Water, Life, Undead, Air, Earth, Tech and Magic elements had like 20+ Skylanders (or 30+ if you count the variants, reposes, Bowser, DK, Crash Bandicoot and Cortex), while Dark and Light had like 5-6. So, my spinoff will not only revive Skylanders, but also give more collectional variety to the two elements. The roster size will be 32 (similar to the SSA roster, but also include the gimmicklanders) (you know what I mean). The Dark and Light elements will each have:
Eight Core Skylanders
One Giant
Two Swap Force (the new swappabilites will be "Stomp" and "Gravitate")
One Trap Master
Two Minis
One Supercharger (and vehicle)
One Sensei (Light Bazooker and Dark Quickshot)
As for the plot it centers around an evil troll scientist named: Professor Dizastor! He is a notorious criminal to all of Skylands and is a HATER for flowers! However, once he was defeated, he was put on house arrest (since Cloudcraker Prison was destroyed). But, he used his house arrest to his advantage in creating a new monstrosity known as: the Root Reaper! Now, with the Root Reaper on the loose, it's sole purpose is to absorb all life essences of every flower grown in Skylands! So, your task is to track down the Root Reaper and stop it in its tracks before all flowers die out or else Skylands will lose it's beauty!
I'm also making PVP Battle Mode return, alongside Heroic Challenges, Survival Mode, basically everything from the six installments, but put in a dark and light standpoint.
Let him cook
LET HIM COOK
ALLOW THIS MAN TO CREATE A MICROWAVE MEAL.
Ngl trap team was one of my first skylander games that I owned and I loved that game. ngl definitely one of my favorite childhood games.
the community is still fairly active, and me and my friend play battle mode still all the time!
for me as a kid , it was really magical to get those figures to the point that it would flood my room , placing it on a glowing portal and playing with the figure was really cool as a kid , even it was just a lazy cash-grab
As a young individual who aspires to own a game company of my own someday, I actually wanna revive the Toys to Life trend & make it bigger & better, that also includes reviving the Skylanders franchise.
Love the use of GT music.
I think the switch from Trap Team to SuperChargers is what put me off. I got all characters of the first 3 games (Spyros Adv, Giants, and Swap Force) but Trap Team was a game where I only got 1 of each element (plus a few extras), but I did get one of each trap type too. The main issue I had was when I learned that the switch to Superchargers changed how villains worked, where you no longer played the villains. I never got superchargers after getting attached to the villain mechanic, so for me that was when I stopped playing.
Oversaturation, same thing that kills most games, but on steroids due to the cost of entry thanks to figures
We just need a Skylanders smash rep to bring the series back to life lol
Spyro should be that.
@@KKHell Not really. Smash Ultimate’s numbers are proof that the series is going to continue.
Still collecting my favorite, the first series. Im missing, sunburn, ghostroaster and voodood. Still in love with the first few games.
What was yalls favorite skylander? Ill go first, mine was hot head
Enigma
That potion geeza
Got included in the video 'pop fizz'
I STILL COLLECT THOSE GOOFY THINGSSSS
great video Skylanders was a great franchise and i miss the series i was my childhood wish we would get a new installment and it doesn't have to be toys to life
I recently got back into the series after finding people selling figures for 50p at charity shops and online, was sad to see but it has also bought me back nice memories of playing the game when I was younger. I've now build a large collecion pretty quickly since so many people sell them for cheap (the most expensive one I've bought was £15).
I have a shit ton of skylanders. Trust me, they are everywhere in your house once you get enough 😂
@@juiciestlemonadeofyoutube You aren't wrong! So far my largest shelving units have been filled with a bunch of skylanders
Ok (second comment)
Yep
I just don't like Spyro design in Skylanders
@@KKHell probably people who don’t know the real Spyro.
@@KKHell I do. Looks better than the PS1 but worse than Reignited.
Toys for bob was also working on the crash and spyro trilogies around the same time so more than likely a lot of their time was allocated to that instead of a dying franchise
I remember when I was working for GameStop years ago, first job when I was in highschool. I remember so many parents and kids coming in for new drops or rare sky landers. Or people coming in with boxes to trade in.
Skylanders was a banger. The nostalgia makes me almost cry. I was not an alcoholic cigarette addict swimming in student debt back then.
I am going to a contest and I found this. Now Im finally calm. Thanks Bro! ❤
Back when I was a child, I was the only one out of all of the people I knew who didn't have any of the Skylanders games.
my only happiness came from those puzzles and those tiny little friendly monsters that would destroy evil.
it really did hurt to say there are no more skylander games to come but here i am with a new game coming soon!
(i like skylanders so much i have collected almost all regular skylanders, half of the legendary and one Eons elite also tons of supercharger)
I was a little older than the target audience at the time but I have great memories of bonding over this game with my little brother during my parents nasty divorce, sky landers has a special place in my heart
I have such fond memories of playing skylanders giants with my dad as a kid. I wasn't good at it but I'd run around as flashwing while my dad went through doing all the hard things. I remember how excited I was to watch him beat khaos :) I still have some of the figures in my room (flashwing being one of them she's my baby)
i never thought i’d see anyone else acknowledge UB Funkeys, they were my whole childhood
I still have the first 3 games. I like going back and replaying them from time to time.
It is worth mentioning that, after Skylanders Giants, the games would rotate different developers. When Toys for Bob was working on one, Vicarious Visions would be working on the other.
Example: Toys for Bob would do Spyro's Adventure, Giants, and after that, Vicarious Visions would do Swap Force, and after that, Toys for Bob would work on Trap team, and so on.
I wonder if this has to do with the patterns of the main series names.
Adventure and Giants are just subtitles, Swap-Force and Trap-Team are made up terms with real words, and Superchargers and Imaginators are fully made up words.