In order to be a success these days, handheld games have to be priced as cheaply as possible, right? I mean, 69p iOS games are so successful while those pesky £40 Vita cards are such a flop at retail. Well, Activision – ever the lover of plastic peripherals and enthusiastic pricing – are hoping to challenge that assumption.
According to the scoop from Dave Scammell on Videogamer.com, the oft-rumoured Skylanders iOS game is a reality, it’s going to cost £39.99 and it might be out as soon as next week. His report is based on Smyths Toys website listing the product, as well as a nod from a source who wishes to remain anonymous. Now, usually we’d urge caution with “anonymous sources” but Dave’s a great bloke and a great professional so I’d certainly trust he’s got his facts straight before hitting publish.
The game will come with a bluetooth version of the Portal of Power, three Skylanders figures – Cynder, Jet-Vac and a special edition Royal Double Trouble and three Skylanders iOS apps, as well as a Platinum Treasure Chest which is exclusive to iOS and unlocks digital content. It’s called Skylanders Battlegrounds, although Smyths is listing it as Skylanders Giants iOS. Your existing Skylanders figures will work with the app, too.
Apparently, there are no plans for an Android version.
Source: Videogamer.com
cc_star
Certain products/franchises are able to push the price boundary, it’s why Activision used CoD to raise RRPs and EA followed with FIFA, now Ubisoft joined in with AC & others following too.
Skylanders is a big deal, but it will be interesting to see how this pans out. Can imagine the piracy percentages are going to be horrendous with most jailbroken devices taking a look at what constitutes a £40 iOS game, not that anyone should believe 1 pirated copy is 1 lost sale, but I’m sure we’ll hear about it.
Tuffcub
You seem to be missing the point that you can;t play Skylanders without the bluetooth portal – which you have to buy with the game.
A pirated copy of the game is useless, so in Skylanders will probably be the least pirated IOS game ever.
.. but thanks for playing, better luck next time.
3shirts
Also the least bought I would wager
cc_star
Problem solved then.
Scotty34
Theres also the same old dispute that its not always 1 lost sale, some one might never buy the game, but the option to play it for free (pirated) is enough to at least try it?
Im not condoning it btw, but as above if they use this bluetooth portal it should help prevent pirated copies.
3shirts
There is no way I’d pay £40 for a phone game. When I think of the quality of games I have played for £5 (and even that is a lot in relative terms) I can’t see this being 8 times as good!
Forrest_01
Can’t really see this taking off at all – To me, the point of phone games is that they are usually cheap & very much pick up & play, especially whilst mobile.
I’m not sure where this fits into that ethos tbh.
Alex C
This’ll be huge.
hol
I’m sure there will be a market somewhere for this but £40?? Start of a slippery slope
theberzerka
There’s a big black box that says smyths toys covering most the article. This is on a few of your recent articles. I’m on my iPad and it’s rendered these said articles unreadable. Just a heads up guys.
ico
Had same probs on my ipad. Turned to portrait and reloaded and black box (riiiide on time) seems to go. Annoying but effective.
ico
I lied. It’s back. Bum.
theberzerka
Yeah tried that and it doesn’t work for me. Thanks for saying though.
Kevatron400
I had the same problem on my iPad and it’s not just on this article. Have notified the crew. In the meantime you can read the article using the Reader function of Safari.
Alex C
Have you tried refreshing? Looking into this.
theberzerka
Cheers kevatron. Not that I’m overly interested in this specific article. Yes it’s affecting most articles for me.
Alex I’ve tried refreshing but it doesn’t work. Not sure if it’s related to the same problem but the homepage at the top where thesixthaxis bit is looks “off” too.
Cheers for the responses guys. Much appreciated.
fattyuk
defo buy this on multiple accounts.
hazelam
trying to beat Square to the, most expensive iOS game, title? O_O
all i can say is good luck to them, at that price they’re gonna need it. ^_^
Sympozium
Not sure it’ll be quite successful considering the prices of idevices.
ico
Ah but they will only need to sell a fraction of the usual sales at this price to reap a similar yield. Personally I hope they don’t as this appears to be borderline exploitation. Saying that the people who buy it likely know what they will get and are therefore informed. REALLY hope there’s no micro transactions. Now that would be taking the mick.