Activision wanted to team up with Nintendo for Skylanders

[andrew8798]

NINTENDO'S DOUBTS

Despite its confidence and its cash, Activision was looking for a partner to help spread the risks of the new venture.

Nintendo, flush with the success of Wii, also with experience of the toy business, and with a reputation for "blue sky thinking," seemed like the perfect choice. Toys for Bob journeyed to Nintendo of America's offices to present the idea, very early in its development cycle.

"We had been directed towards thinking about something that would play well with Nintendo," says Ford. "I think there was some co-marketing money and the Wii was doing well. They had some success with peripherals."

"They spent a long time looking and looking," says Reiche. "They were just like 'we have never seen anything like this before.' I've always wondered about the full meaning of that comment [laughs]." Although there was a limited co-marketing deal, Nintendo did not want to make a full commitment to Skylanders. "We have no idea why," says Reiche. "Clearly, they have got properties well suited to this world. Why it is that they didn't rush in here will probably haunt them for the rest of their days."

A Nintendo-exclusive would have changed the shape of the project considerably, as well as adding the complexity of a business partner with a reputation for desiring granular control. It was a disappointment, at the time. Now, it looks like a fortunate escape.

Reiche is still surprised that the entertainment giant which reacted most quickly was Disney, which launched Disney Infinity in 2013 and is looking to expand the franchise. "Nintendo could have kicked Disney's ass," says Reiche. "If I was running Nintendo I would have jumped on this."

A lot more and a much larger story at Polygon: www.polygon.com/2014/4/16/5614716/skylanders-story-toys-for-bob-skylanders-swap-force

[Vice honcho room temperature]

I still think a Nintendo version can pull the Wii U out to respectability sales wise even with Disney in there

[King Ghidorah]

It was a game based on Spyro the dragon characters, Ms Cleeo could not see that coming

[Cyno]

I personally don't care about Skylanders, but those things are crazy popular. Seems like it's Nintendo's biggest missed opportunity since they dropped the SNES-CD "Playstation" project with Sony.

[Deleted]

Nintendo could be rolling in the dough right now. Everywhere I go there's kids buying Skylanders and Disney Infinity packs. Black Friday was ridiculous with how many people were grabbing anything related to the two.

[Koda, Master Crunchyroller]

Huge miss by Nintendo......

They can still their own take on the genre, though.

A Nintendo Universe thing, where they can include characters from every property.

Hell they could actually put effort into it and just do a Pokemon one. There is literally over 700 figures they could make for that. I say put effort into it, though, cause they already dipped their toes into doing the whole figure-based games thing with Pokemon Rumble U, it had some cheap little $4 blind bag figures you could buy and put into the game, but there were two problems, a) the game itself sucked, and b) while the figures themselves had this cute polygonal design to them, there was only a small handful of them, like 18 or some other small number like that.

[Amazing Kitsune]

Apr 16, 2014 15:08:42 GMT -5 King Ghidorah said:

It was a game based on Spyro the dragon characters, Ms Cleeo could not see that coming

This.

[Blindkarevik]

Honestly, I could see Nintendo being a bit hesitant due to the yearly release schedule Activision has in place for it. Nintendo has always liked having a wait-and-see approach to their games. They already have one franchise that is, essentially, the same game every time out (Pokemon) and while that's not a bad thing, I think they'd rather have a less strict timetable of release. Once Nintendo releases a new system that usually means a couple things: A New Mario, Mario Kart, Smash Bros, Zelda, and Pokemon game, a few remakes of classic titles, some surprises of revisited franchises. Nintendo likes playing these pretty close to the chest as well, so they can have all the time to work out, plan, develop and release on THEIR schedule. I really think the only reason we've seen constant updates on the new Smash Bros and Mario Kart 8 is because they figure both games are potential system sellers for the Wii U.

I think they'd feel more pressured by the release dates, by the dillution of the franchise, and not really wanna stick their name on it.

Plus, it's Nintendo.... if they REALLY wanted a piece of the pie, they'd make their own version featuring their characters and win tons of sales on that fact alone.

[Vice honcho room temperature]

Apr 16, 2014 16:38:17 GMT -5 Blindkarevik said:

Honestly, I could see Nintendo being a bit hesitant due to the yearly release schedule Activision has in place for it. Nintendo has always liked having a wait-and-see approach to their games. They already have one franchise that is, essentially, the same game every time out (Pokemon) and while that's not a bad thing, I think they'd rather have a less strict timetable of release. Once Nintendo releases a new system that usually means a couple things: A New Mario, Mario Kart, Smash Bros, Zelda, and Pokemon game, a few remakes of classic titles, some surprises of revisited franchises. Nintendo likes playing these pretty close to the chest as well, so they can have all the time to work out, plan, develop and release on THEIR schedule. I really think the only reason we've seen constant updates on the new Smash Bros and Mario Kart 8 is because they figure both games are potential system sellers for the Wii U.

I think they'd feel more pressured by the release dates, by the dillution of the franchise, and not really wanna stick their name on it.

Plus, it's Nintendo.... if they REALLY wanted a piece of the pie, they'd make their own version featuring their characters and win tons of sales on that fact alone.

Mario Party proves their okay with annual releases so that can't be it.

[Blindkarevik]

Apr 16, 2014 16:39:42 GMT -5 Vice honcho room temperature said:

Apr 16, 2014 16:38:17 GMT -5 Blindkarevik said:

Honestly, I could see Nintendo being a bit hesitant due to the yearly release schedule Activision has in place for it. Nintendo has always liked having a wait-and-see approach to their games. They already have one franchise that is, essentially, the same game every time out (Pokemon) and while that's not a bad thing, I think they'd rather have a less strict timetable of release. Once Nintendo releases a new system that usually means a couple things: A New Mario, Mario Kart, Smash Bros, Zelda, and Pokemon game, a few remakes of classic titles, some surprises of revisited franchises. Nintendo likes playing these pretty close to the chest as well, so they can have all the time to work out, plan, develop and release on THEIR schedule. I really think the only reason we've seen constant updates on the new Smash Bros and Mario Kart 8 is because they figure both games are potential system sellers for the Wii U.

I think they'd feel more pressured by the release dates, by the dillution of the franchise, and not really wanna stick their name on it.

Plus, it's Nintendo.... if they REALLY wanted a piece of the pie, they'd make their own version featuring their characters and win tons of sales on that fact alone.

Mario Party proves their okay with annual releases so that can't be it.

Yeah, but Mario Party is the equivalent of you and your friends getting high one night and thinking of all the awesome stuff you'd do if you were in charge of everything, then throwing it all into one game. It's hardly fleshed out.

[Vice honcho room temperature]

Apr 16, 2014 16:43:34 GMT -5 Blindkarevik said:

Apr 16, 2014 16:39:42 GMT -5 Vice honcho room temperature said:

Mario Party proves their okay with annual releases so that can't be it.

Yeah, but Mario Party is the equivalent of you and your friends getting high one night and thinking of all the awesome stuff you'd do if you were in charge of everything, then throwing it all into one game. It's hardly fleshed out.

I know I'm just saying that's probably not a deal breaker

[Michael Coello]

I still don't see the big deal about this.

[andrew8798]

Also Skylanders recently surpassed $2 billion in revenue

[Red Impact]

I'm actually just surprised Nintendo passed on it. Nintendo is the king of pointless peripherals. They've had e-card readers and games that require light sensors, forcing you to play in sunlight. Were any of the crazy peripherals they've come out with really a bigger risk than this was? Or was it the first time they actually said no to an idea out of R&D? I wouldn't begrudge any company for passing on a risk just because it was successful later, hindsight being 20-20 and all, but it is surprising that the company with the history of supporting this type of thing that'd only ever be used by a couple of games wouldn't jump at this.

Take Spyro out of it (he's not even in the ads for the thing anymore) and just look at it in terms of the technology. You have this exclusive to any console and they'd have a killer IP under their belt. Nintendo characters in Skylanders games? A Mario game with extra characters that you buy figures for? Expand it to now, and the next Sonic game could have very well been using this. You could even have a new Pokemon Arena game with this technology.

[Jiren]

I'd love to see a Marvel/DC/Star wars style sky landers game

I'd be on that shit

[TurdBurgler83]

Apr 16, 2014 19:48:13 GMT -5 Jiren said:

I'd love to see a Marvel/DC/Star wars style sky landers game

I'd be on that shit

Disney already announced that Star Wars and Marvel are being added to the Disney Infinity line.

[xCompackx]

Apr 16, 2014 18:00:52 GMT -5 Red Impact said:

I'm actually just surprised Nintendo passed on it. Nintendo is the king of pointless peripherals. They've had e-card readers and games that require light sensors, forcing you to play in sunlight. Were any of the crazy peripherals they've come out with really a bigger risk than this was? Or was it the first time they actually said no to an idea out of R&D? I wouldn't begrudge any company for passing on a risk just because it was successful later, hindsight being 20-20 and all, but it is surprising that the company with the history of supporting this type of thing that'd only ever be used by a couple of games wouldn't jump at this.

Take Spyro out of it (he's not even in the ads for the thing anymore) and just look at it in terms of the technology. You have this exclusive to any console and they'd have a killer IP under their belt. Nintendo characters in Skylanders games? A Mario game with extra characters that you buy figures for? Expand it to now, and the next Sonic game could have very well been using this. You could even have a new Pokemon Arena game with this technology.

I think if Nintendo is avoiding smartphones, they'll avoid this too. I mean, imagine a SSB game that requires you to buy new figures for new characters. Would people go for that? It would be an easy way make tons of money and I agree it makes sense business-wise, but I don't really see Nintendo going for it.

[Red Impact]

Apr 16, 2014 20:27:34 GMT -5 xCompackx said:

Apr 16, 2014 18:00:52 GMT -5 Red Impact said:

I'm actually just surprised Nintendo passed on it. Nintendo is the king of pointless peripherals. They've had e-card readers and games that require light sensors, forcing you to play in sunlight. Were any of the crazy peripherals they've come out with really a bigger risk than this was? Or was it the first time they actually said no to an idea out of R&D? I wouldn't begrudge any company for passing on a risk just because it was successful later, hindsight being 20-20 and all, but it is surprising that the company with the history of supporting this type of thing that'd only ever be used by a couple of games wouldn't jump at this.

Take Spyro out of it (he's not even in the ads for the thing anymore) and just look at it in terms of the technology. You have this exclusive to any console and they'd have a killer IP under their belt. Nintendo characters in Skylanders games? A Mario game with extra characters that you buy figures for? Expand it to now, and the next Sonic game could have very well been using this. You could even have a new Pokemon Arena game with this technology.

I think if Nintendo is avoiding smartphones, they'll avoid this too. I mean, imagine a SSB game that requires you to buy new figures for new characters. Would people go for that? It would be an easy way make tons of money and I agree it makes sense business-wise, but I don't really see Nintendo going for it.

They went for e-card readers though, and this is a similar idea, but with figures instead of cards. ANd if Skylanders proves anything, it's that people will go for that. We can hate their business model, sure, but it's working.