Over the past few years, Activision’s Skylanders has been established as a powerhouse franchise, with over $500 million in sales between games and secondary figurines that support it. However, it’s also gotten a huge push on the mobile front alongside consoles, with a variety of games and its own line of figurines. Now, Activision wants to take the mobile game further, with its own special version of Skylanders: Trap Team.

The game, which will also make its debut on consoles, will be similar to those versions, as it will utilize a Portal of Power with a near-field communications transmitter that allows connection with mobile devices. Players would then place figurines on the portal, enabling them to be used within the game. The difference, however, is that the portal for the mobile edition is uniquely designed, as it can double as a tablet stand. And also comes with a Bluetooth controller similar in design to the Xbox 360 game controller.

This marks a huge change to the Skylanders franchise on the mobile front, as previous games utilized the touch-screen for gameplay purposes, although the last game also used a similar Portal of Power to have characters interact within the game. The Skylanders: Trap Team starter bundle for tablets is priced exactly the same as the starter package for a console, even though the tablet package includes a Bluetooth controller. Such a move could possibly impact sales of the console versions, especially considering that they use the same set of figurines.

“We’ve always been a platform-agnostic company,” says Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg, “and the tablet is obviously a very compelling and heavily-used new gaming platform for kids.”

The mobile version could provide a secondary solution for kids that don’t want to wait for the use of a television to play the game, and can also enable them to play the game on the go, when they’re not at home in front of their game systems.

“A lot of people mistake tablet gaming as mobile gaming,” said Hirshberg. “And yet we see a lot of kids playing the tablet on the couch, or in their bedroom. And sometimes there’s a giant television screen 10 feet away, and they’re choosing to play on the tablet because it’s their preferred platform.”

Skylanders: Trap Team will arrive on October 5, the same day as the console versions. Which edition will you go after?

Source: Wired