Skylanders Trap Team™ on Store Shelves now - Franchise That Pioneered the Toys-to-life Category Introduces Another Groundbreaking Innovation

News provided by

Oct 09, 2014, 07:01 ET

SANTA MONICA, California, October 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

Capture Evil, Unleash Good! Skylanders Trap Team Lets Fans Trap and Play as Villains

Skylanders Trap Team Revolutionizes the Gaming Industry, Offering the Full AAA Console Experience on Both Tablet and Console -- for the First Time Ever

To celebrate the launch, a team of 'SkyTrappers' played Skylanders Trap Team at 12,500 feet (2.5 miles) above the Earth; during a free-fall skydive that reached speeds of 122mph and captured an in-game villain

Behold, Portal Masters! Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) is pleased to announce that Skylanders Trap Team is officially available at major retailers in Europe today on Xbox 360^™ and Xbox One^™ video game and entertainment systems from Microsoft, PlayStation^® 3 and PlayStation^® 4 computer entertainment systems, Nintendo's Wii^™ system, Nintendo's Wii U^™ system, and a completely unique adventure available on the Nintendo 3DS^™ hand-held system. The launch of Skylanders Trap Team also ushers in the complete console gaming experience on Tablet^[1], introducing a Starter Pack that supports iPad®, Kindle Fire and Android tablets.

To view the Multimedia News Release, please click:

http://www.multivu.com/players/English/72762564-activision-skylanders-trap-team/

"The franchise was built on a foundation of creativity and innovation," said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing. "And with Skylanders Trap Team, we're taking that tradition of innovation to new heights. For the last three years we've allowed kids to bring their toys to life in a video game, and this year, we're letting them reach into the game, and pull characters out into the physical world by letting players trap and play as the villains. Skylanders Trap Team is also the first console game to simultaneously bring the entire AAA experience to tablet devices. Overall, we think Skylanders Trap Team represents our most magical innovations yet. But most importantly, it's just a great game."

To mark the moment Skylanders Trap Team lands at retailers in Europe, an intrepid team of 'SkyTrappers' - were the first people in the world to trap a virtual villain while freefalling from 12,500 feet above earth and travelling at speeds of 122 miles per hour.

The latest installment of the franchise that pioneered the Toys-to-Life genre is already poised to become one of the top family games this holiday.

The game, continues to lead and evolve the category with Skylanders Trap Team by letting fans seek out and defeat the most wanted villains in all of Skylands, pull them out of the game and into living rooms by capturing them in magical Traps. Once they've defeated the villains, players will be able to place a Trap into the new Traptanium Portal^[^TM^] to capture them. Players can then send villains back into the game where they can play as them to fight for good, reversing the magic. They will also be able to hear the villains inside the Traps, an innovation that truly brings life to toys.

To celebrate the launch, Portal Masters also visited some of the most iconic landmarks on Earth to ensure they are safe from the villains of Skylanders; bad guys were trapped in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, in a capsule on the London Eye, up the Kampenwand mountain in Germany, below the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles and overlooking the Sydney Opera House.

Skylanders Trap Team introduces heroes known as Trap Masters that wield powerful Traptanium^™weapons used to defeat Skylands' most notorious villains including Kaos, as well as brand new Core Skylanders characters and reposed fan-favorite Skylanders characters. The game also features a variety of elementally aligned Traps with unique and interesting designs. In addition, Skylanders Trap Team welcomes Skylanders Minis, 16 small but powerful Skylanders now fully playable, who join the battle against Skylands' most nefarious villains. Coming to fans worldwide on November 1, Eon's Elite collectors' toys feature never-before-seen decoration with a distinct, metallic finish and a golden base that sets them apart from other Skylanders toys.

Skylanders Trap Team is compatible with more than 175 unique toys from all previous games -- Skylanders SWAP Force^™, Skylanders Giants^™ and Skylanders Spyro's Adventure^®-- every character also will be able to defeat and trap villains using Traptanium Traps, providing fans more ways to enjoy their collections.

About the Franchise

The award-winning, $2 billion franchise pioneered the Toys-to-Life^™ category in 2011 with the debut of Skylanders Spyro's Adventure^®. The game originated a new play pattern that seamlessly bridged physical and virtual worlds across multiple platforms. In October 2012, Skylanders Giants^™ further evolved the genre and added the mega-sized Giant Skylanders and LightCore^® characters to the collection of interaction figures. Skylanders SWAP Force^™launched in October 2013 and introduced an all-new play pattern - swapability. It was the top selling kids' videogame franchise of 2013^[2]worldwide, and is now one of the top 20 videogame franchises of all time^[3]. Skylanders Trap Team^™reverses the magic of bringing Toys-to-Life -- incredibly letting kids pull characters out of the digital world into the physical world. For more information, please visit: http://www.skylanders.com and Activision.com/presscenter.

About Activision Publishing

Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Publishing, Inc. is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and leisure products. Activision maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Singapore, mainland China, Hong Kong and the region of Taiwan. More information about Activision and its products can be found on the company's website, http://www.activision.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements: Information in this press release that involves Activision Publishing's expectations, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future, including statements about Skylanders Trap Team™ are forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause Activision Publishing's actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements set forth in this release include unanticipated product delays and other factors identified in the risk factors sections of Activision Blizzard's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon information available to Activision Publishing and Activision Blizzard as of the date of this release, and neither Activision Publishing nor Activision Blizzard assumes any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements believed to be true when made may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of the future performance of Activision Publishing or Activision Blizzard and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond its control and may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations.

© 2014 Activision Publishing, Inc., SKYLANDERS, SKYLANDERS TRAP TEAM, SKYLANDERS SPYRO'S ADVENTURE, SKYLANDERS GIANTS, SKYLANDERS SWAP FORCE, SKYLANDERS COLLECTION VAULT, TRAPTANIUM, TRAPTANIUM PORTAL, PORTAL OF POWER, LIGHTCORE, TOYS TO LIFE, and ACTIVISION are trademarks of Activision Publishing, Inc.

^[1^] Graphics quality may vary due to device limitations

^[²^] According to The NPD Group, GfK Chart-Track and Activision Blizzard internal estimates, including toys and accessories.

^[³^] According to The NPD Group, GfK Chart-Track and Activision Blizzard internal estimates, including toys and accessories. All time since NPD and GfK Chart-track began recording data.

Video:
http://www.multivu.com/players/English/72762564-activision-skylanders-trap-team/

SOURCE Activision