Aside from the obligatory Nintendo Switch port, of course
During a recent call for investors at Activision, an executive of the company has stated that there will not be any new console-based instalments in the Skylanders series released this year.
This means that 2017 will be the first year to see no new Skylanders titles on home consoles since the series’ inception in 2011. Although there will be a port of Skylanders: Imaginators for the Nintendo Switch, which is meant to be somewhat stripped-down when compared to its counterparts on other home consoles, as it lacks compatibility with some of the toys that are still supported on other platforms.
While home consoles won’t be receiving any new Skylanders games this year, Activision is still working on a mobile title in the series, with an official release date still forthcoming.
To be fair, this news doesn’t exactly come as much of a surprise. About a year ago, during a massive round of layoffs at Activision, the publisher admitted that its then-most-recent instalment in the Skylanders series — Skylanders: Superchargers — had underperformed quite dramatically. It would be reasonable to assume that there was a lot riding on the success (or lack thereof) of the then-upcoming Skylanders: Imaginators.
It also needs to be mentioned that back in May last year, Disney shuttered the studio behind Disney Infinity; a series of games that was seen as a significant rival to Skylanders. The rationale behind this decision by Disney was that sales for its toys-to-life franchise were in decline, and it was becoming unfeasible to continue working on new instalments.
Interestingly enough, the lack of a new Skylanders title for 2017 does seem to lend a fair amount of validity to some claims made in a video released back in November by Liam Robertson of Unseen64. In this video, he stated that the Skylanders series has essentially been cancelled, with no immediate plans to create a new console-based entry in the immediate future.
While Activision has made no official announcements regarding the long-term state of the Skylanders series, the prospect of its cancellation or indefinite hiatus appears to be more and more likely. With that said, it is still entirely possible that Activision may announce a new instalment in the franchise at a later date.
Of course, this isn’t to say that 2017 will be entirely devoid of Skylanders content; alongside the upcoming mobile game, a second season of the Netflix series Skylanders Academy is still set to be released this year, with a third one to air in 2018. As for the long-term state of the series of games? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Skylanders put on hiatus for first time in six years [Polygon]
