Video-games offer ever more realistic visuals and sound, and with the PS4 just announced and the next Xbox not far away they will be getting closer to photorealism than ever.
Titles like Beyond: Two Souls on the PS3 make no bones about the fact they aim to offer cinematic experiences in both storytelling and graphics.
However, while the video-game industry at large declines, a set of games that offer realism in an entirely different have managed growth.
This new genre was created by the Skylanders franchise and uses RFID technology in a USB ‘Portal peripheral to wirelessly connect to toy figures and grant access to in-game characters and content.
The interaction is two ways. While the toy is used to unlock these in-game characters, the game wirelessly saves progress, upgrades and customisations back to the chip in the toy figure. This means that when you use the toy on a different game (even a different console platform) the player’s unique character is instantly available.
Such has been the success of the Skylanders franchise other publishers have been keen to match Activision’s approach. Earlier this year Disney Interactive announced their version of this toy-meets-game genre with Disney Infinity. As CEO John Blackburn explains, the game leverages the various characters in a “Play Box” mode that lets players create their own game challenges.
Keen not to be caught on the back foot, soon after Activision announced Skylanders Swap Force. This latest iteration of the Skylanders franchise offers new toys that separate at the waist and can be mixed and matched to create custom combinations - both in the real world and in the game.
Guha Bala, CEO of Vicarious Visions (the developer behind the game), talked about the new features and why the game requires players to replace their old USB peripherals with a new Starter Pack used in the first two games. The new Swap Force character’s technology has led to them redesigning the peripheral that reads the figures to accommodate their mix and match function.
There are also other developers with similar offerings, as well as a slew of upcoming games. Most interesting of these is the iPad Cars 2 AppMates app that uses a toy car not only to access in-game characters but also to control them. Players place the car on the surface of the tablet and drive them around much as they would a Matchbox car on the living-room floor.
In a similar way to how the Wii created a family friendly market that other platform holders still court to this day (Xbox 360 with Kinect and PS3 with Move), Skylanders has proven that this toy-meets-game genre is hugely attractive to families.
The challenge for Activision, as well as other developers entering this space, is walking the tightrope between profitability and value for money. In Skylanders there are some tensions, like the reposed figures that come out each year and the Soul Gem in game adverts for different toys, and in Disney Infinity there are the Power discs that have to be purchased in foil packs like collectible cards.
The successes in this space so far have resulted not only from clever technology and heavy marketing, but from genuine creativity in design and attention to detail. Compare the Skylanders or Disney Infinity figures to any other collectable toy line and they really do look quite impressive - both in the number of paint passes and the variety of materials used.
Also, both Activision and Disney Interactive have invested heavily in proprietary development tools to streamline the creation of these games and allow for quick iterations and a yearly development cycle.
This year, Activision took this a step further by introducing a second developer to its Skylanders franchise - much like it does with Infinity Ward and Treyarch sharing development on its Call of Duty franchise.
Time will tell how long this genre can continue before family gamers get fatigued of the idea. Currently there seems to be plenty of new ideas to keep interest levels high.
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