Skylanders franchise crosses $500 million sales mark in North America

Nintendo Insider writes:

Skylanders Giants generated sales of more than $195 million across North America throughout 2012, Activision have announced.

This has allowed the franchise to surpass $500 million in revenue across the country, with both Skylanders Giants and Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure figures outselling other action figure lines in the toy category.

[BillySpandex]

What a worthless franchise. It baffles my mind that time after time, Activision gets away with pushing all this plastic crap onto the market. First it was guitar hero, then it was the ill-fated Tony Hawk's board, and now it's stupid plastic figurines.

[nrvalleytime]

We might not like Skylanders as a game, but you can't deny that the franchise makes for a great toy. My eight year old nephew wanted some of the figurines for Christmas; after he opened them, we played together for an hour. They're not for everyone, but let's not go as far as worthless.

[darx]

@Billy

It's for kids, come on dude!

[kratos123]

I life in the netherlands and i don't think its that popular over here, is it really big in the states?

[jakmckratos]

I personally don;t know anyone with it but that's because Im in my early 20s and have no relatives I see on a regular basis under the age of 15..but all the toys you need are EVERYWHERE. Im also a substitute teacher and sometimes go into early levels( 6 y/o to 11 y/o) and they all eat that shit right up. Toys R Us (Our biggest toy store) has a huge display of them as soon as you go in and electronics store no have demo stations...Im guessing it's a fairly big deal.

[Zanzibar106]

I'm pretty sure the $500m is a solid counterargument to your description as 'worthless.'

You don't have to like it, but the implementation is well-done. What exactly are they 'getting away with'? Are you suggesting people are being duped?

[AWBrawler]

I actually like skylanders. It's a fun game. My Stealth Elf kicks all kind of butt.

[nikrel]

They have done it right. my son loves skylanders, he is 4 just beat the game on his own.
It is also fun for me too, I do not have to worry about anything bad, there is no blood, cussing or anything of the sort.

The characters are really detailed and fun. Everything is lighthearted.

we have it on the wiiu & i give it a 9/10.

[jakmckratos]

Everyone stop hating on it...it's for kids...it's not like Pokemon where there's actually a deep ly rooted RPG among the myriad of (mostly) attractive characters. This game needs TOYS because it is for children...rather than the other way around where some kids like a game so they make toy merchandise. It's a gimmick..a good gimmick

[MilkMan]

Better this than COD even though its the same publisher.