Activision brings life to toys in Skylanders: Trap Team (preview)

Activision is announcing the Skylanders: Trap Team video game as the latest installment of a series that has generated more than $2 billion in revenue through a clever melding of toys and video games. The newest version has innovations that change the motto of “bringing toys to life” by reversing it and “bringing life to toys.”

The big video game publisher has a lot at stake in Skylanders: Trap Team, as the series has sold more than 176 million toys in the past few years, even in the face of some serious competition from Disney Infinity, another toy-game hybrid. Rather than waging brand warfare as Disney has done, Activision hopes to capture the imagination of gamers — and trap even more dollars in the consumer’s wallet — through gameplay innovation.