Skylanders SuperChargers debuts Sept. 20, 2015.
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Activision swings back at toy-game rivals with Skylanders vehicles

The “toys to life” market for video games is teeming with competition. But Activision, which created the hybrid category in 2011, is battling back at that competition this year with a new game that focuses on innovation: Skylanders SuperChargers.

Parents are going to hate it, because it means spending more money on games and toys (one survey found parents spent $131 on toys-to-life over six months). Activision and its Vicarious Visions game studios are focusing on innovation as their strategy to hang on to the lion’s share of the toys-to-life market, which has generated an estimated $4 billion to date.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.