by alecatq2 » Mon Jul 29, 2013 4:16 am
@Kyle I would think that is more likely if they have pre-teen or teen aged kids. If their kids are still young enough, then the parent would be around watching the Disney channel or Disney Jr. with them. They would also be the means for transport for the kid at that age. They would see the trailers or be looking for G and PG rated movies for those rainy summer afternoons.
Anecdote time: I know this is true with my parents. They took me to the first Harry Potter movie, but after that I was old enough to just get dropped off with friends or drive myself to the rest of the releases. They have no knowledge of the HP universe outside the first movie (or so). They bought the first movie on VHS and then got the DVDs after that, but they have never sat down to watch them themselves. They catch bits and pieces on cable, but without an interested child, they do not invest time into the franchise. When my youngest brother was little my mom knew every single name of every vehicle for Bob the Builder and the theme song, but after he got older he finds individual interests like Minecraft. She doesn't need to sit there with him and she is no longer his primary companion. It happens.
When I first saw the Skylanders pop-up, they were all branded with Spyro and I was interested, because I grew up with the Spyro games. Then I noticed that it bore little resemblance to the Spyro I knew and lost interest. I really liked the concept just not the story line or characters. There wasn't enough there for me to become involved especially when cost prohibitive. I did see the appeal to their main demographic: kids. Disney definitely appeals to multiple generations and is recognizable even just by the name, Disney, on the box. There is plenty of room in this market.
I feel like this could become the toy section of the future in stores. Imagine having entire departments in Toys 'R' Us or aisles at Target devoted to these type of hybrid figures. Right now the most expensive part for the consumer (and perhaps the producer) is the base. It will not go far if you need 18 bases to play all of these games. Although, if my understanding is correct, they wouldn't even need their own bases if they use the Wii U RFID enabled game pad. Nintendo has already established their ability to bring about innovation when the Wii introduced/popularized the movement games. Xbox and PS3 quickly followed suit. If this becomes profitable, you will see the other players join in. This could allow all sorts of players into this genre of toys. They will let two huge franchises break the ice and get people used to the idea and then they will crank out more of these. Being able to download the games when the toy is bought will also help. We may see this storage cability in the next generation of consoles or so. Now just to get gigabit internet speeds to be the norm instead of the exception...
This is really just the beginning of this genre (yes, I know this genre is older than Skylanders itself). It will be really neat to see what happens in the next 5 years.