Skylanders: Swap Force Release Date Fall; Activision to Launch 16 New Swapable Figures

By Dexter Keyton

Activision announced the release for Skylanders Swap Force at a press event in New York City on Tuesday.

The game was announced during NYC's Game Fair 2013 with an unspecified release date set for this fall for Nintendo Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision was quoted in a press statement released on Tuesday talking about how the series has changed the gaming experience: "With Skylanders, we didn't just create a beloved new franchise, we actually created an entirely new category that brings the world of physical toys and video games together like never before. And now with Skylanders SWAP Force, we are pushing the genre we created forward with another big innovation: customization."

The child-friendly adventure game uses a wide range of figures that interact with characters on screen using the Portal of Power that unlocks a digital representation.

Hirshberg added that the franchise was developed to give kids a chance to have an individual experience with the gameplay and also give them a chance to play with their toys in a new way.

"The idea that kids can customize their own characters in the physical world, and have their unique combinations recognized in the virtual world, is an idea as big as the concept of bringing toys to life itself," Hirshberg said.

The customization plays a big part of Skylanders Swap Force which features characters with the special ability to swap top and bottom halves of the figures between each other for unique combinations of different powers.

The game will launch 16 new Swap Force action figures to give gamers 250 possible customizations to work with, according to Forbes.

There will also be new side games that require certain character abilities in order to be unlocked for play.

The Skylanders series has been very successful since it was first debuted in 2011 with Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure. Activision announced the latest U.S. sales figures this week that amount to over $500 million, according to IGN.

Skylanders Swap Force is the third title in the series and follows last year's release of Skylanders Giants.