At a very special press event, held in what was, quite frankly the collest room i have ever attended an event in, Activision unveiled the next iteration in it’s record shattering “Skylanders” video game series. Now, it is my pleasure to introduce you to Skylanders Trap Team.

To start, here is the official press release announcement.

NEWEST SKYLANDERS^® GAME – SKYLANDERS TRAP TEAM^TM – TAKES

TOYS-TO-LIFE PHENOMENON TO NEW LEVELS BY BRINGING DIGITAL CHARACTERS INTO THE PHYSICAL WORLD

Skylanders Originator Toys for Bob Returns with

 Ground-Breaking Innovation

Portal Masters Can Now Capture and Play as Villains;

Capture and Play as Kaos for the First Time Ever

Santa Monica, Calif. – April 23, 2014 – Skylanders^® is redefining the toys-to-life phenomenon with yet another ground-breaking innovation, Skylanders Trap Team^™. On October 5 in North America, Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI), will introduce the newest installment to the Skylanders franchise, which will reverse the magic of bringing toys to life – incredibly letting kids pull characters out of the digital world into the physical world.

With Skylanders Trap Team, Portal Masters seek out and defeat the most wanted villains in all of Skylands, pulling them out of the game and into living rooms by capturing them in magical Traps. Players can then send villains back into the game where they play as them to fight for good. The game will include the Traptanium Portal^TM, a new ring of magical energy that enables kids to not only bring their Skylanders to life, but also magically capture villains using the new Traps. Once they’ve defeated the villains, kids will be able to place a Trap into the new portal to capture them. They will also be able to hear the villains inside the Traps, an innovation that truly brings life to toys.

This exciting new play pattern also gives players the option to switch between playing as a Skylander hero or a villain at any time, creating fun and unique “tag team” gameplay. In addition, fans can even take their Traps and their Skylanders characters to their friends’ houses for fun, co-operative adventures across all console game systems.

“When we created Skylanders, we invented a new category of play and, in the process, disrupted two industries – videogames and toys.  With each new Skylanders game, our commitment to continuous, disruptive innovation has led to surprising and delightful new ways for kids to play with toys and games,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing, Inc. “With Skylanders Trap Team, we’re no longer just letting kids bring their toys to life inside the game anymore. This time, we’re letting them pull their toys out of the game as well. We are confident this installment of Skylanders will once again redefine what’s possible at the intersection of the physical and virtual worlds.”

“When Activision first introduced the Skylanders franchise in 2011, it promised to redefine play by merging the physical and digital worlds. The company delivered on that pledge with three blockbuster titles – all of which have been named to the annual Toys“R”Us Holiday Hot Toy List – and is now poised to do it again with the introduction of Skylanders Trap Team,” said Richard Barry, Executive Vice President, Chief Merchandising Officer Toys“R”Us, Inc. “With Skylanders Trap Team, Activision is  reversing the magic of ‘toys-to-life,’ allowing kids to bring characters out of the digital world and into the physical world for the first time. We’re thrilled to continue as a marquee destination for Skylanders products, providing a comprehensive, global marketing and merchandising program, including our fully exclusive Legendary series of figures that will introduce Skylanders Trap Team to our enthusiastic customers this October.”

In Skylanders Trap Team, Kaos continues his ongoing quest to rule over Skylands.  He has discovered the location of the legendary Cloudcracker Prison — a fortress built entirely out of the magical substance Traptanium^TM and home to Skylands’ most nefarious baddies.  In an attempt to build his own army of foes, Kaos blows up the prison, releasing the most wanted villains and blasting shards of Traptanium to Earth in the form of Traps.  Now it’s up to Portal Masters to recapture all of the escaped villains using powerful Traptanium Traps and defeat Kaos before it’s too late! The new adventure delivers a diverse and dynamic story-driven gameplay experience, filled with adventure, combat, puzzles, mini-games, activities, platforming and drop-in/drop-out co-op play — all set within new compelling environments.

Skylanders Trap Team introduces Skylanders heroes known as Trap Masters, brand new Core Skylanders characters and reposed fan-favorite Skylanders characters. The game also features a variety of elementally aligned Traps with unique and interesting designs. With every addition to their Trap Team collection, Portal Masters unlock exciting gameplay possibilities within each level.

Fans can pre-order Skylanders Trap Team starting on April 23, with special offers available at select retail destinations worldwide. Skylanders Trap Team will be available on Xbox 360^™ and  Xbox One^™video game and entertainment systems from Microsoft, PlayStation^® 3 and PlayStation^® 4 computer entertainment systems, Nintendo’s Wii^™ system, Nintendo’s Wii U^™ system, and a completely unique adventure available on the Nintendo 3DS^™ hand-held system. The game will be available on October 5 in North America; October 2 in Australia/New Zealand; and October 10 in Europe.

About the Skylanders^® Franchise

The award-winning, $2 billion Skylanders franchise pioneered the toys-to-life category in 2011 with the debut of Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure^®. The game originated a new play pattern that seamlessly bridged physical and virtual worlds across multiple platforms and became the top-selling kids’ videogame of 2013¹ as well as one of the top 20 videogame franchises of all time². In October 2012, Skylanders Giants^™ further evolved the genre and added the mega-sized Giant Skylanders and LightCore^® characters to the collection of interaction figures. Skylanders Giants was awarded the “e-Connected Toy of the Year” at the 13th Annual Toy of the Year (TOTY) Awards.  Skylanders SWAP Force^™, which launched in October 2013, introduced an all new play pattern – swapability. The game was developed by Vicarious Visions and is rated E10+ by the ESRB. On October 5, 2014, Skylanders Trap Team^™will reverse the magic of bringing toys to life by letting players capture villains and play as them using Traps that bring life to toys with the new Traptanium Portal.

About Activision Publishing

Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Publishing, Inc. is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and leisure products. Activision maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Singapore, mainland China, Hong Kong and the region of Taiwan. More information about Activision and its products can be found on the company’s website, www.activision.com. 

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Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements: Information in this press release that involves Activision Publishing’s expectations, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future, including statements about the expected release dates of Skylanders Trap Team, are forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause Activision Publishing’s actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements set forth in this release include unanticipated product delays and other factors identified in the risk factors sections of Activision Blizzard’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon information available to Activision Publishing and Activision Blizzard as of the date of this release, and neither Activision Publishing nor Activision Blizzard assumes any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements believed to be true when made may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of the future performance of Activision Publishing or Activision Blizzard and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond its control and may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations.

© 2014 Activision Publishing, Inc., SKYLANDERS, SKYLANDERS TRAP TEAM, SKYLANDERS SPYRO’S ADVENTURE,  SKYLANDERS GIANTS, SKYLANDERS SWAP FORCE, TRAPTANIUM, TRAPTANIUM PORTAL, LIGHTCORE and ACTIVISION are trademarks of Activision Publishing, Inc.

1Based on revenue, according to The NPD Group, Gfk Media Control^® and Activision internal estimates, including toys and accessories, life to date

2According to The NPD Group, GfK Chart-Track and Activision Blizzard internal estimates, including toys and accessories. All time since NPD and GfK Chart-track began recording data

At the event, we were shown gameplay video spotlighting some of the new characters, such as SnapShot, Food Fight and Wallop. We are shown exaples of gameplay featuring the “reformed” villains Chompy Mage and Shrednaught.

Here is a gallery of photos provided by Activision

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And here’s the gallery of photos I took

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And for all of you video fans out there, here’s the video I took of the main presentation, including the live gameplay demo.

And, finally, here is the Official gameplay “B-Roll” provided by Activision

Skylanders Trap Team will be available for all major consoles on October 5th. Pre-orders will open tomorrow at all major retailers.