Activision brings Skylanders Battlecast, mixes physical, digital card gaming

May 25, 2016

The geeks behind ‘Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft’ can’t be stopped. No, there’s no rest for Activision Blizzard as the company brings the popular video game ‘Skylanders’ to mobile. The multibillion-dollar franchise is expected to become another bestseller in the gaming industry, earning not just millions but billions just like Hearthstone. This is the second Skylanders game Activision is bringing to Android with the first being the Skylanders Trap Team a couple of years ago.

Activision has just launched the Skylanders Battlecast. It’s a free-to-play card game available for Android, as well as, iOS and Amazon Fire. It combines in-app purchases for cards and buying real card packs in stores. It’s mixing digital and physical goods as as business model that has worked for some games. This isn’t exactly a new thing but we’ll see if this will work again.

Skylanders has been a successful toys-to-life business just like Disney Infinity. Sadly, the latter will be discounted as announced last week. The new Skylanders Battlecast has a lot of potential because it also has many fans. The idea is that the cards (physical cards) will be scanned by the phone camera. This adds augmented reality to the game bringing the cards to life. It’s up to you how you will play the game whether solo, against other players, ranked, or casual mode.

Each Battlecast card features a character, gear, spells, Relics, and other items that can be used in the battleground. There are 300 different cards that can compete in about 60 missions across eight elemental islands.

You can buy one pack of Battlecast Battle for $10. Each pack consists of 22 cards. You can also get more boosters at $5 for 8 cards. With all these cards and your skills, you can be the ultimate Battlecaster of all time. It’s time for you to finally beat Kaos and defend the Skylanders. The characters need those cards and boosters to defeat the enemies and save the Second Dimension. Device strategies, cast powerful spells, upgrade your gear, level up, or even change the rules of the game with Relic cards. It’s up to you how you will handle this battle. The Skylanders are all under your control now.