Activision, the Anti-Zynga

Despite fewer gamers, sales of Activision’s Skylanders franchise may hit $1 billion in 2013

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By Cliff Edwards

October 5, 2012 at 8:31 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

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This article is part of the October 8, 2012 issue of businessweek.

If you don’t have Oct. 21 marked on your calendar, chances are you’re not a big fan of Gill Grunt, Trigger Happy, and the other heroes in the hit video game Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure. More than 32 million of the games and accompanying toy action figures, introduced last October, had sold by the end of March, and on Oct. 21 tens of millions of copies of its sequel, Skylanders Giants, will be released at a suggested retail price of $75 each.

This is good news for Activision Blizzard, the game’s developer, and its chief executive officer, Bobby Kotick. Three years ago he decided not to buy companies that make games for Facebook, as his competitors Electronic Arts and Walt Disney did to compete against Zynga, the leading maker of games for social sites.