Skylanders Battlecast Trailer: Card-Based Battles Come to Life

The Skylanders series is expanding into card-based gaming with Skylanders Battlecast, which combines physical card play and mobile gaming.

Activision has announced that its Skylanders series is going beyond the realm of toys and video games and into the realm of collectible card games and mobile apps with Skylanders Battlecast. In a nutshell, Skylanders Battlecast is all about collectible card combat that can be scanned with a tablet or mobile device, letting your cards come to life in animated duels onscreen. In the mobile app, you can play single-player campaigns or participate in online PvP gameplay, but it's up to the player to create strategic decks in order to start wrecking people in the battlefield, whether it's on the tabletop or in the app.

"Built from the ground up to bring Skylanders to life on mobile devices,Skylanders Battlecast combines physical card play with mobile gaming in an all-new way," says Eric Hirshberg, CEO, Activision Publishing, Inc.  "This is our biggest investment, and one of our most magical ideas yet, for the Skylanders franchise on mobile."

As you'd expect, you can buy physical card packs at retail stores (where the likes of Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon Trading Card Game packs are sold). There are also digital-only card packs you can buy in-game as well. You can then scan your physical cards into your mobile devices and watch them come to life. Players can also scan two different character cards to watch them duel in the app.

"We are bringing physical cards to life in an exciting new way. Activision has assembled a team of experts across video game design, physical card game design, pro card players and top card artists to develop an amazing new experience," says Josh Taub, senior vice president, product management, Activision Publishing. "With Skylanders Battlecast, fans can expect the amazing creativity, innovation and fun that Skylanders games are known for delivering.

Skylanders Battlecast will be hitting store shelves and launching on the iOS and Android formats in 2016.

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