And now Hasbro, one of the biggest names in the toy and game business, is throwing their weight behind the 3D trend.
This is where Disney Infinity will live or die, making a strong connection between the toy figures and the game.
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Activision also showcased some other key titles, including Prototype 2 and a new kids game and toy franchise called Skylanders.
Disney, which has recently announced its own ambitious Disney Infinity video game and toy line, is making a sound business decision to move to a licensing model.
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It's essentially the equivalent of how fighting games work in Japanese arcades, albeit with children's toys and a relatively simple action game: you level up your character, which is tied to your toy, and it can be used to continue earning experience on a variety of game consoles.
According to NPD Group, a market research company that tracks the toy and videogame business, board-game sales overall are up 9% in the last year on the strength of strong performance of the classic segment, which includes Monopoly.
Most recent of those were Toy Story 3: The Video Game and Cars 2: The Video Game.
Maintaining this number one position will be harder this year though, with Disney Infinity offering a similar toy-meets-video-game experience, and one that can leverage the family favorite Disney characters.
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Additionally, players will be able to transport vehicles and mounts from the game world into the open world toy box.
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Take the toy off the portal, and poof, the character disappears in-game.
The game then saves character upgrades and progress back to the toy so you can take it to a friends house and continue playing with all your upgrades.
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Win a game in the virtual world, for instance, and the toy gains a new functionality in the real world.
Imagine a sprawling Skylanders-esque game featuring characters and environments from Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Toy Story, iconic fairy tale films, and the multitude of properties in their creative stable.
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UDOO-based projects demonstrated in the video included a camera-equipped toy car controlled remotely with a tablet, programming education for kids, and a video game involving players running on equipment reminiscent of the Wii Balance Board.
Lab members originally wrote the software in 2011 for a toy car racing game, in which small virtual cars zoom around a tabletop, realistically rounding behind books and flying off paper ramps.
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