Press Release Details

Skylanders® Fans Can Now Pre-Order a Trap Master Toy for Skylanders Trap Team™

June 5, 2014 at 8:00 AM EDT

Limited Supply of Gearshift is Available

Fans who Pre-order the Toy will Receive Gearshift When Skylanders Trap Team™ Launches October 5 -- Months in Advance of Public Release

SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Skylanders Trap Team™ will get a heavy dose of girl power when Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) brings Gearshift to Portal Masters via a special pre-order program starting today. Gearshift is the latest character to be unveiled in the Skylanders Trap Team lineup and will be offered to Skylanders fans for pre-order at all major North American retailers while supplies last. This marks the first time fans will be able to get their hands on the Tech element character, months in advance of her official arrival at retail in 2015. Only a limited supply of Gearshift will be available for the October 5, 2014 launch of Skylanders Trap Team™ in North America, so fans are encouraged to pre-order her today to guarantee they can get this highly collectible character at launch!

Skylanders® fans can now pre-order Gearshift for Skylanders Trap Team™ (Photo: Business Wire)

Skylanders® fans can now pre-order Gearshift for Skylanders Trap Team™ (Photo: Business Wire)

Skylanders Trap Team brings a ground-breaking innovation to the Skylanders franchise by reversing the magic of its signature Toys-To-Life™ play pattern to let kids bring life-to-toys for the first time. In the game, Gearshift was created on the Tech island of Metallana by King Mercurus, who considered the young robot to be his own daughter. But rather than performing royal duties, Gearshift preferred to spend her time in the oily depths of the kingdom among its workers, secretly tending to the huge subterranean machines. When her father discovered this, he was furious - but then a squadron of Undead Stormriders suddenly attacked. Learning that these marauders wanted to capture her father, Gearshift used her knowledge of the labyrinth below to hide him. Seizing the emblem of her people - The Great Gear - she used it to fight the Stormriders, inspiring the workers to rise up. Together, they drove the Stormriders out of Metallana and saved the kingdom. For this, Gearshift was made part of the Trap Team, using her new awesome Traptanium-forged gear to help defend Skylands.

Skylanders Trap Team allows Portal Masters to seek out the most wanted villains in all of Skylands, capture them and pull them out of the game into their living rooms by securing them in a Trap. Fans can then use Traps to play as both heroes and villains who join the forces of good for the first time in an all-new adventure. The game will come with the Traptanium Portal, a new device that will enable kids to hear the villain speaking to them from inside the physical Trap.

Kids will be able to place the Trap in a special slot on the Portal, next to their Skylanders figures, to defeat and capture villains, as well as play as villains. Players also have the option to switch between playing as a Skylander and a villain at any time, creating fun and unique "tag team" gameplay. They can even take their Traps and their Skylanders characters to their friends' houses for fun, co-operative adventures across console game systems. Skylanders Trap Team will be available on Nintendo Wii™, Wii U™, 3DS™, PlayStation®3 and PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system as well as the Xbox 360™ and Xbox One™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft.

Additionally, Skylanders fans attending E3 2014 will get an exclusive first glimpse of this new hero at the Activision booth, which is located in South Hall #1647.

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. 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 SWAP Force launched in October 2013 and introduced an all-new play pattern - swapability. The Skylanders franchise was the top selling kids' videogame of 20131, and is one of the top 20 videogame franchises of all time2. Skylanders Trap Team, the newest installment due out in North America on October 5, 2014, reverses the magic of bringing Toys-To-Life - incredibly letting kids pull characters out of the digital world into the physical world. For more information, please visit: www.skylanders.com and Activision.com/presscenter.

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.

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 date 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, TOYS TO LIFE, and ACTIVISION are trademarks of Activision Publishing, Inc.

1 According to The NPD Group, GfK Chart-Track and Activision Blizzard internal estimates, including toys and accessories

2 According to The NPD Group and GfK Chart-Track

PMK•BNC
Michele Wyman, 310-854-3264
michele.wyman@pmkbnc.com
or
Activision Publishing
Dior Brown, 424-744-5864
dior.brown@activision.com

Source: Activision Publishing, Inc.

News Provided by Acquire Media