Skylanders Spyro's Adventure™ Comes to Life as the Must Have Kids Entertainment Property of the Year

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Oct. 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Buoyed by glowing endorsements from the Toys"R"Us "Holiday Hot Toy List," the Toy Insider "Hot 20 List," and Time to Play's "Power Ups" holiday toy list, Activision Publishing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) is proud to announce that Skylanders Spyro's Adventure is available now at retailers worldwide. The Starter Pack includes the game, three Skylanders action figures, the Portal of Power™ peripheral, a poster and trading cards -- everything consumers need to experience the highly anticipated mingling of digital and physical play that only Skylanders Spyro's Adventure can deliver.

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"Everyone at Activision and Toys for Bob has poured a tremendous amount of passion, imagination and love into creating Skylanders Spyro's Adventure," said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing. "And while it's certainly gratifying to receive recognition from the likes of Toy Insider and Time to Play, we are most excited to share Skylanders Spyro's Adventure with the most important audience of all, young gamers everywhere."

Skylanders Spyro's Adventure is the first game to deliver a cross-platform experience that allows kids to bring toys to life in a magical world via the Portal of Power. And because the toys remember their experiences, they can travel seamlessly -- from your house to a friend's and from one platform to another, including the Nintendo Wii™, Nintendo 3DS™, the Xbox 360™ game and entertainment system, the PlayStation®3 Computer entertainment system, PCs and Macs, as well as on the web with Skylanders Spyro's Universe(SM). Skylanders Spyro's Adventure's boundless multi-modal, cross-platform play is a watershed for both the toy and videogame industries, and for young gamers seeking genuinely innovative and exciting digital adventure. Kids can collect more than 30 characters, each with their own powers and personality; and each expands the gameplay experience. The sinister Portal Master Kaos has cast them out of the Skylands and banished them to earth, where they are frozen and appear to look like toys.  But they are very much alive on the inside and only young gamers can free them by placing them on the Portal of Power so they can return to the Skylands and defeat Kaos.  

Activision united in-house talent with top Hollywood talent to create Skylanders Spyro's Adventure's unique world.  The game and technology were developed by Activision's Novato, California studio, Toys for Bob, led by creative director and studio head Paul Reiche. The adventure-driven story was penned by Alec Sokolow and Joel Cohen, two of the Academy Award-nominated writers of the original Toy Story movie, Academy Award-winning composer, Hans Zimmer, created the game's theme song and Lorne Balfe composed the score.  

Skylanders Spyro's Adventure includes a vast single player adventure, co-op gameplay, battle modes, puzzle solving and treasure hunts.  The result is a line of highly collectible characters, an engaging story and an unparalleled interactive entertainment experience.  The game is rated E10+ by the ESRB.  For more information, visit http://www.skylanders.com/

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Members of the media can visit Activision Publishing's Broadcast Media Center to download broadcast quality video, web-ready video and high-resolution images.  Members of the media using Pathfire can take advantage of a Pathfire enabled video download.

Broadcast Media Center:  http://activisionvideo.com

About Activision Publishing, Inc.

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, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, South Korea, China 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 are forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Activision Publishing generally uses words such as "outlook," "will," "could," "would," "might," "remains," "to be," "plans," "believes," "may," "expects," "intends," "anticipates," "estimate," future," "plan," "positioned," "potential," "project," "remain," "scheduled," "set to," "subject to," "upcoming" and similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements. 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, but are not limited to, sales levels of Activision Publishing's titles, shifts in consumer spending trends, the impact of the current macroeconomic environment, the seasonal and cyclical nature of the interactive game market, Activision Publishing's ability to predict consumer preferences among competing hardware platforms, declines in software pricing, product returns and price protection, product delays, retail acceptance of Activision Publishing's products, adoption rate and availability of new hardware (including peripherals) and related software, industry competition including from used games and other forms of entertainment, litigation risks and associated costs, rapid changes in technology, industry standards, business models including online and used games, and consumer preferences, including interest in specific genres such as music, first-person action and massively multiplayer online games, protection of proprietary rights, maintenance of relationships with key personnel, customers, licensees, licensors, vendors, and third-party developers, including the ability to attract, retain and develop key personnel and developers that can create high quality "hit" titles, counterparty risks relating to customers, licensees, licensors and manufacturers, domestic and international economic, financial and political conditions and policies, foreign exchange rates and tax rates, and the identification of suitable future acquisition opportunities and potential challenges associated with geographic expansion, and the 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.

Skylanders Spyro's Adventure and Portal of Power are trademarks and Spyro and Activision are registered trademarks of Activision Publishing, Inc. All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners.  All rights reserved.

SOURCE Activision Publishing, Inc.