Skylanders Unleashes Two New Elements for the First Time in Franchise History

For the first time since the launch of the Skylanders®franchise, two entirely new elements – Light and Dark – will be unleashed in the world of Skylands, announced Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI). Two new Trap Masters, Knight Mare and Knight Light, will hit store shelves nationwide this holiday season via special Light and Dark Element Expansion Packs, ushering in new adventures in the lore of Skylanders® Trap Team. Each Element Expansion Pack contains a Trap Master, a special Trap capable of capturing either Light or Dark villains, as well as a location piece that unlocks a special level in the game. The Light and Dark Element Expansion Packs will be available at all major retailers nationwide for a suggested retail price of $29.99. Lucky Skylanders fans will be able to get their hands on copies of the Light Element Expansion Pack, which will be available first at Toys”R”Us® stores nationwide starting Sunday, December 21.

Knight Light, one of two new Trap Masters, appears in the Skylanders® Trap Team Light Element Expansion Pack arriving at retail nationwide this holiday season. (Photo: Business Wire)

Portal Masters will have the opportunity to explore new levels within the Skylanders Trap Team universe, where they will find never-before-seen villains to capture and environments to explore. Amongst these villains are Luminous and Nightshade, who belong to the Doom Raiders – the elite members of Kaos’ army of Skylands’ most notorious bad guys.

“It’s amazing to see how deeply engrossed and fascinated our fans have been with the lore of the Skylanders franchise,” said John Coyne, vice president of Consumer Marketing at Activision Publishing, Inc. “By unveiling new Light and Dark elements and heroes to the Skylanders universe, our fans around the world will have new ways of exploring all the magic, excitement and fun of Skylands.”

The introduction of Light and Dark elements reveals additional backstory of the Skylanders universe for fans to explore. Long ago, Knight Light and Knight Mare were both protectors of Skylands until being sealed off in other realms. Now that they have joined the Trap Masters, Knight Light wields his Traptanium™ Blade and Knight Mare unleashes her deadly Traptanium Lance to bring down evil everywhere!

Skylanders Trap Team is playable with more than 175 unique toys from all previous games – Skylanders® SWAP Force™, Skylanders® Giants and Skylanders® Spyro’s Adventure. Every character is able to defeat and trap villains using Traptanium Traps, providing fans more ways to enjoy their collections. The game is available on the following platforms: Nintendo's Wii™ system and Nintendo's Wii U™ system; Xbox One and Xbox 360 games and entertainment systems from Microsoft; and PlayStation® 3 and PlayStation® 4 computer entertainment systems from Sony. A different adventure is also available on the Nintendo 3DS™ hand-held system. Additionally, the complete Skylanders Trap Team experience is available on Kindle Fire and Android tablets, as well as a variety of iPads®, including iPad® (3rd Generation), iPad® (4th Generation), iPad Air™, iPad Air™ 2, iPad mini™, iPad mini™ 2 and iPad mini™ 3.

About the Skylanders® Franchise

The award-winning, $2 billion Skylanders videogame franchise featuring the Toys-to-Life™ interactive figures, portal and accessories that seamlessly bridge the physical and virtual worlds across multiple platforms, debuted in 2011 with Skylanders® Spyro’s Adventure. In October 2012, Skylanders® Giants expanded interactivity with its mega-sized Giant Skylanders collectible figures and LightCore® characters. Skylanders® SWAP Force™ launched in October 2013 and introduced an all-new play pattern – swapability. Skylanders was the top selling kids' videogame franchise of 20131 worldwide, and is one of the top 20 videogame franchises of all time2. Skylanders® Trap Team further enhances the capabilities of the Toys-to-Life figures, Traps, and an advanced Traptanium Portal™ allowing kids to reverse the magic by pulling 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 global producer and publisher of interactive entertainment. Activision maintains operations throughout the world. 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 release date of the Light and Dark Element Expansion Packs 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, GfK Chart-Track and Activision Blizzard internal estimates, including toys and accessories. All time since NPD and GfK Chart-track began recording data.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20141217005203/en/