Activision gives into 'free', Skylanders Cloud Patrol soars on iOS

Finally, big time U.S. games publisher Activision Blizzard has had a change of heart. The company has at last launched its first-ever free-to-play mobile game, Skylanders Cloud Patrol by Vicarious Visions for iPhone and iPad. Given the new toys-meet-games franchise's clear youth and casual appeal on consoles already, it seems like a no-brainer for the publisher's first freemium game.

Just like in the console games, players can use the Skylanders toys they've (or their parents have) already purchased and import them into Cloud Patrol, keeping with the winning strategy of merging toys and video games. It works a bit differently, however: Rather than scan each toy into the game using a platform, players simply enter serial numbers to gain the characters.

Of course, being a F2P game, players can also buy those characters outright with Gems, the paid currency in Cloud Patrol. In this version of Skylanders, players enter the world Kaos to stop the evil minions of the Portal Master. Essentially, Cloud Patrol is a shooting gallery in which players touch or swipe at the screen to take out goblin enemies. The casual shooter also hopes to get players to play with a variety of Skylanders in giving them daily challenges for specific characters.

The developer already plans to add more features to Cloud Patrol that make the experience of adding new characters through toys more "magical", according to VentureBeat. Skylanders Cloud Patrol marks a "significant move" for Activision Blizzard, Activision Publishing VP of mobile Greg Canessa told VentureBeat, and that it's "looking at this space very carefully."

Click here to download Skylanders Cloud Patrol on iPhone or iPad for Free Now >

Are you excited to see Activision finally get into the freemium space? How will the company do against the big time competition? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.