Toys-to-life

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Toys-to-life is a video game feature using physical figurines or action figures to interact within the game.^[1] These toys use a near field communication (NFC), radio frequency identification (RFID), or image recognition data protocol to determine the individual figurine's proximity, and save a player's progress data to a storage medium located within that piece.^[2] It was one of the most lucrative branches of the video game industry especially during the late 1990s and 2010s, with the Skylanders franchise alone selling more than $3 billion worth over the course of four years.^[3]

Although modern versions use NFC technology, an early example of such a game is Redbeard's Pirate Quest: Interactive Toy created by Zowie in 1999. This PC game came with a plastic pirate ship that connects to the printer port, and players can interact with the game by placing the separate pirate figurines on various places in the ship, and moving or rotating them. Other precursors to these kinds of games include the Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, Dennō Bōkenki Webdiver and Daigunder toylines, where children could plug Gladion and Daigunder into their TV screens to use as controls, and the other toys could interact with the game through infrared sensors. Toys-to-life games generally use a third-person camera view, and have in-game power-up figurines. Toys-to-life games generally have an accompanying portal device that is used to "transport" the figurine's character and associated player data into the game. The figurines can be transferred from each game in the franchise, possibly resetting with every different installment.