Entering to the Toys-to-Life market after the big bubble that took out Disney Infinity and LEGO Dimensions burst, Ubisoft’s Starlink: Battle for Atlas didn’t have much competition when it released last fall. Throw in the Star Fox collaboration with Nintendo, and it wasn’t a surprise to see Switch’s starter pack version barely on store shelves. Yet, with the price of the base game bundles dropping and staying at a constant 60% off, it’s with a heavy Arwing loving heart to hear that all future physical toys have been scrapped.
Ubisoft announced this move on the Starlink: Battle for Atlas site in a letter addressing all players. Below is the full statement:
“Pilots of the Starlink Initiative,
Thank you so much for the warm response to the new Starlink content announced during the February Nintendo Direct.
With the announcement of new content arriving this April, we felt that it is important to provide an update on the topic of physical toys. Starlink: Battle for Atlas has been a passion project for us from the start, and we are incredibly proud of the modular Starship technology we have developed, and how well players have responded to it.
Despite the immense and continuous support from our players, the sales for Starlink: Battle for Atlas fell below expectations. Consequently, we recently made the decision to not release any additional physical toys for the Spring update and in the future.
As part of our effort to do right by our passionate and dedicated community we are currently hard at work on our biggest update to the game so far and are pleased to tell all of you that there will be new digital ships, pilots and weapons to collect.
Additionally, there will be a ton of free content to expand your games such as additional missions, challenges and new activities to engage in throughout Atlas, including content that was inspired by community suggestions, such as Outlaw Racing.
We’re very grateful for the support we have received from players around the world and can’t wait for everyone to get their hands on our next big update launching this April.
We’ll see you in the stars,
Starlink Development Team”
Hopes for more Star Fox toys might be crushed for the time being, yet you can hope that Nintendo can step in and take over production. Until then, at least we finally did get an Arwing “amiibo” to display with our geeky collections.
Written by Jennifer Burch
Illustrator, designer, writer and big Nintendo geek, you can find Jennifer with an N3DS within reach 24/7. As the oldest of three, she has survived many Mario Party, Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart sessions intact in addition to getting her brothers hooked on some really weird games. (Cubivore anyone?)
