Announcement of Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

In February 11th, 2011, Activision announced a new game in the Spyro series called Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, the second reboot of the Spyro series, developed by Toys For Bob.

History
After the conclusion of The Legend of Spyro trilogy, a movie adaptation of the Legend of Spyro series was in development as well as a second reboot of Spyro called Spyro's Kingdom. It would have been a mature Spyro game and would have featured blood and gore as well as the use of Toys to life formula, however the game was cancelled as the developers felt it wouldn't fit with the toys to life formula as well as Spyro (a downloadable demo came out from the game however) as well as the cancellation of the movie, the reason for the movie's cancellation was Activision was going on a different direction for the series which later turned out to be the Skylanders series.

Reaction
The announcement received strong negative reception from the majority of the older Spyro fanbase; much of which continues to this day.

The biggest reason fans hated the game was that despite the title, it has nothing to do with Spyro and he's only added there to attract fans of the series to try it and make sure the series doesn't fail (and it was proven so when it was released since Spyro is just the same as any other character and sequels would remove the name Spyro from the title).

Another reason was the cancellation of The Legend Of Spyro movie in favor of Skylanders.

Common complaints include Spyro's different character design which was seen as uglier compared to his original and Legend Of Spyro design, the game's younger target audience (compared to The Legend of Spyro), the absence of popular characters from the Original series and The Legend of Spyro series (such as Hunter, Ignitus, etc.), the concept of using toys in order to play the game which are mandatory, and for being another continuity reboot.

The negative criticism on Spyro's Adventure also involved some fans claiming that Skylanders would "fail" upon its public release based on what they strongly dislike about the game when it was still in development.

Several fans had also been sending hate mail and even death threats to both Activision and Toys For Bob in the hopes of trying to get them to cancel Skylanders, but both gaming companies have ignored the demands of the fans and were more focused on Skylanders' younger target audience.

According to the Sterne Agee analyst, Arvind Bathia, Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure tested apparently very well with kids, who are the game's target audience.

Aftermath
The game received positive reviews among critics and was a success; however everyone that played the game mentioned that while it's not a bad game but Spyro isn't the main character and is only added there like any other character.

After that the sequels would remove Spyro from the title and be based on the gimmick of the games instead (ex: Skylanders Giants being about Giants).

Eventually Activision milked the franchise to death and was releasing the games yearly until sales started declining due to them being basically the same other than the toys and due to how expensive the games are and ironically killed Skylanders. In 2018, Activision revived Spyro with the Reignited Trilogy, a remake of the first three games.

Despite the hate of Skylanders, however, it does have its fans and it would spawn some comics, books and a TV show, and surprisingly Spyro has a much bigger role in them than in the games.