EA plays around with new range of game-inspired toys

In a surprising twist to SPOnG’s ongoing series of news stories about ‘cool Japanese games-related stuff that you can’t have’, it has come to our attention that the game-based toy phenomenon is beginning to spread to the US. The usual Japanese novelty products would be Zelda capsule toys, Dead or Alive Figurines or Namco candy dispensers.

However, this curious little niche is about to be blown wide open. Electronic Arts is getting in on the act, releasing a range of Urbz toys to coincide with the game’s release this November. As an extension of The Sims franchise, the title is expected to draw much attention from a considerably larger proportion of females and ‘tweens’ than the usual videogame releases, hence EA thinks there must be money to be made. The toys will either capitalise on the potential success of The Urbz brand, or otherwise serve as a marketing tool to promote it.

Atomic Toys will be handling the manufacturing process, and the finished articles will likely find themselves distributed on a far wider scale than previous products of this type. If it catches on, perhaps we’ll be seeing Burnout radio-controlled cars and Sim City Lego at some point in the future. We’re not holding our breath though.