Activision has done great business with its Skylanders franchise, while traditional toy companies such as Mattel have most recently experimented with its iOS Apptivity range.
San Francisco-based outfit Nukotoys is looking to do the clean slate start up thing, however; making full potential of both the digital and physical aspects of play.
New way to play
In operation for three years, and working on its NUKO brand for 18 months, the company boasts an impressive management team including executives from Kidz, Wizards of the Coast, Mattel, Lucasfilm and Ugobe.
Co-CEOs Doug Penman and Rodger Raderman (pictured) are no slouches either, given their long history of innovation in media, advertising and finance.
"There's not a Disney or Pixar for toys," Raderman explains of the company's vision from its downtown office which overlook the tourist heart of the city and Francis Ford Coppola's iconic Zoetrope building.
"Kids are fascinated by the interaction between digital and physical and we're bringing computing power to toys."
Trumps
The company's first step down this road is NUKO, which combines iOS games and physical collectible cards.
Nukotoys has released two games under the brand; a turn-based strategy game for 7 to 12-year olds, based on Monsterology series of children's books, and a 3D adventure game for 3 to 7-year olds, based on Discovery Channel's Animal Planet Wildlands series.
The games are developed by thirdparty developers using the Unity engine.
Each game is available free from the App Store, with physical card packs sold in stores for $1.99 and $3.99 (for three and seven card packs). There's also a premium collector's box set containing 28 cards for $19.99 is available exclusively at Apple Stores.
The cards are placed down on the iPhone or iPad's screen, generating in-game characters using an embedded capacitance touch technology.
Making the best of both worlds, players can also buy virtual cards as in-app purchases using Nukobucks, although these clearly don't have the same in-hand appeal and are limited in terms of what they enable in-game.
Fast-moving
"The US toy business is worth $20 billion and the collectible cards business is worth $2 billion," says Raderman, pointing out the market's potential.
Nukotoys has the rights to other books in the 'Ology series and expects to be rolling out new titles soon.
He argues the synergies between physical and digital media will enable Nukotoys to be more nimble that other companies in the space too.
"We can use social media to get user feedback quickly into our product cycle," he says, adding that the NUKO cards are quick to manufacture and can be used in different ways as the game software is updated.
"We're bringing a Silicon Valley focus to the toy business," he ends.
You can see how the concept works in the following video.
