Transformers: War for Cybertron (franchise)

Aligned continuity family War for Cybertron » Video games Novel Comic Toys Studio Series

Transformers: War for Cybertron was launched in the summer 2010 as the first franchise in the Aligned continuity family. Set in the ancient days of the Cybertronian war, its scope ranges from the onset of war until the Dark Energon contamination of Cybertron that caused the Great Exodus.

Franchise elements

• Video games
• A novel
• A comic
• A toyline (sort of... see below.)

Hasbro has published a timeline online summarizing many events from the above media.

Toys

The only official War for Cybertron-branded toy was a Legends-class Starscream that came free with the purchase of a War for Cybertron video game from UK retailer ShopTo.net. It was a redeco of a Cybertron Starscream toy.

Hasbro did produce a handful of new toys based directly on designs from the video games, but for some reason they were sold in Generations packaging with no mention of War for Cybertron (save for a sticker announcing the game that was placed on the initial release of some of these figures). Despite this omission, the release of the first wave was timed within days of the games and novel, and their on-package bios were basically in sync with their fiction:

• Cybertronian Bumblebee
• Cybertronian Optimus Prime
• Cybertronian Megatron
• Cybertronian Soundwave
• Cybertronian Cliffjumper(retool/redeco of Cybertronian Bumblebee)
• Cybertronian Jazz
• Cybertronian Shockwave
• Cybertronian Starscream

The first five toys were later redecoed in TakaraTomy's United line, this time representing their Generation 1 counterparts, and several of the toys and other designs seen in the game were then used to represent the Generation 1 characters in IDW's Robots in Disguise comic. Later figures like Shockwave would be realesed as Prime toys.

Apocrypha

The author of the Exodus novel shared his unofficial short story "Bumblebee at Tyger Pax" online.

Continuity

While all elements of War for Cybertron fiction are based on the Aligned production bible, the creators of the various media products diverged from each other in many details. The events of the video games overlap with much of Exodus, and the results mesh poorly. However, Hasbro has consistently described as a single continuity not just the games and novel, but the Prime fiction as well. This brings up issues such as the fact that Bumblebee and Soundwave are very Generation 1-inspired in War for Cybertron and can speak words, but they're portrayed in the Prime cartoon as quasi-mute. Cartoon Bumblebee in particular is very much like his live-action movie incarnation, speaking in electronic beeps and squawks. The aforementioned "Bumblebee at Tyger Pax" story attempts to explain this change, but the retcon occurs before the game events, so the contradiction remains.

Adding to the confusion and contradiction were statements made by High Moon Studios themselves, principally ones made to the video gaming press, where the studio went as far as describing the game as a "prequel to the original cartoon series". As these statements were made for the benefit of their target audience who would have little knowledge of Hasbro's official position of the subject, as far as the press and the majority of gamers are concerned, War for Cybertron is a game set in the cartoon from their childhood; a cartoon that the game manages to be incompatible with in almost every major way.

When asked about the contradictions, Hasbro VP of Intellectual Property Development Aaron Archer replied, "reasons for the confusion will be revealed". In at least one small case, Hasbro has taken a stab at reconciliation, declaring Optimus Prime's predecessor in the games, "Zeta Prime", and the one in the novel, "Sentinel Prime", to be the same individual, "Sentinel Zeta Prime".

War for Cybertron's sequel, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron takes some steps to better mesh with the fictional universe it belongs to.