Wikipedia
Toys-to-life is a genre of video game using physical figurines or action figures to interact within the game. These toys use a near field communication (NFC) or image recognition data protocol to determine the individual figurine's proximity, and save a player's progress data to a storage medium located within that piece. It is one of the most lucrative branches of the video game industry, with the Skylanders franchise alone selling more than $3 billion worth over the course of four years.
Toys-to-life games generally use a third-person camera view, and have in-game power-up figurines. Most toys-to-life games are based on E-E10+ content, oriented to users aged 5 through 12 years. Toys-to-life games generally have an accompanying portal device that is used to "transport" the figurine's character and associated player data into the game. The figurines can be transferred from each game in the franchise, possibly resetting with every different installment.