Ubisoft's Starlink: Battle of Atlas mixes Skylanders toys-to-life and No Man's Sky

Splinter Cell Blacklist studio developed sci-fi toys-to-life title for Nintendo Switch, PS4 and Xbox One.

Ubisoft is looking to capture the toys-to-life magic of Skylanders and Lego Dimensions with Starlink: Battle of Atlas, a sci-fi adventure game from Ubisoft Toronto in which players build their own starships from separately-sold, modular toys that clip-on to a game controller.

The game was announced at Ubisoft's E3 2017 conference and promises an "interstellar open-world adventure" which combines exploration and space battles on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and PS4.

Ubisoft talked up the customisable design of each starship and the game's "Smart Building Technology" which reflects physical changes to the clip-on spacecraft in game.

Wings, weapons, the hull and pilots can all be interchanged at will during play.

"As you explore the Atlas Star System, you'll do so with a physical ship clipped to your controller," Ubisoft said in a press release.

"It'll all come in handy as you're dealing with the evil forces of a warlord named Grax, while also searching for allies to help you survive in a hostile system."

"Players will be able to use their starships to explore the game's vast planets up close in a skimmer mode, take to the skies to fly quickly to their next objective, or blast out into the vacuum of space to travel between planets and engage in blistering space dogfights."

Starlink: Battle for Atlas releases on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PS4 in autumn 2018.