I didn't want anything to do with the last Transformers game, partly because I'd heard it was awful, but mostly because it featured "movie" Transformers. Which are terrible, spindly things.
Call me a purist, call me an asshole, I don't mind, but when a Transformer looks like a Bionicle with a bone disease, it's not really a Transformer. This ruined the last film for me, I wasn't going to work to unlock them in the last game, and it even ruined the 2004 PS2 game based on the "Armada" series, which part of me knew was excellent, but other parts reviled because it starred the "wrong" Optimus Prime.
So it's heartening to hear that the developers behind the second Transformers game - the one based on the second live-action Transformers movie - will be incorporating a wide range of downloadable characters into the game. Not "unlockable". "Downloadable".
Sure, this will include characters from the Michael Bay film, but it's interesting that publishers Activision refused to confirm with MTV that these would be the only ones. Leaving us with the very real possibility that there would be downloadable characters from other Transformers timelines/mediums.
Like, say, the original series. Or, in my dreams, multiple series, from which I can build a Prime menagerie like the one above.
UPDATE - Yes, you could unlock some skins in the first game. But they were just re-skins. This sounds more like the (downloadable) introduction of all-new characters, which if Activision know what they're doing, will include Soundwave, Huffer and Seaspray.