Toys for Bob Goes Indie by Leaving Activision Blizzard

Now that Toys for Bob’s has become an indie studio, the faith of both Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon is in shambles.

News by AtillaTuran on  Mar 01, 2024

Toys for Bob, known for their immaculate work on remaking classic platformers from the PS1 era, has gone completely indie by parting its way from its parent company. Back in 2017, Toys for Bob was acquired by Activision and their first task was to work on a new Crash Bandicoot remake. The outcome was extremely well received and they also were tasked to take care of the remaster of the Spyro trilogy. Once they proved their worth, they finally moved on to creating new titles for Crash Bandicoot.

Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, despite having harsh grinding sessions to get 100 percent, was considered a true continuation of the series and loyal to the core gameplay. And now Crash Team Rumble making some noise in the online multiplayer, so we can easily say Toys for Bob did well under the roof of Activision. The reason for their departure from Activision is aiming to bring new IPs to the market under their own creation, however, the owners of the company state that bringing the classics to being relevant again made them extremely happy, and even if they are indie, they’ll look forward to continuing their premise if an opportunity arrives to their door.

Toys for Bob has some talented people in the crew, no doubt about it, but both Crash and Spyro fans are quite concerned about one thing: the future of these games. Since both games are still under the trademark of Activision Blizzard, it is hard to imagine a new series coming out now that Toys for Bob is out of the equation. However, they might still have the right to work on these games despite being away from Activision as they are planning to collaborate with Microsoft themselves.


Toys for Bob, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Remakes, Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, Crash Team Rumble, Classics, Platformer, Microsoft, NoobFeed
 

Since Microsoft also owns Activision, it is possible to see a return of Crash Bandicoot or Spyro the Dragon with a new title, even so maybe more games might be in the bundle too. Microsoft still owns the rights to classic N64 platformers like Banjo Kazooie and Conker’s Bad Fur Day. Throwing in Toys for Bob on a remake of these titles would fit right into the spot, as people are willing to have a very polished game that reminds them of their childhood years.

Series followers are debating on Reddit whether Toys for Bob’s separation was the right choice to make, as they are most likely to work on a remake regardless of their intention to bring new titles to the table. As for their live-service game, Crash Team Rumble, it’s coming to an end. Since Toys for Bob is no longer sided with Activision, they must have requested to pull the cord off, therefore the title’s last update is arriving next week. Then we can expect to be shut down in a few months.

Toys for Bob did exceptionally well in the past few years and we are glad Activision did not pull the trigger on just dissolving the company like other parent companies are doing nowadays. The gaming market has been losing a lot of competent workers since late 2023 and early 2024 with massive layoffs or straight-up selling the office to other companies. Glad we haven’t seen any of those occurring to Toys for Bob.


Atilla Turan (@burningarrow)
Editor, NoobFeed

Atilla Turan

Editor, NoobFeed

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