This year has been full of bad news from the video game industry. Layoffs every week. Thousands of jobs will be cut. Studios close. It’s terrible stuff. That’s why I’m here to share some good news with you. Toys For Bob, the studio behind it Crash Bandicoot 4 and the remastered Spyro Collection, leaves Activision and becomes an independent studio.
In one Blog post from February 29th On their official website, studio heads Paul Yan and Avery Lodato announced that Toys For Bob would be spun off into an independent game development studio.
“We believe now is the time to take the studio and our future games to the next level,” Yan and Lodato explained in the post. “This opportunity allows us to return to our roots as a small and flexible studio.”
The blog post also announces the news that Toys For Bob is “exploring” a possible partnership with Microsoft. However, don’t expect the studio’s next game to arrive anytime soon. Toys For Bob executives made it clear that the next game’s development is still “in its early stages” and is “still a long way away” from announcing anything about it.
“Our friends at Activision and Microsoft have been extremely supportive of our new direction and we are confident we will continue to work closely together as we move forward,” said Yan and Lodato. “So stay tuned and look out for more news. Many thanks to our community of players who have always supported us on our journey. We can’t wait to share updates on our new adventure as an indie studio!”
As part of this transition, this online party platformer is released Crash Team Rumble is no longer updated with new content.
A 35-year-old studio is allowed to continue developing games
Toys For Bob was founded in California in 1989 by Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford. The studio celebrated in the early 90s with the release of “ Star Control and its sequel, which are often considered some of the best games of all time. Since then, it has worked on numerous games large and small.
In 2005 it was bought by Activision and released the first game in the popular toys-to-life series in 2011. Skylanders. Toys For Bob would continue work on this series and also remaster the first three Spyro Games also develop a new entry in the beloved Crash Bandicoot Series.
However, the studio has been contracted to provide support until 2021 call of Duty, alongside all other Activision developers. After Microsoft purchased and announced Activision Blizzard in 2023 Over 1,900 layoffs, Toys For Bob was hit hard. The studio lost 89 people and its Offices in Novato, California were closed.
Now, however, it seems that Toys For Bob has a chance to live on. This is something that not every game studio can do these days, and I hope it works out well for the people there. We deserve good news more than ever. I take it.
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