This 12 months has been full of unhealthy online game business information. Layoffs each week. 1000’s of jobs reduce. Studios closing. It’s terrible stuff. So I’m right here to share some excellent news. Toys For Bob, the studio behind Crash Bandicoot 4 and the remastered Spyro assortment, is leaving Activision and changing into an unbiased studio.
In a February 29 weblog put up on its official web site, studio heads Paul Yan and Avery Lodato introduced that Toys For Bob is being spun off into an unbiased sport improvement studio.
“We imagine that now could be the time to take the studio and our future video games to the following degree,” defined Yan and Lodato within the put up. “This chance permits us to return to our roots of being a small and nimble studio.”
Additionally introduced within the weblog put up is the information that Toys For Bob is “exploring” a doable partnership with Microsoft. However don’t count on the studio’s subsequent sport anytime quickly. Toys For Bob’s heads made it clear that it’s nonetheless “within the early days” of creating its subsequent sport and are “a methods away” from saying something about it.
“Our buddies at Activision and Microsoft have been extraordinarily supportive of our new course and we’re assured that we are going to proceed to work intently collectively as a part of our future,” stated Yan and Lodato. “So, hold your horns on and your eyes out for extra information. Thanks to our group of gamers for all the time supporting us by means of our journey. We are able to’t wait to share updates on our new journey as an indie studio!”
As a part of this transition, it seems that on-line social gathering platformer Crash Group Rumble will not be up to date with new content material.
A 35-year-old studio will get to maintain on making video games
Toys For Bob was based in California in 1989 by Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford. The studio noticed success within the early ‘90s with the discharge of Star Management and its sequel, which are sometimes thought of a number of the greatest video games ever made. Since then, it has labored on quite a few video games, massive and small.
In 2005 it was purchased up by Activision, and in 2011 it launched the primary sport within the standard toys-to-life collection, Skylanders. Toys For Bob would proceed work on that collection and would additionally remaster the primary three Spyro video games as nicely develop a brand new entry within the beloved Crash Bandicoot collection.
Nonetheless, by 2021, the studio was tasked with supporting Name of Obligation, alongside each different developer owned by Activision. After Microsoft purchased Activision Blizzard in 2023 and introduced 1,900+ layoffs, Toys For Bob was hit onerous. The studio misplaced 89 individuals and its places of work in Novato, California have been closed.
Now, nevertheless, it appears Toys For Bob will get an opportunity to stay on. That’s one thing not each sport studio nowadays will get to do and I hope it really works out nicely for the oldsters over there. We deserve excellent news greater than ever. I’ll take it.
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