The official press release appeared on the Toys For Bob website in the last few hours. The studio, which has long been part of the Activision-Blizzard team, has decided to take a different path from that of its publisher, which recently joined the Microsoft family. After several considerations, the developers who created Skylanders, Crash's N-Sane Trilogy and Spyro's Re-Ignited Trilogy as well as Crash 4: It's About Time, have decided they want to return to being an independent studio.
Toys for Bob becomes an Indie studio, but will continue to collaborate with Microsoft
In the press release that appeared on the site, Toys for Bob seems to want to clarify that it has remained on excellent terms with Microsoft and Activision. In short, the idea is not so much to distance ourselves from the new giant, but to seek alternative paths.
“We believe the time has come to take the studio and our future games to the next level. This opportunity allows us to return to our roots of a small and agile studio” writes Toys For Bob. The statement then continues: “Our friends of Activision and Microsoft have been extremely supportive to our new direction and we are confident that we will continue to work closely together for our future.”
No 'resentment' therefore between the studio and the old publisher. Indeed, again from the press release: “we are exploring a possibility partnership between our new studio and Microsoft. Even though we are early in the development of our next game and are far from any announcements, our team is excited to develop new stories, new characters and new gameplay experiences.” In other words, the collaboration will continue.
In 2021, Activision had made major cuts within the team which, however, was rumored to be continuing to work on what had once been PlayStation icons. After the launch of Crash 4, in fact, it seemed like it was the turn for a new game dedicated to the most famous dragon in video games.