In March, the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro developer Toys for Bob announced it would leave Activision and the Xbox team to become an independent studio. In an update on social media, it’s now made this official with a profile update.
In its bio description on X, it now says “We are an independent game development studio and have been making epic entertainment since 1989”. So, that’s it, the California developer is officially independent!
Alongside this news, the studio has already confirmed it will be partnering with Xbox to publish its next new game, which is still in the “very early” stages of development.
As highlighted on our sibling site Pure Xbox, the studio’s official website was recently updated with a mysterious logo. This follows new rumours in March, which suggested Toys for Bob could potentially be working on a new Spyro game.
Apart from an Xbox release, it’s not clear what other platforms this new Toys for Bob project could be released on at this stage. Since its acquisition of Activision Blizzard and Bethesda (which included Crash and Spyro), Microsoft has reiterated how it won’t necessarily lock off IP and mentioned how exclusivity would be decided on a case-by-case basis moving forward.
It’s already done a 10-year deal to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo platforms, and most recently it released Grounded and Pentiment on the Switch eShop. Toys for Bob previously developed Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time and Spyro Reignited Trilogy.