Toys For Bob Leaves Activision

Toys For Bob, the video game development studio praised for their work on Crash Bandicoot 4 and the remastered Spyro trilogy, announced today they’re departing the company that owns those characters and becoming independent. “We believe that now is the time to take the studio and our future games to the next level,” say studio heads Paul Yan and Avery Lodato. “This opportunity allows us to return to our roots of being a small and nimble studio.”

It’s the first smart decision we’ve heard from a game studio in a while. The previous year was filled with news of acquisitions, consolidations and big Quadruple A game companies getting bigger. This year, so far, the news has been about these companies laying off hundreds of people every other day. Turns out shacking up with Mr. Big wasn’t the savvy idea they thought it was.

Some studios have even vanished entirely in recent weeks, struck down by suits seeking to save a buck after the burst of the tech bubble. If Toys For Bob stayed with Activision, and became part of Microsoft, there’s a very real chance there might not be a Toys For Bob at all in one year. This decision is very wise. Get out now!

Note that this doesn’t mean Toys For Bob is never touching Crash or Spyro again. They say they are open to a possible partnership with Microsoft in the future — just not an outright marriage.

Leap Year Day 2024 seems to be the day small companies flee big ones. We’re also hearing that Gearbox Software, makers of the Borderlands series, is considering getting out from under the thumb of Embracer Group, who bought them in a billion-dollar deal no less than three years ago. Since then, Embracer has been going down in flames, the result of growing too huge too fast with no easy means of paying off their debts.

Gearbox has not officially announced their departure from Embracer, but sources in the press say the decision is in its final stages and could be made official soon.