Reports have emerged from that a new Spyro game is in development at former Activision studio Toys for Bob.
The news comes from Crash and Spyro insider Canadian Guy Eh (via Eurogamer), who heard whispers of this development while attending GDC last week.
“Spyro 4 is in development. That’s a statement. No theory crafting, no evidence-based assumptions, no conspiracies, or even a heavy-handed hint,” he said, and later added that “As of March 2024, Spyro 4 is currently in development.”
This would seem to be the fruits of the partnership with Microsoft that Toys for Bob teased while announcing their newfound independence a few weeks ago – “we’re exploring a possible partnership between our new studio and Microsoft,” they said. “And while we’re in the early days of developing our next new game and a ways away from making any announcements, our team is excited to develop new stories, new characters, and new gameplay experiences.”
Toys for Bob was founded all the way back in 1989, but had their biggest and most notable success decades later with the toys-to-life Skylanders series – itself a Spyro spin-off – which ran for a few years before the genre quickly peaked and faded into nothingness. They then created the very well received Spyro Reignited Trilogy and Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time in 2018 and 2020 respectively, and last year’s Crash Team Rumble. However, they had also been sucked into the Activision-wide grind to produce supporting content for the Call of Duty franchise.
Toys for Bob was naturally included within the huge acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, and many hoped that Microsoft buying the huge publisher might loosen things up to allow for more than just a Call of Duty production line within the studio. In a roundabout sort of way, that’s exactly what’s happening, but it’s not been a pain-free few months to get here.
Just before Toys for Bob went independent, they were affected by the sweeping layoffs that were announced last month. Having had around 180 employees back in 2021, 89 people were laid off from Toys for Bob in January, and the studio’s offices in Novato were closed, transitioning the studio to fully remote work.
If this turns out to be true, then it’s great news for Spyro (and Crash) fans. I imagine that Toys for Bob would be many a gamer’s first choice to make sequels to these beloved platformer series.
