Crash Bandicoot 5 was planned — Here’s what happened

A few months ago, gaming researcher and historian Liam Robertson alongside DidYouKnowGaming just released a documentary on Vicarious Visions, Activision, and the rumored 3D Donkey Kong game. A nearly hour long deep dive detailing not just the project itself but what led to it and the downfall of Vicarious Visions at the hands of Activision’s mismanagement. I bring this up not only because it is an incredible video, but it’s an important lead into today’s topic – Yes, Crash Bandicoot 5 did exist and there’s even more to the story. Liam was kind enough to give me an early look at the new video but recommended checking out the first video beforehand, as sort of a companion piece.

Much like that rumored Donkey Kong game, there have been many rumors of a new Crash Bandicoot from the folks that made Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time and the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, Toys for Bob. Toys for Bob originally pitched what would become the Skylanders series alongside their friends and coworkers at Vicarious Visions. In 2016, the final Skylanders game, Skylanders Imaginators, was released and thus began a new era for Toys for Bob. There were various cutbacks, including the art department, which was moved to contract workers.

With their support provided to the Crash Bandicoot NSane Trilogy and their work on the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, what became Crash Bandicoot 4 was originally pitched as a multiplayer focused endeavor. Levels had themes ranging from factories, airship dock stations, ice mountains, and even a haunted castle for N. Brio. There were also single player focused tutorial levels but eventually the Toys for Bob management thought it’d be best to focus on the single player which evolved into the Crash Bandicoot 4 we know today. That being said, the multiplayer project, Wumpa League, was not dropped. Some concept art even proposed other Activision IP getting playable characters including Call of Duty, although those never left the concept art phase. Here are some of the in development shots from Liam’s video on the topic.

Over the course of development, a lot of level ideas moved from the multiplayer project to the game we know today. Work on the Wumpa League stalled at this point, with considerations being put into the idea that it would be added as a free update with microtransaction skins being drawn up as well. Despite passion from the team, as time went on, Wumpa League was once again shifted to the side so Toys for Bob could work on their next large scale project – Crash Bandicoot 5.

This was exactly what it sounds like, the next big mainline entry for the Crash Bandicoot series. Taking some elements from Crash Twinsanity. In Twinsanity, Crash explores the Academy of Evil where he meets Nina Cortex and eventually fights with the headmistress of the academy. Crash 5 would have brought the Academy back and it would have worked much like Gruntilda’s Lair in Banjo-Kazooie, being a hubworld of sorts. The faculty would have been composed of other Crash villains, including Cortex. Inspiration for level themes came from Psychonauts, where Crash would enter the minds of characters and explore 3D levels based on their subconscious.

Cortex’s level would have been themed around his familial traumas with different family members, such as his mother, siblings, and more. Other levels would include Pinstripe from the original Crash Bandicoot, a 1930s inspired level that would task Crash with battling Pinstripe’s various rodent minions. Each “world” would have had their own distinct locals and themes, but as time went on, the Academy wouldn’t be all the game would cover. In due time, Uka-Uka would make an appearance and even gain access to an inter-dimensional realm that would give access to the Spyro the Dragon universe.

The game at this point would have become a large-scale (no pun intended) crossover of the Crash and Spyro games. Levels would have involved the two heroes traveling into the minds of the now corrupted Dragon Elders. Levels would have continued to have the open 3D format as seen in a prototype made of what was to become Tiny Tiger’s lair, however most of the game remains as concept art. Crash and Spyro were intended to be the primary playable characters, with Nina and Coco being considered.

Various Spyro the Dragon worlds were planned to be reenvisioned, in classic style Crash Bandicoot gameplay. The team drew from their Twinsanity inspirations by intending to give Crash and Spyro various team-up moves and abilities such as Crash riding on Spyro to Spyro being able to carry Crash over pits. They were planned to be playable both together and separately. In terms of narrative, they were even planning to dive into the backstories of Uka-Uka and Aku-Aku. But again, this was mostly just art created around the summer of 2020. But this is where we get into something a bit more real: Crash 4 released, around the time they were working on the Crash 5 pitch, and it was not meeting Activision’s lofty sales expectations.

Toys for Bob’s small size prevented Crash 4 from getting a simultaneous release on all platforms, only being on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, with a Switch and PC release planned for 2021. The game is actually their highest rated title to date but according to Liam’s sources: Activision hoped that Crash 4 would be as successful as the Crash NSane Trilogy’s nearly ten-million unit sales numbers. Despite remaining number one in the UK charts for a couple weeks, it very quickly died out in physical sales. Add that Crash 4 had sales competition from Nintendo releasing Super Mario 3D All-Stars just two weeks prior as well as other high profile releases like Hades, Star Wars Rogue Squadron, and Genshin Impact.

Despite the seemingly dire sounding release timing, sources told Liam that Crash 4 was indeed a financial success despite the lower sales numbers, reaching five-million units sold. Wumpa League in this time was put back on hiatus due to those early sales numbers and Activision not wanting to pursue further development. By this time, dozens of outfits and movesets were already made and playable. By this point, Toys for Bob was trying to justify their existence to the Activision higher ups and even proposed repurposing Wumpa League into a multiplayer game focused on various Blizzard Entertainment icons, eventually narrowed down to World of Warcraft. It was still planned to be a multiplayer platformer with designs more akin to Toys for Bob’s previous work. Blizzard however, was not interested in the concept and shot it down. Once again they proposed something new to Activision, a title called “Monster Mechs.” But that was again shot down with no interest from Activision.

Because of those “low” early sales of Crash 4, in November 2020, Activision canceled Crash Bandicoot 5. The publisher was shifting away from larger single player experiences, even canceling pitches for new Tony Hawk games from other subsidiaries. They wanted to focus on their long term multiplayer projects, which had been proven to be financially successful. At this point, Toys for Bob shifted into support for major Call of Duty releases. Many staff members left Toys for Bob around this time due to the cancellation of Crash 5 and the lack of desire to work on Call of Duty. Their art director Josh Nadelberg, lead designer Jan Stec, and long-time producer Nick Livingston, all left by May 2021. They now work at Phoenix Labs in Vancouver, working on Dauntless and Fae Farm.

Enter the rumors of Spyro the Dragon 4. In the art book for Crash 4, there is a small bit of Spyro thrown into the concept art for one of the levels. News sites covered it extensively, believing it would be happening despite the lack of confirmation. Liam however, confirmed with the artist Brun Croes, that it was not a tease or hint of anything. He added the Spyro bit simply because he wanted to and not because Activision or Toys for Bob were working on anything. Throughout 2021, Toys for Bob worked primarily on Call of Duty Warzone content and Crash 4 ports for PC, PlayStation 5, Switch, and Xbox Series platforms. In the meantime, management at Toys for Bob tried to keep everyone employed by offering support on Overwatch 2 for Blizzard. Former Toys for Bob workers claim working with Blizzard was “miserable.” Citing impersonal management and a lack of direction. Even the team working on Call of Duty content described it as feeling like a punishment of sorts for Crash 4 not living up to Activision’s sales expectations.

Many of the team members that had been working on Crash 4 were let go in early 2021, but Activision would deny that staff were let go. However, their statements were only true by technicality as they would use phrasing such as “recently” when they were indeed let go, but not as recent as one might think. Many of the staff at the time were in fact contract workers who worked full time hours but had fewer benefits. Contract renewals were passed over, hence the letting go of staff that worked on the various projects the team had. Many of those contract workers had been working with Toys for Bob since the Skylanders days.

Sometime in 2021, however, management tried putting forward the idea of trying to reboot their multiplayer platformer project once more, ideally into something Activision would be willing to fund. This time they proposed releasing the project as a standalone product, a spin-off. A live service multiplayer title built from the assets of Crash 4 and the gameplay mechanics they had already designed for Wumpa League. The studio would continue their Call of Duty support and the multiplayer game would eventually be released in 2023 as Crash Team Rumble, retaining only a few ideas from the larger scale multiplayer project. Various pieces of concept art and teases were released along the way but what eventually came out did not live up to either fans or Activision’s expectations.

After Crash Team Rumble, they were planning to create a new IP running on Unreal Engine 5. Enter, Microsoft. They laid off thousands of people among various studios, leading to disorganization, as some employees even texted gaming journalists like Jason Schreier for updates on what was going on. There are many stories of departments being completely gutted, with no guidance given to current or former employees on who was handling the tasks that no longer retained staff that once handled vital functions to a modern gaming company of this scale. These issues would be exacerbated would include trying to poach talent from other studios not even owned or partnered with Microsoft or Activision. Eventually Toys for Bob negotiated to leave the Microsoft and Activision umbrella, eventually being successful and entering a partnership with Microsoft to work on a yet-to-be-announced game.

It’s clear that ambitions were high at Toys for Bob. Crash Bandicoot 5 was going to be not a departure, but a refinement of what they were working on before. Crash 4 was made in a rather loose but rapid development cycle and despite the monumental success by all measures given the development time, release date, and staggered ports, Toys for Bob was still relegated to support. But now begins a new era for the studio. They may be a smaller staff but now they’re free to work on what they want. The deal with Microsoft to develop something new, seemingly cutting Activision out of the decision making process altogether, means we could see a really exciting project from a team that had been really put through the ringer thanks to mismanagement.

If you’re interested in watching the full video from Liam which shows a lot more art assets, footage, and more – check out the DidYouKnowGaming YouTube channel. While you’re there I also recommend some of their other videos as they make quite a few videos detailing not just gaming history but researching gaming industry rumors such as Pokemon Stars, uncovering pitches like the Legend of Zelda TRPG from Retro Studios, and even a lost Nintendo peripheral – The WorkBoy.

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