It’s somewhat insane that it’s taken more than eighteen years to get a true new Spyro game. Sure, we’ve gotten Skylanders and the tremendous Reignited Trilogy remake, but a fresh Spyro story has been absent. Toys for Bob has wanted to create one for quite some time, especially after getting so familiar with the character from their time making the previously mentioned games. Now independent, they’ve struck a deal with Xbox, and A Realm Beyond is on the horizon. At the Xbox Showcase, I was able to go behind the scenes and listen to a presentation from Studio Head Paul Yan and Associate Creative Director Lou Studdert. What they had to say was fascinating; the journey to where they are now is as special as the purple dragon they represent.
This small group of game devs arrived on the scene way back in 1989, which makes them one of the longest running game development studios in the US. In 2005, they were acquired by Activision, and from there, the Spyro run began. Skylanders was a massive success, as was the Reignited Trilogy during that timeframe. Unfortunately, the team got stuck in the Call of Duty machine, which stretched them thin as they divided their already tiny studio to be of service to their owners. There was a short period where they were able to experiment with Crash Bandicoot (and I met Paul during that coverage timeframe), but largely, they had to work on Call of Duty to pay the bills.
In the midst of all of the upheaval, the team felt like they were straying from the passion for gaming they once had. They love making joyful games with colorful characters, and handcrafted, musical worlds. Gaming experiences that are designed for a wide range of ages. They wanted to get back to that, and a big change occurred. Microsoft bought Activision, and suddenly Toys for Bob was presented with a chance to make a hard pivot. After soul searching, they saw a lot of transition ahead. The opportunity was here: What if they could propose moving becoming independent to Xbox?
That kind of shift would let them focus on what they wanted, and give them creative control over their own destiny. It also would preserve their team and the tenure they built up over the decades together. In return, their proposal was simple: the first game they developed would be for and in partnership with Xbox. Xbox liked the idea, and that game is the newly revealed A Realm Beyond.
Here is where we got a few extra details from the team. The core central idea for the game involved unifying the disparate elements that make up the Spyro games. In turn, amplifying the feeling of being a dragon and giving the players true freedom of dragonflight to take to the skies at a moment's notice. In the original games, there was a divide between the skies and the ground. With A Realm Beyond, they wanted to craft a game where that line was gone, and you could instantly soar upwards in a level.
The description of the gameplay we received from Lou sounds great. In the trailer, there’s a little snippet at the end showing some gameplay. Lou remarked that Spyro dove down to pick up speed, before spitting a fireball to ignite a campfire. That led to an updraft from the flames, allowing Spyro to push with his wings to sustain momentum, before looking at the environment to find more opportunities to continue that momentum and get more boosts to his speed. It’s cool thinking about the evolution of the character and what they’re trying to achieve in A Realm Beyond. In all of this, Toys for Bob wants to create a new point in the series, one where both new players and old fans can come in and have fun.
One thing that shows their reverence of the series was the announcement in our session that Tom Kenny was returning as the voice of Spyro. The well-known actor behind Spongebob and many other characters was the original voice for the dragon, and they said within ten seconds that he was spouting lines like he’d never left. He was telling them stories about fans coming up to him at conventions and hoping for a new Spyro game, and it’s awesome to see those dreams are finally coming true.
Paul and Lou opened up for a few questions here, and I’ll be as brief as I can without missing details on what was said. As a new Spyro game hadn’t been made in nearly twenty years, could the team speak to their development process and how it – and Spyro – had changed? For Toys for Bob, the thought process was simple: the old games were severely limited by their hardware. This opened a lot of capabilities for them to step in and add the new moveset and dive into the fantasy aspects of being a dragon. It also led to their needing to reshape the environment Spyro inhabited, given you’re able to fly so easily now. Verticality became a key in developing these new levels for the flight you now have.
Spyro has a new look as well, so a question emerged on if he has grown up in the past twenty years. While the team wouldn’t go into narrative specifics, they did point out the changes to his look in the trailer. Spyro’s spines have come forward a bit, his wings have grown. In the past, he had little baby dragon wings, but to achieve the flight fantasy A Realm Beyond will have, they had to age him up a bit.
There was also interest in if Activision imposed any guidelines in making a new Spyro title. Thankfully, there was not, but that didn’t mean Toys for Bob didn’t want to add guardrails to how they approached it. They combed through fan feedback and fan reactions to the Reignited Trilogy, pouring through YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, and more to grab everything they could in terms of what the fans thought. They then put all of that into giant tables, and from there they explored for patterns and insights into what people appreciate in the series to use as a guiding light for them to follow. They even assembled a word cloud for the feedback, seeing important words like “Discovery”, “Calm”, “Momentum”, “Exploration”, “Friendship”, and using those to measure their decisions in tonal ways. Utilizing this helped them find the core direction and tone that’s true and authentic to who Spyro is, and they could move forward and build on that foundation.
If there was one thing that Toys for Bob didn’t want to do, it was rely on nostalgia. They don’t want to just rehash the same stuff over and over. They want to give fans an authentic experience, but they also want to use that experience as a springboard into taking a few risks and introducing new ideas.
Staying true to the character of Spyro was another thoughtbrought up in this interview. Something the team knew was different with this game is that the core fans aren’t just kids anymore. With a near twenty year gap in between original titles, those people could be in their thirties and forties. Keeping Tom Kenny as the voice was an important part of that, having the plucky, sarcastic version everyone knows and loves at the center of the game. Taking that character on a new adventure was where the team landed in evolving Spyro while sticking to who he is.
A Realm Beyond being approachable is also crucial to the game. Even though a bunch of the fans have grown up, the children of those fans will have the love of the series passed on to them. They want players to have new freedom at their fingertips in this new world, but the design and tone are timeless and work for a wide variety of audiences. After all, Spyro isn’t Crash Bandicoot. It’s not a tough, challenging game that asks for precision. Instead, it’s about the bliss of exploration and discovery, which are elements they’re pursuing for this title.
Unfortunately, my silly questions on if they could elaborate on the A Realm Beyond subtitle and if we could get Nintendo to make an Amiibo so I could pretend like I was playing Skylanders were not answered. That said, the team is the PERFECT match for our favorite purple dragon. The passion they display for this series is exactly what I want to see. You won’t have to wait too terribly long to know more about Spyro: A Realm Beyond as well – the game releases in Spring of 2027. It will arrive on a bunch of platforms as well: PC, Xbox Series consoles, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch 2. Keep your eyes on GamingTrend; we love Spyro over here and will be covering any and everything that comes through!
