Toys For Bob Announced It Has Become An Independent Studio

American developer Toys For Bob announced that it would be looking towards its future as a developer in the capacity of an independent studio. The news comes as the studio has split itself from publisher Activision Blizzard, which was acquired by Microsoft but is now exploring a "partnership" between them and Microsoft.

The developer was primarily responsible for the "remasters in Spyro Reignited Trilogy" and Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and created the Skylanders series while under Activision. Its studio heads, Paul Yan and Avery Lodato stated that now "is the time to take the studio and our future games to the next level," and they outlined some early plans for Toys For Bob.

Yan and Lodato wrote in a company blog post published on 29th February 2024 that the decision for the studio to move forward independently allowed them "to return to our roots of being a small and nimble studio." They also thanked the teams at Activision and Microsoft for their support of moving as an independent studio, stating that they're "confident that we will continue to work closely together as part of our future."

As Toys For Bob is looking to continue working alongside Microsoft as they seek a "partnership" deal with the tech company, they announced that they're working on a new IP. As it's in its "early days" of development, the "team is excited to develop new stories, new characters, and new gameplay experiences."

The last game the studio developed was Crash Team Rumble, which had recently dropped two balance updates for Season 3 on 7th December 2023. Unfortunately, the game will release its final content update on 4th March 2024 as servers will remain online, players will gain access to its free Battle Pass, and all content released across three seasons while microtransactions will be disabled.