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Recently, news had broken that among the extensive layoffs coming to Microsoft’s various development houses, Activision Blizzard would be seeing some reduction in staff. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, that included laying off 86 employees and shuttering the physical offices in Novato, California of Toys For Bob. The company was founded in 1989 and has been a mainstay of the industry ever since, but truly rose to prominence working on the Skylanders series for Activision starting in 2011 with Skylander’s: Spyro’s Adventure. In the years since it has helmed numerous other projects, including development of Spyro Reignited Trilogy and Crash Bandicoot 4. Alas, despite such a strong pedigree, Microsoft saw fit to close their offices and layoff staffers, but that seems to have not dissuaded the studio from making big changes of its own.
In a post on the company’s website, Toys For Bob has announced that it will be splitting off from Activision Blizzard, which has owned the studio since 2005. In a statement, Toys For Bob said the following:
We’re thrilled to announce that Toys for Bob is spinning off as an independent game development studio!
Over the years, we’ve inspired love, joy, and laughter for the inner child in all gamers. We pioneered new IP and hardware technologies in Skylanders. We raised the bar for best-in-class remasters in Spyro Reignited Trilogy. We’ve taken Crash Bandicoot to innovative, critically acclaimed new heights.
With the same enthusiasm and passion, we believe that now is the time to take the studio and our future games to the next level. This opportunity allows us to return to our roots of being a small and nimble studio.
To make this news even more exciting, we’re exploring a possible partnership between our new studio and Microsoft. 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.
Our friends at Activision and Microsoft have been extremely supportive of our new direction and we’re confident that we will continue to work closely together as part of our future.
So, keep your horns on and your eyes out for more news. Thank you to our community of players for always supporting us through our journey. We can’t wait to share updates on our new adventure as an indie studio!
Talk to you soon!
The question some might be asking is where Toys For Bob will be setting up operations since Microsoft closed its digs in Novato. The statement doesn’t say, but we’ll surely learn more in the future. In the meanwhile, it looks like Toys For Bob is hoping to continue working alongside Activision Blizzard in some capacity, and remains positive about its relationship with its former owner. If nothing else, it’s nice to see Toys For Bob trying to make a go of things once more on its own, which is a nice contrast to the bleak state of the industry in early 2024.
Source: Toys For Bob Blog
