Chris Paulson, a former executive at Activision Blizzard, has joined the team at Skybound Games, a division of The Walking Dead company Skybound Entertainment. Paulson will serve as executive vice president and general manager of games publishing.
29.02.2024 - 21:47 / gameranx.com / Toys For Bob / For Bob
It hasn’t been a good year for video game developers and publishers, and we’re just now at the end of February! There have been over 7000 job layoffs in the first two months, with 5400+ coming in January, and just this past week, another 1600 have been added to that! This is affecting companies in various ways, and they have to adapt to their new situations if they can. An excellent example of this is Toys For Bob, a small company that Activision Blizzard had bought and recently saw some layoffs. Plus, they decided to forgo having a “formal workplace” and become an entirely work-at-home company.
That was a bold move, and they’ve now committed to making an even BOLDER move if you can believe it. On their website, they announced that they’re going independent from Activision Blizzard and won’t be confined to working on the Xbox platform anymore via their new merger.
“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.”
While they didn’t say anything about Activision Blizzard specifically, they did note that they are open to working with Microsoft and Xbox in a “new relationship” to try to make games for them.
Even though they didn’t call out Activision Blizzard for mistreatment, what’s happened to them ever since being bought has been well documented. For example, Activision Blizzard primarily used Toys For Bob not as a game developer but as a “support studio” for a certain FPS franchise, as you all know. Yeah, that one. While that’s not unheard of, and all the big publishers do it with certain companies when possible to “lighten the load,” when that becomes their “primary function,” it can weigh on you.
It also didn’t help that Activision Blizzard clearly saw them as “expendable” when they were doing layoffs, and they weren’t giving them the chance to make games to prove their worth, and thus, they’re going independent.
What will be interesting going forward is seeing whether other companies will follow in their footsteps to be kept away from these “overlords” of the gaming industry and give them true freedom.
Chris Paulson, a former executive at Activision Blizzard, has joined the team at Skybound Games, a division of The Walking Dead company Skybound Entertainment. Paulson will serve as executive vice president and general manager of games publishing.
Stig Asmussen – the director of God of War 3, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor – was confirmed to have left Respawn Entertainment in September last year, and it’s now been revealed what he’s working on next.
Former Activision Blizzard boss Bobby Kotick has reportedly expressed an interest in buying social media platform TikTok.
Toys for Bob, the developer behind titles like Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time and Spyro: Reignited Trilogy, has announced that it's becoming an independent studio. Previously, the Californian outfit had operated under Activision, but it was hit with layoffs after Microsoft's acquisition of the publisher. Toys for Bob also had its office shuttered as part of the 'consolidation' process.
Longtime Activision developer Toys for Bob is spinning off as an independent game studio, breaking off from Activision’s new owners Microsoft… but curiously also then exploring a potential new partnership with Microsoft.
Longtime Activision developer Toys for Bob is spinning off as an independent game studio, breaking off from Activision’s new owners Microsoft… but curiously also then exploring a potential new partnership with Microsoft.
Activision has announced Crash Team Rumble is ending support next week.
As the video games industry violently contracts to ensure shareholder satisfaction at the cost of making thousands upon thousands of people unemployed, Skylanders studio Toys For Bob have announced they're splitting from Activision Blizzard and Microsoft to go independent. Good for them, but maybe too late for some. Earlier this month, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that it seemed Activision Blizzard were closing Toys For Bob's California headquarters and laying off 86 people. Still, the new independent Toys For Bob say they're working on something new and "exploring a possible partnership" with Microsoft.
Crash Team Rumble will have no further content updates after 4th March, less than nine months after its launch.
Out of the blue, Novato-based game developer Toys for Bob announced it is going indie, splitting from Activision and Microsoft. The brief announcement message says this is a move to 'return to roots' and be a nimble studio once again.
Current Crash and Spyro developer Toys For Bob is spinning itself out of Activision Blizzard.
With Saber Interactive and Gearbox Entertainment reportedly splitting from the Embracer Group, it’s surprising to hear developer Toys for Bob is separating from Activision. The Spyro Reignited Trilogy, Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time! and Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy studio is going private and returning to its roots as a “small and nimble studio.”