When it was revealed that the latestCrash Bandicootdeveloper,Toys for Bob, was getting moved into theCall of Dutymines, many fans saw that as a sign the series was going on hiatus once again. But even when the studio showed its face with a brand new Crash game, it did little to reassure fans, as it became apparent that Crash Team Rumble is a live service. Some saw it as the final nail in the coffin, withActivisiononly seeing the series as a chance to make some microtransaction money.
Now that Crash Team Rumble has launched, Toys for Bob is pushing back against this narrative. Speaking in an interview withVGC, the developer says that Activision is “supportive” of its work on the series, and wants them to do “exciting new things” with the IP. This could suggest that further games are on the cards, presumably if Team Rumble performs well.
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“Activision is supportive and they continue to want to invest in new titles for this franchise,” says Dan Neil, creative director at Toys for Bob. “They also have a belief that we can do exciting new things.”
Neil also pushed back on the idea thatToys for Bob being put on the Call of Duty seriesafter Crash 4 sales failed to impress was a punishment or even a waste of time.
“We’ve got folks internally who can turn their hands to Call of Duty and create excellent Call of Duty content,” says Neil. “We’ve drawn a lot of knowledge and learning from working with the Call of Duty team that we’ve brought back into our own execution on Crash Team Rumble.”
Given the vast differences in almost everything about Call of Duty and Crash Bandicoot, we’ll have to be the judge of where these similarities can be felt. One feature that comes to mind is Crash’s new monetisation, having first implemented microtransactions Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled. On this topic, Neil says that the team is “always going to be listening” to the fans, and may tweak the battle pass if this feedback is negative.
That being said, none were pleased to find out that there would be a paid battle pass, especially when it was revealed thatTeam Rumble won’t be free-to-play. Team Rumble will set you back £24.99 for the standard edition, and £34.99 for the deluxe edition.
In any case, the game just went live earlier today, so we’ll have to wait for reactions to come in. Being a live service, Activision won’t likely have to show its apparent dedication to the series for a while yet, so don’t expect any Crash 5 news this year at least.
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