It was claimed in reports earlier this year that Activision had, at one point, quietly cancelled Crash Bandicoot 5, which had been in the works at Toys for Bob, and more details have now seemingly emerged on the shelved platformer.
In a recently published video, YouTube channel DidYouKnowGaming has claimed that following the release of Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, a small team within developer Toys for Bob started working on ideas for the series’ next mainline single-player instalment.
Allegedly, work was only done on the game for a handful of months, before Activision decided to shelve the project and instead refocusing the studio’s efforts on live service titles. It’s claimed that less-than-stellar sales for Crash 4 were also responsible for this decision. Official sales for the game have never been announced, though reports claimed earlier this year that it had sold over 5 million units.
The video further claims that one of the concepts that was proposed for Crash Bandicoot 5 would have seen Spyro the Dragon serving as the second main playable character in the game. Toys for Bob previously developed 2018’s Spyro Reignited Trilogy, and this alleged pitch would have seen the character’s world colliding with Crash’s, with the two teaming up to fight against an interdimensional threat.
Other ideas in those early stages of pre-production also included a school setting for young villains, the return of antagonists from past instalments, and more. Concept art for the cancelled project is also shown in the video. You can view it in full below.
Toys for Bob separated from Activision and new parent company Microsoft this year, but though the studio has gone independent, it was confirmed in May that Xbox would still serve as the publisher for its next game. Reports have claimed that the game in question is Spyro 4, which has allegedly only entered active development in January.