When you’re bringing back a much beloved, PlayStation One era franchise, that too remaking it from the ground up while keeping the basic architecture, gameplay and fundamentals intact, the response may not always be great. However, Vicarious Visions’ Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy clearly hasn’t had that problem – it’s ranked as the number 1 best selling title in UK for five weeks since its launch and fourth-best selling title in the United States for June (according to NPD).
It may not be that big of a surprise but Activision is certainly overwhelmed by the support. CEO Eric Hirshberg spoke to investors after an earnings release last night and stated that, “We had no idea – it’s hard to tell whether that’s a vocal minority or whether that’s a real mass audience until you put something out there. And Crash has surpassed all of our expectations by a pretty wide margin.”
Thanks to Crash’s success, Activision is now considering other such projects. “So this is a strategy that clearly has our attention, and while there are no new announcements today, I think you can be confident that there will be more activity like this in the future with more great IP.
“The other opportunity beyond remaster[s] is to look at some of our classic IP and ask whether or not it could be reborn on a new platform like what we’re going with Skylanders on mobile.”
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy is currently available for PS4 (check out our review here) though rumours have been brewing about it coming to Xbox One.