Crash Team Rumble Was Reportedly In Development For Switch But Got Cancelled

Crash and Spyro are so screwed, right now. Acti-Blizz, you will NEVER see my money ever again.

I just wanted a crash five! Four was so much fun and so enjoyable!

Gosh and it would had even been a crossover with Spyro! Darn you Activision

As great as another Crash & Spyro crossover would have been, it should have been just a separate individual spin-off, not the focus and selling point of a Crash 5. Crash and Spyro need to be able to stand on their own.
The Academy of Evil's return and the "going into the baddies' mind" plot would have been sufficient enough imo.

As for the canned Switch version of Crash Team Rumbe, meh, nothing of value was lost.🤷‍♂️

Looking at this Rumble game, I don't think we missed out on much. I'm very content with the HD trilogy, Crash 4 and Crash Team Racing. Crash 5 getting canceled hurts though.

@MirrorFate2 That's an odd reaction to multiple well made remasters and a proper sequel after two decades of games everyone did nothing but complained about.

Those IPs have been mishandled by not one, but TWO hardware manufacturers - that’s a tough pill

I hope T4B has a wonderful post Activision life and isn’t forced to make endless Toys to life or irrelevant multiplayer games

Lol, yeah, obviously.
Actually glad this game flopped so hard. Turning singleplayer games into live service trash is a big no-no.

I love the series of games to be honest with you. I think "4" was a little underwhelming though a decent playthrough. Even loved the kart games which are the best non MK games bar Diddy and Sonic ASRT.

Spyro games I liked a little less but had a good time with them (trilogy)

@GarlicGuzzler Hi. I made this video. What you’re missing is that it is a follow-up to a previous video from a couple of months ago which addressed the wider management issues at Activision Blizzard. It is brought up in the Crash video but you can find that here: https://youtu.be/KJlu9g8UEAI?si=v4kZGhPBCTS9A6qd

Crash 4 is a great game but the lack of a Nintendo version at launch was very clearly a critical mistake.

That being said when said switch version happened, activision apparently already abandoned the whole thing and did not even support it enough to be properly distributed in Europe.

The showed they did not understand the appeal of their own licence and how it translates to nowadays console market (no switch version at launch) and that they did not understand the switch market for such a traditional licence (no proper physical release for a huge market and poor distribution). It seems to me they indeed made a mistake at launch but activision was not willing to put the money to try and make things better and condemned the whole project right away.

And also and perhaps even more so it shows the targeted sales number must ridiculously high for activision because I'm pretty sure the game sold reasonably well. Not everything needs to sell like COD and they should understand that as industry veterans. In the long run it's good to keep licences alive that are not necessarily hugely profitable but make your brand recognizable in the eye of the audience. It's something few big companies seem to understand these days. The same happened when Sony got rid of every developer that was doing something interesting for them a couple years ago. In the long run they tend to make all brands/studios look the same and produce the same products and inevitably some will lose big time. Look where ubi is now with the extreme uniformity of everything they produce.

Not that I care, this whole situation is favorable to Nintendo but yeah. I'd rather have a healthy industry led by creativity rather than Nintendo practically solely playing different cards in the middle of a sea of sameness.

I think Crash Team Rumble should have been the first game in Gamepass from ABK. And it should have happened when the acquisition closed - just to give the game a chance at being saved. 🤷‍♂️

I am so glad I stopped buying Activision games. Not that I didn't do much of that anyway.

To be honest, I'm a bit happy and relieved that the Crash Bandicoot series is not being continued. The last few titles have shown me that the old retro charm of the series can no longer be maintained if you want to keep up with modern tastes and sensibilities. This was particularly clear to me with some of the new characters that Toys for Bob introduced for Crash Bandicoot. For example, the alternate, progressive version of Tawna, who is now portrayed as a strong, independent woman who doesn't need a man in her life. Or the new character Catbat, who defines himself mainly by his non-binary identity. Add to that the planned idea of ​​reinterpreting many male characters as female versions. In addition to the female version of Dr. N. Tropy in Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, female versions of the Komodo Brothers were also planned. In addition, Crash Bandicoot 5 was supposed to be more serious and darker, with a lot of "lore" in the background.

Honestly, this kind of storytelling might fit well with series like Sonic the Hedgehog or Sly Cooper, which started telling more serious stories early on. But Crash Bandicoot was always a fun, simple cartoon game without much depth. Not everything has to be as complex as Rick & Morty or Into the Spiderverse. Unfortunately, many people don't realize that even a simple cartoon has its own charm. Maybe it really is better if Crash retires with Spyro and chats about the good old days in the retirement home with other retired video game characters like Conker and Banjo-Kazooie. I don't know how you feel about it, but I don't really need that.

Some of the concepts in the video didn't click for me, mainly the Cortex family and the Spyro crossover stuff, but it all seemed to be coming from a genuine and passionate place and the fact Toys For Bob weren't given the chance to refine it IRKS ME.

I know not everyone agreed on 4 or the choices Toys For Bob made in making a new Crash but it seems unfair to not give them a chance to see if they learned from those mistakes and try to deliver a more refined experience.

“Former employees claim the lack of a Nintendo Switch version at launch was a "critical mistake". It’s much like missing a single apple out of hundreds is a critical mistake that forces having to collect every single one of them again for no reason other than bloating out the playtime, yeah I’m not gonna weep over this series getting flushed again.

I had zero interest in Crash Team Rumble. These days, that kind of game needs to be free to play. People just aren’t going to pay full price anymore for a game that’s online multiplayer only. I doubt it would have done well on the Switch.

Man I just wanted a proper Spyro 4 that continues with the same style as Re-Ignited but I guess that's not happening if they cancelled Crash 5...

No!!! There was going to be a Twinsanity level in Crash 5!? Aw man... too bad it got canceled.

Pity, crash 4 was very very good.

Good old executives, no wonder toys for bob went independent

I don’t care about Rumble, but a Crash 5 with Spyro being cancelled? Lame.

It was very stupid of them to not release it on Switch simultaneously with the other platform versions, literally almost EVERYONE has a Switch.

As for canceling Crash 5 due to Crash 4 sales not meeting expectations, is obvious they are aiming to high, they are expecting far to much from Crash Bandicoot, they need to dial it down or they'll keep setting themselves up for failure.

I think Crash Team Rumble’s development cycle of hell is the most interesting part of this Documentary. It confirms what a lot of us suspected but never knew for sure - that it was in development for quite some time, was at one stage going to be an add on multiplayer DLC to Crash 4, and that they had grander plans than what actually ended up being released. Fascinating stuff here.

It’s a shame about Crash 5 not quite getting off the starting block of pre-production (but better it got canned early than late into development). It’s a shame though (and of course because of Acti-Blizz and the bloody merger causing more discourse).

The real downer here however is that the Crash Trilogy Remakes, CTR Remake, Crash 4 and Spyro Trilogy Remakes were real high quality titles that sold well (even if not by the publishers expectations) and competed against the best of Nintendos own efforts.

…Yet this was pissed away due to bad management on the publishers end and a decision to lean into the 4x4 moba live service lite title with Crash Team Rumble - a that nobody asked for and one that should have appeared on the platform it was likely to get the most user engagement. I appreciate there are always lots of moving parts behind the scenes, but the future of the series shouldn’t have (additionally) been axed on one spinoff that consumers didn’t want.

Still, the silver lining is that TFB are free now. And if the persisting rumours are true they may even be able to continue to work on future Crash or Spyro titles (or their own new IP) but without interruption or developer redistribution from Microsoft henceforth.

@Poodlestargenerica ...I think you didn't watch the video, nor was aware of anything the company did since 2020.

Never realized Crash was this popular, I think the only time I've ever played it was during the at home scene in Uncharted...

@MirrorFate2 I'm just saying, it's not even close to a low point for the series.

@rvcolem1 Before Naughty Dog ventured to new IP's and the property went elsewhere, Crash was to Playstation what Mario was to Nintendo back in the day.

It's a shame that beyond the original trilogy (+CTR) that the publishers messed around with the license so much that the quality (and weirdness of titles) almost made the character relatively obscure, that is, until the remakes came along to make Crash relevant again.

@Sonicka I am old enough to remember him being popular during the ps era just thought he went away, like earthworm jim or gex or aero the acrobat and on and on. Mascot platformers were a dime a dozen growing up, everyone wanted mario or sonic. Heck ps tried sackboy too.
I guess I never knew there was a following that was aching for new games.

Not canned, will be a launch title on switch successor. 😉

@Pizzashapes Bro, that's full-on copium. It got canned, it's one of the devs behind it who told us.

Honestly, I think it's nostalgia for some of us but don't think it hits that hard with newer generations of gamers. Although, I'm always down for more choices in games, this was probably a good call on their part.

Sure sounds like modern marketing to frown at a game's sales on other platforms and cancel it for the one where you'd expect most of its target audience to be from the start.