Microsoft's Xbox Layoffs Hit Crash Bandicoot And Spyro Developer 'Toys For Bob'

That's one way to prevent Crash Bandicoot 5...

Best wishes that they find projects outside of Microsoft. 🙏🏻

It always sucks to see people lose their jobs. I’m 17, so to me and my friends Skylanders was a massive part of 2nd-5th grade. It was the first game franchise I was really in love with XD

I hope those who were fired can find new places to work quickly. When I’m running my business, I’m gonna try my best to make my employees happy and treat them as equals

You don't understand, the CEO has to make several million for a personal salary! God forbid he pays his employees and makes only a few million for his own!

Microsoft’s “liberation” of Activision continues…

Really hope they aren't just stuck developing COD. I really want a Spyro 4...

I fail to see how anyone can make an argument for being loyal to Xbox right now given they're gutting their developers, and particularly if the multiformat rumours play out next week. Their whole business model now seems to revolve around Gamepass and that's not even unique any more now that Sony are offering something similar with the different tiers of Plus.

Much as this sucks, I hope this serves as a warning for companies not to have themselves be gobbled up by Microsoft.

Though I'm not really at home in that kind of business, I dunno how much choice these companies ultimately have in it, but like, if I own my own company, I assume I could just say no.

In any case I hope all the people who lost their jobs here will find something else.

Consolidation at its finest. 2024 will be Microsoft vs Embracer for the most layoffs.

@Goat_FromBOTW You can't be equal to your employees. Your employees will take advantage of you if you do, even if it is not really intentional on their part. And it will probably stunt their growth as well as yours.

@LycanFalcon or a new Spyro Game. I even thought they would perfect for handling Banjo remakes or new games, not happening now.

Probably ruin them like they did Rare and have them make some boring games.

One of the suggested benefits from people blindly defending Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard was the revival of ignored IP like Crash and Spyro but anyone with sense knew that was a pipedream after watching Microsoft destroy Rare and its iconic IP over 20 years.

This will be terrible for the games industry.

This was predicted years ago and it's one reason Nintendo played a different card, reasonsble spec'ed hardware. Nintendo understands how much it costs to develop a game. They saw it coming 1,000 miles away HD development would hurt or destroy a lot of studios. This sucks!!

Sure, go after the studio that is consistently putting out good work, that makes sense

Oh yeah sure. Go on ahead and lay off the people that make 3D Platformers. Totally justified and makes sense. (Sarcasm)

@Clyde_Radcliffe ....Microsoft did not ruin Rare... they let them make whatever games they wanted. Only thing Microsoft was guilty of was not hiring new talent after most of the staff that was there before the buyout left the company.

Btw Rare refused to make a Banjo Threeie because they thought there wasn't an install base for it on the Xbox due to Grabbed by The Ghoulies not selling well.

@Smug43 Yeah I think people vastly underestimate how important the Wii and DS were to keeping the market healthy.

Without them the 7th gen would have been a bigger bloodbath of Studios than it already was. As every studio would be forced to go to HD development, get bought up by a big publisher, or shrink to indie size.

I don't get it. MS has no games, yet they throw out all their workforce to build said games... Truly baffling after all these acquisitions. At least try to steer the ship with a plethora of innovative concepts and put them into game pass, to make it more of a must have.

For some small indie titles, third-party mass ware and the few MS-Exclusives (that barely are of any interest to me) I wouldn't get the service. But a vast exclusive library would make me even consider buying an Xbox.

I bought the Xone and played exactly two games on it. Ori and Ori 2 and that is also the reason why I didn't invest into XseriesX because I don't get a boner for Halo or Forza or GoW. Less Dude-Bro gaming, more colorful concepts full of quirk and wonder please.

@JohnnyC
PS Plus is not the same as GamePass, not even close.
If there would be day one Playstation Exclusives on PS Plus, I'd get it immediately.

@PipeGuy64Bit Everyone knows Microsoft doesn't care about 3D platformers. They just want to make shooty war bang games and don't really care about much of anything else.

Microsoft are ruthless. Makes you wonder if they actually will produce tons of new games like they have promised. We all know what’s happened to rare.

@ZombAid82 Buying up competitors to give Nintendo and Sony less games still helps them. Also they're ruthless capitalists that only care about their bottom line (read: how much their executives are making, not the little guys actually making sure they have something to sell). They're pretty much a cancer on the industry. Always have been, always will be for as long as they remain in business.

Who would have know that a merger wasn't going to be good for the developers and consumers???...
Oh yeah anyone with the most basic business knowledge, but our courts allowed it to go through because in the end it's going to make the rich richer and screw everyone else.

@Specters Yup, that's what it's all about. Gutting the actual products and IPs just so they can make their already humungous pile of money even bigger. Corporate executives have really gotten out of control.

The end of the road is near for the Xbox. I am not expecting a follow up console.

So there it is. They legit don't know what to do with their acquisitions. Okay.
Check it out guys, the recent Developer Directs XBOX stream rebrand strikes a faux intimate tone with the devs because, actually, XBOX is doing this. I'm donnnnne.

@Yosher you could say no if you are not publicly traded, at least in the US.

Fascinating reading this article on Nintendolife and then on its sister site Pure Xbox. Same info, completely different slant.

Come on guys. Do better.

Me hoping for a Skylanders remake.

They are not shut down and will continue to make games.
They only closed some office.

We already knew about this. And again this is expected after a massive merger. It’s awful for those affected but an unfortunate inevitability.

CALLED IT!

Everyone was all like "save us, Phil! Save us from the mean Bobby!" Well now one of the only two Activision teams still worth a toss is just plain dead now. Bobby Kotick is still a horrible person, but at least he wasn't dumb enough to close his loan positive PR generator

@UltimateOtaku91 Microsoft has already had more layoffs in only a month than Embracer had all last year. And Embracer at least offers job relocation and severance services, and has to give studios and teams months early notice.

Yes I am a sicophant, and yes I will bring this up everytime someone says Embracer is "just as bad" as the living Captain Planet villain that is Microsoft.

This is practically half of TfB’s total employee count. I know CTRumble stank, but these guys generally do good work. Hope those affected find new work soon and that this isn’t the end TfB’s non-COD endeavours.

This is concerning for Crash Bandicoot and Spyro's future. I wonder how things would be different if Universal had never sold the IPs away...

Even people here are still reading this as Toys for Bob being killed off? When the article acknowledges that's not the case and provides the accurate number instead of lumping in the Sledgehammer layoffs?

Man, that initial confusion really messed up people's perception of this. It's not great, but hopefully Microsoft at least sees value in having Toys for Bob work on projects that aren't just Call of Duty support work.

Jeez, I really hope that they’ll still be able to continue Skylanders in some way.

Well this is what happens when you do a deal with Microsoft

Well there goes any chance of Crash and Spyro ever coming back just like Banjo and Conker. Thank you Microsoft for killing more of gaming loveable mascots.

Hope this isn't a trend going forward with M$ buying Activision....

Microsoft hasn't learned. A development company is made up of people with various talents. When you fire some of those people, the company's DNA changes. Before long, it's a completely different company. So... what did they buy? IPs. That's all. They're buying someone else's ideas because they have none of their own.

You know, for a company so desperate for that Japanese money that they're willing to put their games on the Switch and possibly the PS5 soon, you would think Microsoft would keep this team so they can put out Crash and Spyro games in Japan since those games (especially Crash) are popular over there.

And so many Xbox guys said this would be so great for the developers and they would get to make anything they wanted to and have a huge budget because Microsoft has a huge bankroll. Only for them to be fired.

@TMG44 First Banjo along with Conker, and now this...

Honestly this is most likely a reduction due to redundancy or cyclical development. There were bound to be inefficiencies created when MS acquired Acti-Bliz, ones which it would make no sense to keep around.

So the acquisitions team would have determined these and kept the person in the role they felt was most valuable to the combined firm.

Other scenario could be a shift back in development(or forward).

These staff will almost certainly find new roles in the relatively good market right now, possibly even within different MS teams.

While its never good to hear about people losing their jobs, the fact of it is that its a natural part of business and life, especially within the software sector.

@UltraBEAR - Dont look at the small picture to frame a larger one. A small number of the team was laid off for reasons we dont know. This was bound to happen as all acquisitions lead to a reshuffling of labor resources. They fire 89, but how many are they adding in other areas? Those numbers never get reported on.

@Runex2121 I’m dealing in reality. Not what ifs. The office closed down with no announcement of a new office.