Crash Bandicoot 4 Developer Toys for Bob Now Working on Call of Duty: Warzone

Update: Activision provided a statement addressing reports of layoffs at Toys for Bob.

“Reports of layoffs at Toys For Bob are incorrect,” an Activision spokesperson said. “There has not been a reduction in personnel recently at the studio.The development team is operating fully and has a number of full-time job openings at this time.The studio is excited to continue supporting Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, and more recently provide additional development support to Call of Duty: Warzone.”

Original story below:

Toys for Bob, the developer known for Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time and the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, is now working on Call of Duty: Warzone, a very different sort of game compared to its last projects. The developer announced this week that it was “proud to support” development on the Call of Duty game that just recently kicked off Season 3 and has tons of players taking part in the new season. This transition to supporting Warzone also seems to have happened amid apparent layoffs that affected some of Toys for Bob‘s developers.

The studio tweeted about the news on Thursday to say it’d be working on Season 3 of Warzone and that the studio looked forward “to more to come.” Raven Software, the main studio behind Warzone, isn’t going anywhere and is still in charge of the game and will now benefit from the support of Toys for Bob.

But as those who enjoyed Toys for Bob’s work worried about the studio and what this might mean for it considering Activision Blizzard’s history with its studios that weren’t working on powerhouse franchises, it came out that people had been let go from the company. Nicholas Kole, a character designer and illustrator who worked on both Crash Bandicoot 4 and the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, said on Twitter that this was the “end of an era” and wished well to those who were still with Toys for Bob. Kole elaborated on the situation in another tweet by saying everyone they worked with was let go but that a total shuttering of the company hadn’t happened.

Within Activision, the publisher has multiple studios working on different projects, but essentially all of them have worked on or are working on Call of Duty in some capacity now. Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games, and Treyarch are the big three people think of most often, but others that Call of Duty players may not have even heard of also work on Call of Duty.

If you’re wondering why some people would be concerned about the fate of Toys for Bob after the announcement, you need look no further than Vicarious Visions. The studio formerly owned by Activision that most recently released Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 was absorbed into Blizzard in January. The employees who transitioned to work on the publisher were put on Diablo projects including the Diablo II: Resurrected remake and the upcoming Diablo IV.