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Spyro Announcement Possibly Teased for 2023

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

No Spyro 4 video game or any new project since Spyro Reignited Trilogy has been announced, but Toys for Bob's latest tweet does have some fans cautiously optimistic about the franchise's future. Toys for Bob recently released an image hinting at what the studio has in store for the new year. The image references the Crash Team Rumble multiplayer game that's set to launch later in 2023, but it also included Spyro the Dragon with "25th" floating above his head, hinting that some kind of announcement related to the franchise's anniversary could be on the way.

Insiders have denied that brand-new Spyro the Dragon games are in development, so fans may not want to get too excited that this is leading up to a Spyro 4 reveal. It's possible that Toys for Bob isn't hinting at a new game announcement at all. If anything, this could simply be a port of Spyro Reignited Trilogy to PS5 and Xbox Series X platforms, but even that might not come to pass.

 

Kuranghi

Member
TfB getting melded with the CoD-BloB is fucking depressing, the remakes were excellent. The designs and animation work done for the dragons were very good, shame it didn't get a PS5 (or even PS4 Pro) patch for 60fps since input lag is a bit high iirc.
 

Dr. Claus

Banned
Sell the franchise back to Insomniac!
Why? They aren't the same people who made it originally. It would be no different than giving it to an entirely different studio.

Plus Insomniac is busy with numerous other projects. We would never see a new Spyro from them.
 

Robb

Gold Member
I’d love that, bring it on!
spyro-spyro-glasses.gif
 

Unknown?

Member
Why? They aren't the same people who made it originally. It would be no different than giving it to an entirely different studio.

Plus Insomniac is busy with numerous other projects. We would never see a new Spyro from them.
There are still people there who worked on those games and you're right about it being different but it's a way better company than Toys for Bob.
 

Kadve

Member
Did reignited sell much worse than N-sane? Or did Activision simple not greenlit a new Spyro game because Crash 4 underperformed?
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Please for the love of god. Please. I just want Spyro 4 and I'm happy. For all its faults I still love that we got a Crash 4 that felt like Crash 4 in the end, Wrath of Cortex (and by extension Enter the Dragonfly) onwards just didn't hit that feeling for me. It would be a real shame to let the IP rot without at least giving it one last go.
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Did reignited sell much worse than N-sane? Or did Activision simple not greenlit a new Spyro game because Crash 4 underperformed?

Toys for Bob got relegated to a COD support studio in 2021 so they wouldn't even have had the chance. With Microsoft picking up Activision it seems more likely that they'll actually use the IPs they've just bought rather than allocating developers which Microsoft could do any day of the week. I think that's what this tweet indicates, Spyro 4 is in the works and will be announced for the 25th anniversary.
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
The voice actors for Spyro (and Professor), Hunter and Elora are all still working. Moneybags died sadly and Zoe isn't working, she's 80.

C'mon. Do it.
 
Why? They aren't the same people who made it originally. It would be no different than giving it to an entirely different studio.

Plus Insomniac is busy with numerous other projects. We would never see a new Spyro from them.
Right. It’s like Naughty Dog making a new Jak. Will never happen, but even if it did, who is still even there who worked on the original games?
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Right. It’s like Naughty Dog making a new Jak. Will never happen, but even if it did, who is still even there who worked on the original games?

This. It's such an eye roll whenever I see people saying ND should go back to Jak. They've clearly moved way, way on and did so 18 years ago.

I get that Insomniac are still making Ratchet, but even as one of my favourite franchises it's clearly outstayed its welcome and I wouldn't be surprised if Rift Apart was the last.
 
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This. It's such an eye roll whenever I see people saying ND should go back to Jak. They've clearly moved way, way on and did so 18 years ago.

I get that Insomniac are still making Ratchet, but even as one of my franchises it's clearly outstayed its welcome and I wouldn't be surprised if Rift Apart was the last.
Plus whatever chance there was of a Jak 4 died when Druckmann took over the studio.

If people who used to work at ND or Imsoniac somehow formed a new studio and made a modern reboot, then I would be interested. But how would they even get the license(s) to do it, it’s all just too remote a possibility.
 
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samoilaaa

Member
This. It's such an eye roll whenever I see people saying ND should go back to Jak. They've clearly moved way, way on and did so 18 years ago.

I get that Insomniac are still making Ratchet, but even as one of my franchises it's clearly outstayed its welcome and I wouldn't be surprised if Rift Apart was the last.
rift apart is definetly the last , insomniac will stick to marvel games especially if spider man 2 and wolverine will be a huge success ( and i think that 100% they will be a success )
 

Holammer

Member
Never really played Spyro much on the OG PS1, but I enjoyed the Reignited Trilogy. Toys for Bob became one of my favorite devs after I played it. Crash 4 cemented that opinion, even if the difficulty is bullshit.
The imaginative Dragon designs in the first game blew me away and they should be recycled in a new game, so much effort went into modelling and rigging something you only see for seconds.

The trilogy is great. A 60fps patch for PS5 would be nice.
That should be trivial/easy-peasy, like just a simple ini file edit. The PC version comes with the best framerate options in the business, even supports odd ones like 36, 40, 48, 72, 80 if you have a monitor capable of 120, 144 & 240hz.
 
This. It's such an eye roll whenever I see people saying ND should go back to Jak. They've clearly moved way, way on and did so 18 years ago.

I get that Insomniac are still making Ratchet, but even as one of my favourite franchises it's clearly outstayed its welcome and I wouldn't be surprised if Rift Apart was the last.
There is zero chance Rift Apart is the last.

Also people don’t care if the original developers make a certain game. They just want that specific franchise from a great developer.
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
There is zero chance Rift Apart is the last.

I'd play anything they put out, but I'm not so sure. Once upon a time RnC was their flagship. Now they've got Spider-Man doing bonkers numbers with another Marvel IP in the pipeline. Last we heard about Rift Apart it had shifted a million in a month and then... silence. I get that it was kinda stranded on a console that some people still can't get, but I get the feeling Insomniac are going to let it rest. Even as a huge fan Rift Apart didn't feel like anything special at all outside of looking gorgeous and being a great tech demo for the new hardware.
 
I'd play anything they put out, but I'm not so sure. Once upon a time RnC was their flagship. Now they've got Spider-Man doing bonkers numbers with another Marvel IP in the pipeline. Last we heard about Rift Apart it had shifted a million in a month and then... silence. I get that it was kinda stranded on a console that some people still can't get, but I get the feeling Insomniac are going to let it rest. Even as a huge fan Rift Apart didn't feel like anything special at all outside of looking gorgeous and being a great tech demo for the new hardware.
A small 40$ release is possible similar to Miles Morales.
 

goldenpp72

Member
Why? They aren't the same people who made it originally. It would be no different than giving it to an entirely different studio.

Plus Insomniac is busy with numerous other projects. We would never see a new Spyro from them.
I don't agree with this really, Spyro is and always has been more relevant than Ratchet which they still put out from time to time, a new big Spyro game would likely outsell modern Ratchet, so I don't see why it would be entirely ignored unless they simply hate the series.
 

goldenpp72

Member

Do you need to see some sales data or are you able to source it yourself? The original games were only outsold by Crash which was a juggernaut, both Jak and Ratchet were lesser sellers than the games that preceeded them which is public information. These days, the Ratchet games barely manage to crack 2 million if that, they aren't huge deals, and I love the series, or really, almost any Insomniac work really. If my memory serves the best selling Ratchet game in history, which would be the first PS2 game, sold in line with the worst selling Spyro on PS1, even the abysmal PS2 release managed to sell comparable to modern Ratchet simply off the fumes of the PS1 trilogy, very similar to the Crash series which got dragged through the mud.
 
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xrnzaaas

Member
That would be awesome. I loved the trilogy and since this is Spyro it shouldn't be like with Crash 4 where they went completely overboard with difficulty.
 

Dr. Claus

Banned
I don't agree with this really, Spyro is and always has been more relevant than Ratchet which they still put out from time to time, a new big Spyro game would likely outsell modern Ratchet, so I don't see why it would be entirely ignored unless they simply hate the series.

It has always been so relevant which is why the series has been dead for well over a decade, if not longer before the remake trilogy.

Again, Insomniac is not the same developer - we already see that with Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart completing misunderstanding why people loved that franchise. No point in giving the franchise back to them.
 

goldenpp72

Member
It has always been so relevant which is why the series has been dead for well over a decade, if not longer before the remake trilogy.

Again, Insomniac is not the same developer - we already see that with Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart completing misunderstanding why people loved that franchise. No point in giving the franchise back to them.

The series died because it was removed from Insomniacs care and then delivered to a series of shitty developers who released games that got trashed, going as far as trying to turn it into an 'epic mature' series, then turned into a (admittedly successful) toys to life brand. The series has not yet ever seen a legitimately great, true to spirit release of the series since the third game. Also, the Spyro Trilogy sold in line with the top selling entries of the series overall, which only proves again that quality and build matter.

Crash is the same way, the trilogy set sold over 10 million units, yet Crash 4 did not perform overly well because the game kind of betrays what people love about the flow of the old games. Still a great game overall, but riddled with problems. These games as usual, are held to a quality standard. It's why some Sonic games sell great, and some sell awful, it's why Sonic Forces does much worse than Sonic Generations or Sonic Frontiers. If you make a good product out of these games, people will show up, but they won't show up for these shitty 5/10 games either.

Things don't just sell regardless of quality, even Halo has been dragged through the mud so many times that people simply don't care right now, but if they ever make that 10/10 return to form Halo game, you can bet people will come back.

Sadly, 3D platformers don't get the kind of love and budget other series get, something like Spyro likely has an upper limit of say, 5 million units, which is very respectable. On the other hand if that same talent can be used to make Spider-Man 2 which sells 20 million units, it becomes very difficult to justify pairing the top talent with that project that sells 1/4 as well with the same effort. It sucks, but it is what it is.
 
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Dr. Claus

Banned
The series died because it was removed from Insomniacs care and then delivered to a series of shitty developers who released games that got trashed, going as far as trying to turn it into an 'epic mature' series, then turned into a (admittedly successful) toys to life brand. The series has not yet ever seen a legitimately great, true to spirit release of the series since the third game. Also, the Spyro Trilogy sold in line with the top selling entries of the series overall, which only proves again that quality and build matter.

Crash is the same way, the trilogy set sold over 10 million units, yet Crash 4 did not perform overly well because the game kind of betrays what people love about the flow of the old games. Still a great game overall, but riddled with problems. These games as usual, are held to a quality standard. It's why some Sonic games sell great, and some sell awful, it's why Sonic Forces does much worse than Sonic Generations or Sonic Frontiers. If you make a good product out of these games, people will show up, but they won't show up for these shitty 5/10 games either.

Things don't just sell regardless of quality, even Halo has been dragged through the mud so many times that people simply don't care right now, but if they ever make that 10/10 return to form Halo game, you can bet people will come back.

I think we are arguing the same thing. A great game will sell well. Which is why we should not let modern Insomniac anywhere near it.
 

Killer8

Member
Hard to really care. The Spyro and Crash remaster trilogies were great but after Crash 4 and the latest direction of Crash, it's clear these studios have no idea how to make good original content.
 

goldenpp72

Member
I think we are arguing the same thing. A great game will sell well. Which is why we should not let modern Insomniac anywhere near it.

I think modern Insomniac is still pretty solid, admittedly, I was not feeling the latest Ratchet, but both the Spider-Man games are among the only Sony exclusives I actually really enjoyed. Either way, I can assure you they would handle Spyro better than the poor guy has been handled the last couple decades.
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Crash is the same way, the trilogy set sold over 10 million units, yet Crash 4 did not perform overly well because the game kind of betrays what people love about the flow of the old games. Still a great game overall, but riddled with problems.

Crash 4 sold like ass because they were charging the same price as the trilogy for what was ostensibly 66% less product with zero nostalgia factor. Nobody even played the game to know how it differed from the originals. For what it's worth, I did, and I enjoyed it, but I knew a dozen people who bought the Crash/Spyro trilogies on nostalgia alone and had no interest in Crash 4 because it wasn't what they played as kids.

Spyro was a very, very brief period in Insomniac's history. It put them on the map but they exhausted the formula after three games. Spyro 3 was already showing cracks with the amount of side-character stuff they bolted on, much like how something insane like 60% of Crash 3 levels are vehicles levels. I really don't think they have the slightest interest in a Spyro 4 when they know full-well it will rely on the fans for success and the the last thing the fans want is anything that deviates from the incredibly limiting formula.

This all said, Spyro 2 is my favourite game of all time and I'll pay full price for 4 tomorrow. But Insomniac have far bigger fish to fry.
 

solidus12

Member
Any word if this is coming to PlayStation?

Kinda ironic to ask given how the original trilogy was on PlayStation…
 

goldenpp72

Member
Crash 4 sold like ass because they were charging the same price as the trilogy for what was ostensibly 66% less product with zero nostalgia factor. Nobody even played the game to know how it differed from the originals. For what it's worth, I did, and I enjoyed it, but I knew a dozen people who bought the Crash/Spyro trilogies on nostalgia alone and had no interest in Crash 4 because it wasn't what they played as kids.

Spyro was a very, very brief period in Insomniac's history. It put them on the map but they exhausted the formula after three games. Spyro 3 was already showing cracks with the amount of side-character stuff they bolted on, much like how something insane like 60% of Crash 3 levels are vehicles levels. I really don't think they have the slightest interest in a Spyro 4 when they know full-well it will rely on the fans for success and the the last thing the fans want is anything that deviates from the incredibly limiting formula.

This all said, Spyro 2 is my favourite game of all time and I'll pay full price for 4 tomorrow. But Insomniac have far bigger fish to fry.

You don't need to play a game in our modern era to know it isn't what you want. All Crash 4 needed to be was a direct follow up to Crash 2 (as in, lacking all the fluff that 3 brought in), but instead they decided to try different stuff and ended up fucking up a bunch in the process. The fact that it's a Crash game where it's nearly impossible to finish a level fully without micro hunting crates in often huge levels, is a huge sin against the games flow and formula. I know tons of people who bypassed Crash 4 entirely based on what they saw, and while I did buy it, I quit about 1/3 in despite getting the platinum in the trilogy set. It isn't a bad game, but it's a bad Crash game, and now we're stuck with some battle rumble shit as the next entry lol.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
Not sure it needs to be Insomniac or Naughty Dog, but Sony should realize the sales potential of platformers on their own system.

Crash 2 sold nearly as well as Mario 64.

But Super Mario Odyssey sold 2.5x more than Maro 64. They could have kept these franchises growing, but Ratchet and Jak were never really going to grow much the way they were stood up.
 

solidus12

Member
It depends on if the acquisition goes through. If it goes through then Microsoft almost certainly will make this a console exclusive title. If it doesn't go through then it would likely make its way to PlayStation.
I really hope the acquisition doesn’t go through.
 
but Sony should realize the sales potential of platformers on their own system.

Crash 2 sold nearly as well as Mario 64.

Crash had a game out every year, all 3 Crash games sold over 6-7 million, CTR and Crash Bash also sold millions across them, it was a was the biggest new franchise that gen outside of Pokemon.

But you're talking about a time ling gone that ended after the first jak.

Jak 2 was changed specifically because they though it could grab the audience of similar style games and did but was not as big as the first game, let alone those other games. Jak 3 was just them seeming to want to end it.

Ratchet and Clank had the best chance, but after they did the Deadlocked spin-off Insomniac wanted to focus on Resistance and they had Ratchet become a generic wanna be movie series about the last of it's kind (TM) and completely changes the tone of the series away from what made people by the original games. Only having a temporary outlier with the Ratchet and Clank Remake in 2016 which left a bad taste in peoples mouths (gameplay was decent tho) along with the movie that was also clearly aiming to get new audiences at the expense of the fans.

Sly Cooper despite it being part of the "trilogy" was never more than a modest seller and wasn't anywhere near as big as the other two.

I think Sony blew their chance for a growing platformer to sell even 5 million copies plus like there lesser exclusives that still sell great.
You don't need to play a game in our modern era to know it isn't what you want. All Crash 4 needed to be was a direct follow up to Crash 2 (as in, lacking all the fluff that 3 brought in), but instead they decided to try different stuff and ended up fucking up a bunch in the process. The fact that it's a Crash game where it's nearly impossible to finish a level fully without micro hunting crates in often huge levels, is a huge sin against the games flow and formula. I know tons of people who bypassed Crash 4 entirely based on what they saw, and while I did buy it, I quit about 1/3 in despite getting the platinum in the trilogy set. It isn't a bad game, but it's a bad Crash game, and now we're stuck with some battle rumble shit as the next entry lol.

They wanted to shove the fluff content in some of the more padding open world games into a platforming game, while having the MTX and DLC as well too. Also making Crash even more dumb didn't help either.

They really dropped the ball, especially with some useless modes, and the crazy ways they hid some of the boxes.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
Crash had a game out every year, all 3 Crash games sold over 6-7 million, CTR and Crash Bash also sold millions across them, it was a was the biggest new franchise that gen outside of Pokemon.

But you're talking about a time ling gone that ended after the first jak.

Jak 2 was changed specifically because they though it could grab the audience of similar style games and did but was not as big as the first game, let alone those other games. Jak 3 was just them seeming to want to end it.

Ratchet and Clank had the best chance, but after they did the Deadlocked spin-off Insomniac wanted to focus on Resistance and they had Ratchet become a generic wanna be movie series about the last of it's kind (TM) and completely changes the tone of the series away from what made people by the original games. Only having a temporary outlier with the Ratchet and Clank Remake in 2016 which left a bad taste in peoples mouths (gameplay was decent tho) along with the movie that was also clearly aiming to get new audiences at the expense of the fans.

Sly Cooper despite it being part of the "trilogy" was never more than a modest seller and wasn't anywhere near as big as the other two.

I think Sony blew their chance for a growing platformer to sell even 5 million copies plus like there lesser exclusives that still sell great.


They wanted to shove the fluff content in some of the more padding open world games into a platforming game, while having the MTX and DLC as well too. Also making Crash even more dumb didn't help either.

They really dropped the ball, especially with some useless modes, and the crazy ways they hid some of the boxes.

Not sure that is true after Jak 2 these games weren't really traditional platformers and Ratchet never was.

I think they should revisit putting resources into genres they haven't touched in a while especially after seeing Nintendo have a lot of success with it.
 
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