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[KyoZz]

It looks like while Toys for Bob is doing work on Call of Duty: Warzone, there will be no layoffs at all

A statement regarding the stiuation was sent to the site directly by an Activision rep, which you can read below:
"Reports of layoffs at Toys For Bob are incorrect. 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"

This is definitely good news for the studio. Hopefully, this means that they will be able to flex their development muscle on more than just being another Call of Duty support studio.

Previous report

Activision Confirms No Layoffs at Toys for Bob, Will Continue Work on Crash 4

Activision has sent a statement out announcing that while Toys for Bob is indeed working on Call of Duty, there has been no layoffs.

mp1st.com

 

[TLZ]

Nani?

So that other thread was nothing?

But the twitters said...

 

[bender]

Thank you, Bobby. I will not buy THPS3-4 HD without a guilty conscious.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[worldwithpyramids]

I really, really hope they don’t just become a CoD support team. That would be monumentally depressing after how good Crash 4 was.

 

[ManaByte]

The Crash 4 lead character designer literally said he and everyone he worked with there were laid off.

 

[Cert.in.Death]

Hopefully that's the end of the Crash franchise.
It's a series that should have stopped at the third entry.

Consider me one of the heathens who is glad it didn’t

 

[ManaByte]

Activision is lying.

 

[godhandiscen]

Activision is lying.

They probably do not count the contracts not renewed as lay offs.

I don’t trust Activision either, but I am doubtful they would say there were no layoffs when they explicitly fired people.

 

[LMJ]

I mean whom do we believe... The employes' themselves via social media...or Activision

"Hey Kids no worries Crash Team Racing won't have gross microtransactions"

Activision's post-launch microtransactions are the peak of anti-consumer practices

I’m not proud of how tolerant I used to be of microtransactions in general but that’s all the more reason...

www.destructoid.com

FUCK YOU ACTIVISION!

 

[TKOFromTokyo]

Yeah, why would people lie that they were let go? This doesn’t make sense.

 

[PhaseJump]

Hopefully that's the end of the Crash franchise.
It's a series that should have stopped at the third entry.

Just like Dragon Quest.

 

[worldwithpyramids]

Yeah, they’re not gonna count freelancers as employees.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[Fox Mulder]

It sucks, but this is Activision and it was a blessing that we even got great stuff with Spyro, Crash, and even Tony Hawk recently. They also published Sekiro and now we’re back at CoD everything.

 

[Sander Cohen]

Yeah and you continue believing random people on twitter and making a story out of every crap they spew. It’s bizarre phenomenon.

 

[ManaByte]

Yeah and you continue believing random people on twitter and making a story out of every crap they spew. It’s bizarre.

Why would someone lie about losing their job publicly? That'd hurt them trying to find a new one.

 

[nerdface]

This whole story makes me sad. I loved Crash 4, and am looking forward to playing the thps2 remake one way or another. Now I have to feel guilty about D2:R? Fuck you activision lol....and fuck CoD.

 

[oagboghi2]

Why would someone lie about losing their job publicly? That'd hurt them trying to find a new one.

Were they fired, or was their contract not renewed?

 

[tmlDan]

Hopefully that's the end of the Crash franchise.
It's a series that should have stopped at the third entry.

are you kidding me, the new one is fantastic.....

 

[DeepEnigma]

Why would someone lie about losing their job publicly? That'd hurt them trying to find a new one.

I mean, there are a lot of missing details in their tweets, and I don’t even care for Activision.

 

[Sander Cohen]

Why would someone lie about losing their job publicly? That'd hurt them trying to find a new one.

Devil is in the details.

 

[CamHostage]

Sounds like it wasn't "layoffs", more like all the contractors were cut (which could have been coming since Toys for Bob was in between projects, but maybe they kept people on even after all the Crash 4 versions shipped in hopes that whatever the next project was got into full production...and perhaps it was, until the reassignment) and between those cuts and the CoD move, the current staff just knew that this was essentially the end of Toys for Bob as they knew it, so some people left.

Why would someone lie about losing their job publicly? That'd hurt them trying to find a new one.

Not lies, but you know how it is. Twitter isn't an easy place to lay out the finer nuances of a situation, corporations suck at communicating anything but super-good news for themselves, and the media cycle (which includes us GAFers reacting to tweets, it's not just sneak press fucks) is too fast to contain a brushfire.

The 'truth' in between the 'facts' here is more complicated than was first understood, but whether the truth is overblown or underhanded, nothing about this is "good news" ... unless you like Call of Duty and think more developers working on it will make it all better.

 

[DeepEnigma]

 

[Max_Po]

Non binary .....

 

[Ryu_Joestar]

Hopefully that's the end of the Crash franchise.
It's a series that should have stopped at the third entry.

 

[TLZ]

Activision is lying.

What the hell is going on?

 

[InDaGulag]

Crash is going on another hiatus. If anyone thinks a Crash 5 is happening anytime soon you're delusional.

Those rumoured Crash Party and Spyro 4 games aren't looking to tight after the recent news.

 

[harmny]

bobby protecting people's jobs

 

[Oddvintagechap]

What the hell is going on?

I dont see why they cant just give it all to beenox.

 

[NoLootBoxDev]

and again the history repeats, even if they say that I see the words behind "for now". They will lay off people after crash 4 is done, they will place an excuse and continue.

 

[Kerotan]

Jason Shitter:

"Toys for Bob staff are traumatised and damaged beyond repair as fears they'll become Infinity Ward North grip the studio".

 

[StreetsofBeige]

At some point Activision will be COD and Blizzard games. Thats it. It's getting there.

Jason Shitter:

"Toys for Bob staff are traumatised and damaged beyond repair as fears they'll become Infinity Ward North grip the studio".

Sounds right. lol

Considering it doesn't say who or how many were interviewed (ie. made it up), your post sounds just as believable as Jason's!

 

[harmny]

Activision is lying.

Eric with the only good take I've seen all day. Time to start a new studio and you can make all the single player 3d platformers you want

 

[Kerotan]

At some point Activision will be COD and Blizzard games. Thats it. It's getting there.

Sounds right. lol

Considering it doesn't say who or how many were interviewed (ie. made it up), your post sounds just as believable as Jason's!

He could literally make anything up to suit his narrative or agenda. But he doesn't even have to. He just has to find the 1% of employees who are not happy, get their side and paint a picture to represent the other 99%.

It's kinda dangerous for them to be so reliant on COD. I know it's all the rage the last 15 years but nothing is certain.

 

[Golgo 13]

Here’s what this sounds like to me - The key creative people at Toys For Bob responsible for Crash 4 have NOT had their contracts renewed and no longer work at the studio. This helps Activision save face by being able to virtue signal their way out of the entire situation by saying they haven’t laid off their core TFB staff. Meanwhile, the remaining talent has been downgraded to a technical support studio assisting Activision with their juggernaut franchises while Crash/Spyro are probably dead forever.

That explanation accounts for both sides and sounds fairly plausible.

 

[ACESHIGH]

Just cut the crap and release CTR PC

 

[infinitys_7th]

Hopefully that's the end of the Crash franchise.
It's a series that should have stopped at the third entry.

 

[dave_d]

So does this mean no sequel to Star Control 2?

 

[Fox Mulder]

Here’s what this sounds like to me - The key creative people at Toys For Bob responsible for Crash 4 have NOT had their contracts renewed and no longer work at the studio. This helps Activision save face by being able to virtue signal their way out of the entire situation by saying they haven’t laid off their core TFB staff. Meanwhile, the remaining talent has been downgraded to a technical support studio assisting Activision with their juggernaut franchises while Crash/Spyro are probably dead forever.

That explanation accounts for both sides and sounds fairly plausible.

I don’t think Crash and Spyro are dead forever. The collections and CTR reviewed and sold well. Crash 4 seemed to struggle at $60, but just came out on PC and Switch. They just launched the mobile Crash game.

It just isn’t CoD and they probably won’t do a big budget game like Crash 4 again though. I’m glad we even got this stuff from this company. It’s like when EA did Dead Space, Mass Effect, and Mirrors Edge and then remembered who they were.