It seems that there was a cancelled Crash Bandicoot game that we would have really wanted.
On Twitter, an illustrator named Nicholas Kole shared this information about a Crash Bandicoot game:
“It is not Spyro, but some day folks will hear about the Crash 5 that never was and it’s gonna break hearts”
Kole lists himself as a character designer and illustrator, and includes the games Spyro Reignited, Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, and Sonic Prime among his credits. So it seems credible that he was in a position to have been working on this Crash Bandicoot 5 game, and also to be able to say something about it now.
The Crash Bandicoot series is best known for the original three games published on the PlayStation. Those games were developed by Naughty Dog, and published by Universal Interactive as part of a three game deal they made to be exclusive to PlayStation.
Those games released between 1996 to 2000, but the franchise kept going with middling or unpopular games until 2011. Crash Bandicoot was under hiatus until Activision published the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, a modern remake of these three original games, in 2016.
At this point, Activision had become owner of the fictional marsupial, and they had assigned a different veteran studio to work on the remakes, namely, Toys for Bob. Even as early as 2016, Toys for Bob had expressed interest in making Crash Bandicoot 4. Of course, Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time did release in 2020, but here’s where things get less rosy.
While Activision and the fans were happy with the success of Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, these remakes had apparently sold a little over 500,000 units. Subsequently, Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time sold roughly 400,000 units.
Toys for Bob also ventured to experiment with Crash Team Rumble, a 4v4 multiplayer game. Activision had never shared the game’s sales figures, but it received mixed critical reception, and content updates ended less than a year after it was published.
While it’s disappointing that Activision apparently cancelled a Crash Bandicoot 5, we can see from confirmed and circumstantial evidence that sales for this series revival already started stalling after Crash Bandicoot 4.
Fans will certainly be convinced that classic games and franchises like Crash Bandicoot will be timeless, but the current game industry environment has seen the profits being sucked up by live service games like Fortnite. There are companies like Nintendo and Capcom who have found ways to thrive in this competitive scene with their legacy IP, but Activision hasn’t managed to do the same for Crash Bandicoot.
But this isn’t a definite end for Crash Bandicoot as a franchise. There needed to be a change in circumstances for a new Crash Bandicoot to happen, and now that Microsoft owns Activision, those circumstances might already be here. If Microsoft were to start work on a Crash Bandicoot 5 now, it could be a killer app for their next console.
