Universal has brought on and hired Naughty Dog for their three-game contract after being impressed their first game that is a fighting game, Way of the Warrior, released on a platform called the 3DO. The system was licensed by Panasonic, Sanyo and Samsung and made by Trip Hawkins, the founder of EA. When Naughty Dog finished Way of the Warrior, they had a three-game contract with Universal. Naughty Dog wanted to make a 2.5D platformer that is family-friendly for the PS1. That's where Willy the Wombat comes in. Naughty Dog continued development, but wasn't a fan of the name and asked Universal if they can change it to something that fits well.
However, after the developers put in crates into the game in a way to make levels more fun and challenging, they came up with a different name, Crash Bandicoot. Universal didn't want to call it that however. It was all or nothing that Naughty Dog threatened to risk dropping the project completely if Universal doesn't accept the Crash Bandicoot name. So they did and Naughty Dog went on with the project. After Naughty Dog entered crunch time during the development of Crash Bandicoot: Warped, Universal caused the poor treatment to Naughty Dog by turning off the air conditioning to the building. How dare they turn off the air conditioner to the building during crunch time and treat Naughty Dog like garbage. It's not cool.
The only genius thing is that because Crash Bandicoot resonated well in the North American and Japanese markets as Sony is based on both countries, he became the first PlayStation mascot along with Mario being a mascot for Nintendo and Sonic being a mascot for SEGA. But there is a bit of a problem. Naughty Dog may have worked with Mark Cerny and directly with Sony to develop the original Crash titles, but neither Naughty Dog nor Sony owned the rights of Crash Bandicoot. Universal did, generally meaning that they can brand the IP however they wished and wanted.
Naughty Dog wanted to leave the Crash IP in its entirety once their three-game contract was up after Crash 3's release after they grew tired of Universal's poor treatment, but PlayStation wanted another Crash game. But following Universal's poor treatment, Naughty Dog refused to work with Universal. Additionally, they wanted to get away from the platforming scene and do something different like making a kart racer, so after Sony negotiated with the companies, PlayStation has conducted it so that Naughty Dog and Sony would work together under a licensing deal from Universal so that Naughty Dog would have the least amount of contact with Universal as possible.
This has resulted in the development of Crash Team Racing. This is a spin-off racing game that doesn't count as a mainline game because CTR was developed by Naughty Dog without a contract. But it would be Naughty Dog's final Crash game. Sony negotiatiing between the companies is a good deal after Naughty Dog refused to work with Universal after their poor treatment. However, nothing has ever gotten as close with Hidden Variable suing Autumn for a breach of contract and Future Club didn't even bother negotiating between the companies.
If you look at the release dates of each game, the first game came out in 1996. Then a sequel came in 1997, followed by the final game of the original trilogy in 1998. The cherry on top of it, CTR came out in 1999. Naughty Dog was able to release a game every year for four years. Skylanders also has the practice of releasing a game every year, but there are multple studios that are working on the projects to help alleviate the workload for all teams. Naughty Dog did it all solo.
Now let's move on to Insomniac Games. But I like to start from the beginning on talking about Insmoniac before getting to the point of making a legendary IP.
Insomniac Games was developing their very first game, Disruptor, for the 3DO. After looking at the Arabic hieroglyphics on the wall, they knew that the 3DO was sold poorly, so they came up with an idea to keep the Disruptor project alive by shifting it from being a 3DO-based platform to Sony's first console they just launched, the PlayStation. But with no money left in the bank and no resources in sight, they had one last chance left with a meeting of Mark Cerny, former executive producer of Universal. Mark was impressed with the team on how they were able to do with Disruptor, so in a spirit of commerce, they actually elected to publish Disruptor under the Universal umbrella for the PS1.
In terms of sales, the game didn't do well because it was intended for mature audiences, so Cerny knew that with the proper resources, Insomniac would be able to pursue something revolutionary. Cerny enlisted the team to make something that was more family-friendly to appeal to a larger audience, thus following Naughty Dog's footsteps. Craig Stitt had an idea that would fit perfectly, which is a little game about a dragon; a titular purple dragon that became the legend we all know and love, Spyro the Dragon.
Our titular purple dragon is also a family-friendly IP like Crash Bandicoot, but it's more charming than the other because of collecting gems and it's a 3D platformer with open exploration. And sequels in the original trilogy have two of the best goddesses, Elora the Faun and Bianca the Rabbit. These dudettes are canon and they are the best chicks like Sally Acorn and Bunnie Rabbot. This also defines the fact that Spyro is more charming than Crash Bandicoot and its two goddesses are what the forests make me think of. And it's not just the forests at my old stomping grounds, but also during my road trip when me and my family go through the highway between forests when we arrived in Missouri and until we arrived in Oklahoma, which has less trees, so I listened to Mortal Kombat 11's soundtrack to boost it.
Insomniac has followed Naughty Dog's footsteps and they were also treated like crap during crunch time like Naughty Dog was. Universal turned off the air conditioning and gutting their employees for how much for everything they're worth. That's why they didn't had the time to come up with fresh new ideas. However, they did come up with a new idea when developing Spyro: Year of the Dragon. They brought in four side characters, each came with their own theme that plays in their perspective. The experience in Insomniac's work of bringing in side characters became a fresh new idea in Year of the Dragon. It has got as close as it did with SEGA making Sonic's friends also playable in Sonic Frontiers.
After their three-game contract was up, Naughty Dog and Insomniac were done with Crash and Spyro and left to do other things, but Universal wasn't because Universal had owned the rights to both legendary IPs. PlayStation also had publishing rights, no ownership rights, generally stating that they funded the advertising and paid to keep their games exclusive on their platform, so the money for that deal went to Universal. Ted Price used the money provided by Universal during their contract time to bring the idea to fruition. Crash and Spyro became a legendary duo in North America, but not in Japan because in Japan, PaRappa the Rapper joined Crash and became a duo in the country.
To give you a brief summary, Naughty Dog and Insomniac had a three-game contract with Universal after they finished Way of the Warrior and Disruptor. Once Crash Bandicoot: Warped and Spyro: Year of the Dragon were made, their contract time was up and done. The developers walked away to do other things, leaving Universal to brand both IPs however they want since Universal owned two legendary IPs.
First off, Universal passed their Crash IP to Eurocom to develop their party game, Crash Bash, final Crash game to release on the PS1. Then they passed it to Traveller's Tales to develop their very first Crash game for the PS2 and Mark Cerny has their own team after leaving Universal to help them on the project titled Crash Bandicoot Worlds. It was originally a 3D free-roam game and planned to be published by Sony. But when Cerny left, Traveller's Tales went back to the drawing board and started from square one again without any programming Cerny had provided. This resulted in the creation of their first mainline Crash Bandicoot game that is not developed by Naughty Dog, Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex.
Behind the scenes, Wrath of Cortex was developed in multiple platforms beyond PlayStation because of their partnership with Konami. Upon release, the reviews were mixed with critics praising the return of elements seen in the original trilogy and criticizing the low innovation on elements from the originals, how they handled Coco and the long load times on the PS2 version when the Xbox and Gamecube versions have reduced load times being met with praise. But it sold well and passed the average sales of the original trilogy because of being multiplatform and a return to its roots of a 2.5D platformer after Crash Team Racing and Crash Bash, making this the most popular and bestselling Crash Bandicoot game of all time. While the game had mixed reviews, it was actually a good game overall. I played it back in the day and I pretty much loved it when I was a kid. I even realized why we are defending Wrath of Cortex in the first place. It's because the title has established a slightly larger audience than the original trilogy, making it as an excuse to do so.
Then Universal passed their Spyro IP to Check Six and Equinoxe for their first Spyro game not developed by Insomniac that became... oh my god, an unmitigated disaster, Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly.
Behind the scenes, Enter the Dragonfly kept on getting rewrites and ideas scrapped after nothing worked and so on, which is why Elora did not make it into the game. Then was given an awfully short development time to release it for the Christmas season. When the game was ready to release, it was a Homer Simpson mess that it was riddled with bugs with a big LMFAO because Universal couldn't figure out what they want to develop for a new Spyro game. I saw the video covering the bugs in the game and I laughed. But it turns out that Enter the Dragonfly wasn't the only game that became a mess because Sonic 06 was also a mess of game. I was at a loss for words on that one.
I have been wanting to revisit the original trilogies since the PS4 came out, but PS Now lacked a PS1 catalog and none of the modern consoles were fully backwards compatible because of the PS3's Cell processor and its notorious architecture. Fortunately, rewind back to 2022, Sony has planned a beefed up PlayStation Plus to have three tiers, with the highest offering a vast library of classics released on the PS1, PS2, PS3 and PSP. So far, their progress of bringing back their beloved games has turned out well, but still no Crash or Spyro game on the PS1 yet, until I realized something.
Crash Bandicoot has turned 29 this year while Spyro turned 27 this year. I wanted to revisit their original games, but I don't think that the original trilogies are gonna make it to the classics catalog until Crash turns 30 in 2026 and Spyro turns 30 in 2028. But that's just me speculating. We can find out if my speculation comes true or not. I do miss the charming polygon models of the original games, as well as hearing woahs often. Also, I can revisit Wrath of Cortex, but not Enter the Dragonfly because it was an unmitigated disaster and a rush of a game.
The PS1 era was defined as charming because of its two IPs that defined the generation of gaming. PlayStation was able to market Crash and Spyro games and donated their money to Mark Cerny of Universal to keep their games exclusive to the PS1. They only had publishing rights to the original games and never owned the rights to both games in terms of intellectual property. This also defined the PS1 era as charming.
It pretty much lived up to the idea of Universal enlisting Naughty Dog and Insomniac for their three-game contract after the release of Way of the Warrior and Disruptor. They are the two developers that were able to make three nearly perfect original games and they made Universal look amazing even though they treated them like garbage during crunch time where the devs had to stay and work after hours if they want to release a game every year. In fact, Naughty Dog and Insomniac are the reason why the original trilogies are the best games. After both companies parted ways with the series, Universal passed along to different studios to continue the franchises and they became a terrible company then.
It took years for Universal to actually figure out what they were doing. They still struggled with figuring out how to make a decent Crash and Spyro game even though they became Vivendi Universal. Twinsanity became an obvious example. Dozens of gameplay hours have been cut from the game due to Universal not having any idea what they were doing.
Fast forward into now, Toys for Bob has spun off from Activision to become an indie developer and they are working on a brand new Spyro the Dragon game as the first indie title. They started development in January 2024 and we still haven't gotten word about it since. After hearing the new Spyro is gonna be big and ambitious, it's unlikely that the new Spyro is gonna be a modern Spyro that is based off of the Insomniac trilogy that was the most popular to get the same treatment as Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time. This means that it won't have the elements the original trilogy is known for like hub worlds with a bunch of levels, one boss, one flight level, collecting gems in a level and partaking missions. Instead, it's gonna be open world and have a skill tree. But will retain all that charm the original trilogy has. The only things I want in the new Spyro is having the goddesses from the sequels in the original trilogy and elemental breaths.
But Crash Bandicoot, on the other hand, is in a bit of a pickle. The next mainline game was in development, but it was then cancelled due to Xbox being let go. But we heard one developer under the Activision umbrella that we didn't know much about. They are called Iron Galaxy Studios, the developers of Killer Instinct. Iron Galaxy has developed Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 after Vicarious Visions left Activision for Blizzard to become Blizzard Albany. And hey, maybe Iron Galaxy can take a crack of developing Crash Bandicoot 5 and team up with Toys for Bob for a Crash and Spyro crossover game.
So, this concludes on how the two IPs became so well-liked in the PlayStation. Both of these guys became kings and they made comebacks for the past few years. Crash and Spyro are two platformers that classify the PS1 era as charming and we can find out if the original games are gonna launch in PlayStation Plus during the 30th anniversary of the legendary duo or not. We will soon s ee. It's something that we've been chasing for since the launch of the beefed up PlayStation Plus with the introduction of the Premium tier offering classics.
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