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Why does Activision own Crash and Spyro?

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I'm surprised that nobody really pondered the thought, seeing as they were both originally PlayStation mascots by Naughty Dog and Insomniac Games respectively, but anyway, here comes the technicalities... you'll be needing hot chocolate for this one, trust me.

 

Basically, the original owners of Crash and Spyro were Universal Interactive, the video game development division of Universal. Universal Interactive then got acquired by Seagram. Seagram eventually had to strip assets due to financial difficuilties so they sold Universal Interactive to Vivendi. Vivdendi acquired Universal Interactive and merged Sierra Entertainment as a subsidiary to Universal Interactive which was renamed to Vivendi Universal Games. Sierra Entertainment was the home for Crash and Spyro under Vivendi Universal. Eventually, Vivendi acquired Activision and renamed Vivendi Universal to Activision Blizzard, a subsidiary of Vivendi. Activision Blizzard acquired enough shares from its parent to become independent from Vivendi. Once Activision Blizzard became independant, Crash and Spyro was moved from the Sierra Entertainment brand to the Activision brand.

Edited by Guest

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its easier to understand the Kingdom hearts plot. I dint even knew that they do well maybe this means they will watch and see how well the crash remastered works out and give us Spyro next

 

I know you're joking there, but it actually is easier to explain Kingdom Hearts than it is to explain this. I just gave the layman terms, there's even more technical stuff that occurred if you really want the nitty gritty. Hopefully the Crash remasters are an indicator to see if there'll be a Spyro remaster trilogy too!

 

To make things a little easier, here's a summary of the different companies owning Crash and Spyro.

Universal Interactive (owned by Universal) --> Seagram (acquiring and owning Universal Interactive) --> Vivendi (acquiring and owning Universal Interactive and changing the company name to Vivendi Universal Games) --> Vivendi Universal Games (placing Crash and Spyro in Sierra Entertainment) --> Activision Blizzard (formerly Vivendi Universal Games, placing Crash and Spyro in Activision). 

 

Well then. Poor Crash and Spyro. Hopefully there's a Spyro remake in the works.

 

Spyro really got the short ends of the stick with Skylanders and his hideous reboot look, but Crash N'Sane Trilogy looks promising. If N'Sane trilogy is able to bring back Crash to his glory days then there's a glimmer of hope for Spyro to get the remaster treatment too!

 

Huh, well this is an interesting history! In other words, Crash and Spyro are currently at home with one of the most profitable gaming companies right now! That's pretty impressive! All that moving here and there though is quite something! :O

 

Couldn't have said it better myself. It's easy to say that both Crash and Spyro should have stuck with Sony, but let's be honest, a lot of Crash Bandicoot games were on the Game Boy Advance, and by making these two characters owned by a third party publisher as bankable as Activison means that they can stay relevant in the current console market, because Activison Blizzard is arguably the most profitable third party publisher.

 

Not another Spyro reboot or trilogy remakes...

 

Just pure bias and hypocrites within the fanbase.

 

I really don't understand, you don't mind elaborating?

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Couldn't have said it better myself. It's easy to say that both Crash and Spyro should have stuck with Sony, but let's be honest, a lot of Crash Bandicoot games were on the Game Boy Advance, and by making these two characters owned by a third party publisher as bankable as Activison means that they can stay relevant in the current console market, because Activison Blizzard is arguably the most profitable third party publisher.

 

Yeah, and well, if Activision plays their cards right, they could easily profit from these two franchises for a good many years! I think that the Crash Remasters are gonna bring the Bandicoot back into popularity, and the fan demand for Spyro will probably warrant Remasters as well, so there's that too!

 

Ooh, and I remember having played The Huge Adventure, which was a Crash game for the Game Boy Advance! It was sooo good! X_X

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Huh, well this is an interesting history! In other words, Crash and Spyro are currently at home with one of the most profitable gaming companies right now! That's pretty impressive! All that moving here and there though is quite something! :O

Might be one of the most profitable companies, but they sadly haven't done either franchise many favors... They killed Crash for years and Spyro's been relegated to just Skylanders (as far as I know, not a Spyro fan but I know that they've gone through a lot of the same stuff that Crash fans have). I'm hoping that the N. Sane Trilogy will set Crash back on track.

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Yeah, and well, if Activision plays their cards right, they could easily profit from these two franchises for a good many years! I think that the Crash Remasters are gonna bring the Bandicoot back into popularity, and the fan demand for Spyro will probably warrant Remasters as well, so there's that too!

 

Ooh, and I remember having played The Huge Adventure, which was a Crash game for the Game Boy Advance! It was sooo good! X_X

 

Glad to hear that Crash still had some quality games after his rights were shuffled around. I personally enjoyed Crash Tag Team Racing for what it was worth at the time. I really do hope that Activision listen to the fan demand for a Spyro remaster: that may be the means to resurrect him back from Skylanders obscurity.

 

 

Might be one of the most profitable companies, but they sadly haven't done either franchise many favors... They killed Crash for years and Spyro's been relegated to just Skylanders (as far as I know, not a Spyro fan but I know that they've gone through a lot of the same stuff that Crash fans have). I'm hoping that the N. Sane Trilogy will set Crash back on track.

 

In Activision Blizzards defence, Skylanders was supposed to be a Spyro franchise, but the "Toys to Life" model started to become so profitable that they had to compromise Spyro in order to maintain the "Toys to Life" model. And as far as Crash goes, his reboot phase to the PS2 forced the character into obscurity because no other developer could really replicate the feel that Naughty Dog provided to Crash.

 

I'm hoping that N. Sane Trilogy sets both Crash and Spyro back to being beloved video game franchises again.

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Might be one of the most profitable companies, but they sadly haven't done either franchise many favors... They killed Crash for years and Spyro's been relegated to just Skylanders (as far as I know, not a Spyro fan but I know that they've gone through a lot of the same stuff that Crash fans have). I'm hoping that the N. Sane Trilogy will set Crash back on track.

 

Yeah, well, you know how it goes. Gaming companies have their ups and downs, and Activision has had its fair share of downs. Franchise fatigue is always a threat in their Call Of Duty franchise, but they manage to scrape by somehow. And yeah, I agree with you that they killed Crash in later years. I thought Twinsanity was really good, and I think that was the last good Crash game that came out, because after that came the "Titans" series of Crash games, and I believe those are what drove Crash to the grave! As for Spyro, he's more of a namesake for Skylanders than an actual central character. But maybe with a remaster, Spyro will come back to prominence! Crash will probably get back to popularity!

 

Glad to hear that Crash still had some quality games after his rights were shuffled around. I personally enjoyed Crash Tag Team Racing for what it was worth at the time. I really do hope that Activision listen to the fan demand for a Spyro remaster: that may be the means to resurrect him back from Skylanders obscurity.

 

Well, let's see what happens! I'm sure that once they see the success N. Sane Trilogy will net them, Spyro will probably be revitalized, and both franchises may get more careful treatment, ya know?

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That's because the rights of those IPs were never owned actually by Sony,Naughty Dog or Insomniac.There is a reason you see the Universal Studios logo in those games and that's because Universal owns them

 

Eventually Universal sold the rights for both Crash and Spyro to the highest bidder which was Activision.

 

They were Ps1 mascots only in marketing not as actual mascots

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