We’re living in an era of reboots; many beloved movie franchises from the 90’s and 00’s are returning with different actors, different directors, and different graphics. Video games are no exception to this. With the release of more powerful consoles, companies have begun to see the value in updating their older, famous franchises.
We see this pattern in Nintendo. It remade The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, for the new (at the time) handheld console: the 3DS. OoT 3D was a runaway success, and that lead to the remake of Majora’s Mask, also for the 3DS. Nintendo continues to work on revitalizing Legend of Zelda games for modern consoles.
More recently, Activision decided to do the same, with its classic Playstation Crash Bandicoot trilogy, developed by Naughty Dog in the 90’s. Crash Bandicoot, Cortex Strikes Back, and Warped, all received an upgrade, and were released together as Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy, landing on the PS4 in June 2017 and on the Switch, Xbox, and PC a year later. It was received well by gamers, and has sold over 10 million copies.
With the unquestionable success of N. Sane Trilogy, Activision turned next to another Playstation series: Spyro the Dragon. Revived and released as Spyro Reignited Trilogy, it was also well received by gamers and critics alike.
In their recent earnings call, Activision announced the success of both N. Sane Trilogy and Reignigted. With positive reviews and good earnings, Activision wants to continue working with these franchises, and possibly remaster other franchises as well.
The original fanbases of these games are now today’s consumers. Adults who buy and own these systems played the games as kids, and have clearly loved reliving these games in a new, updated way. Crash and Spyro have endured the test of time, and proven successful in a new age of gaming. New content within the franchises, beyond just remasters, is entirely possible, according to the earnings call and the tweet above. New games starring the same characters, and as well as remasters of other games and series.
Though nothing has been officially confirmed or announced yet, the thought is clearly there in Activision. We’ll have to keep an eye out for these new games within the Crash and Spyro series.
