Toys For Bob Is Becoming An Indie Studio, Leaving Xbox And Activision

I’ve read a few reports on this now and this might be a stupid question, but after getting acquired by Activision and then Microsoft, how do they go off and become independent? Do they have to buy their independence back?

@EvilSilentFrame they aren’t slaves. Don’t the few people just quit and restart their own studio.

I think this is good news. My guess is they wanted to be able to still work for Microsoft and Activision but not be forced to make stuff they don’t want, like Call of Duty and live service stuff.

This way, they can make their own games and choose from Microsoft’s offers as well. Given they’re financially stable enough, I think this might be good.

It was probably planned to be shut down but they convinced xbox to let them try to make it on their own and keep the name. There is really no reason for xbox to care if the Toys For Bob name is still used, and they arent taking any IP with them. Since it seems to be an amicable parting they can still work closely with xbox on IP like the Spyro/tony hawk/crash/banjo?/etc. It saves Microsoft money by not employing them but leaves them as an option for partnering on some of the xbox IP.

Being a startup with no IP is probably a pretty daunting scenario especially right now.

Are they taking any of the IP they created with them, eg: Star Control?

It's good that they're able to do this, but it really shows how much Microsoft didn't care about them when they acquired them.

@Altaria_97 It is still wild to me that the studio proved it could bring back classic dormant franchises and whatever graphing calculators that pass for a brain at Acti-Bliz decided it was best to make them a CoD support studio.

Great, great news!

Spyro and Skylanders are two favourites in this house and having more games like them in the future will be great.

Activision forcing them to make skins for CoD was a crime.

Well Microsoft would have only ended up handing out their games to rival platforms anyway. At least this way they get more creative freedom.

I believe this were not possible if activision were still independent

@sixrings that’s not what I meant. I’m aware they aren’t “slaves.” Being acquired by another company, that company buys some or all the stocks and assets to that company. So did they have to buy all that back to obtain the rights to be independent?

@EvilSilentFrame exactly. There are to many questions not answered. As Microsoft's silence on the matter is also making me question if they are fully independent. Or is it a deal arranged like what Sony did with Bungie. As usually when a team leaves you get a statement from the parent company thanking them for years of service & wish them well for the future like they did Bungie. I could be wrong. But it could also to get the FTC off there back as letting a team go looks better than closing them like Sony did to London Studio.

@EvilSilentFrame I think like others mentioned the “toys to Bob” name didn’t mean anything to Microsoft. So if the few people wanted to leave Microsoft’s guaranteed pay check and restart their company then Microsoft didn’t mind then keeping their “toys to Bob” name. The shares were in activision, not toys to Bob so there’s nothing to buy back.

Can't wait for spryo and crash games to drop on gamepass

• MS buys Activision, which includes a studio that had basically been a CoD support studio
• MS sees that since they were a CoD support studio, they have absolutely nothing in the works
• MS doesn't want to pay a small studio of people to literally start something from scratch, that won't see completion for three or four years.
• MS gonna shut them down, but agrees to let them go indie, with a stipulation that whatever they make comes to Game Pass.
• Toys for Bob gets a new lease on life. MS looks like a good guy for letting them go.
• MS gets game either way.

Well this is a bit weird , the only reason I can possibly see , is microsofts new stance on multiplatform games , make them independent , funded by ms to make some multi platform games , I mean it would shutdown any backlash in the future, and wouldn't harm the xbox brand again.

It's not really known what state this studio was in after being absorbed into the call of duty void. It's possible xbox didn't like the chances/expenses of rebranding them back to their own projects. I imagine they lost some of the talent that didn't like the prospect of only working on call of duty a long time ago.

I'm thinking the rumors earlier of them being shut down were true and it was supposed to be more than just switching to remote.

I'd be interested in what this means for the Spyro and Crash games since they had a good track record with them. It almost seems like Microsoft will have all of these IPs and not enough studios to make more than a small handful of games that they know will sell loads.

@BacklogBrad well they were still making Crash games as well so it's not like they just stopped making games that were making money either.

@sixrings the thing is, someone owns the copyright to the company name and rights to use it.

So either the original owners kept the rights to the brand when they sold to Activision (which would be odd because why buy a company you don’t completely own) and then got acquired by Microsoft or they made a deal to buy it back or be given it by Microsoft.

No one can start a new company called Toys for Bob if it already exists. And they haven’t said they’re starting a new company but moving it indie.

So they either paid to become independent or made a deal that gave them independence.

@Zenszulu I don't know if I would compare crash team rumble to a traditional crash game. More of a battle pass cash grab (that didnt pan out).

I think people forget MS let Bungie go. The ABK merger wasn’t about Toys for Bob. To me this is win on all sides.

@sixrings that's a bit patronisng, obviously they're not slaves. But generally when you quit and start your own studio you don't keep the name or enter into a partnership with the company you just quit.

Most likely scenario here is, the demerger of Toys counts towards their head count reduction. So the 90-somethign employees their may have saved someone else's job and the studio remains in operation. Good all round if thats the case.

@elpardo1984 I only used the word slaves because of the response to me about that word. I totally know they aren’t. I was just confused on becoming independent when you’ve been acquired, because like you said, you generally don’t get to keep the name or go into a partnership with the company you just quit.

I mean I’m glad the people there seem to be happy to be independent again. If that’s what works for them, then that’s great. The process of getting there is just confusing to me is all. There’s a bunch of theories how they got out and got to keep the name. Im sure we’ll all find out soon enough.

Sounds like they just want to go back to being a legitimate studio that isn't simply ordered to do work for the latest COD.

@BacklogBrad they also made Crash 4 so they were obviously going to make them at one point going forward.

@Zenszulu that was before they became the call of duty support studio. Activision was all about maximizing COD. Maybe they thought crash could make money in a live service type game but that didn't work out with CTR.

Hopefully as an independent they will go back to those types of games but it was likely a very different studio after the COD integration.

@mousieone Apparently all of Bungie threatened to quit working for Microsoft because they didn't want to make any more Halo games and Microsoft said we'll let you have your independence and keep the Bungie name if you make us 1 more Halo game, so they did and that was HALO Reach.

@101Force Are Ford and Reiche III still at Toys for Bob as I would like to know what is next for the Ur-Quan Masters especially after playing the new version Free Stars that had just released on Steam on the Deck.

I was sick to read this studio was being closed by MS with just a few devs being absorbed to the larger collective. This news then, is really welcome and Im delighted they will get their chance to shine without being held hostage to the growth demands of shareholders.
I hope and wish them every success for the future.