Crash Bandicoot's Grand Return

E3 2016. Sony CEO, Shawn Layden, waltzes out on stage and announces Crash Bandicoot's return. The crowd go nuts. After Crash unceremoniously left the small screen back in 2008, here was an announcement that the original PlayStation trilogy would be "remastered from the ground up". The orange marsupial had returned.

But it wasn't a simple path. It was more like a death route. Let's examine the long and arduous road that culminated in what we now know was the Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy.

The End

The last developers of the Crash Bandicoot franchise were Radical Entertainment, back in 2008. To say the fan-base weren't pleased with the newer direction of the games, on the whole, is an understatement. After Mind Over Mutant, Crash fell into obscurity, until recent years had led to a strong desire for the bandicoot to return, back to his roots. His original trilogy was, after all, fondly remembered for being one of the best series on the original PlayStation. The problem, of course, came down to the rights.

Activision owns the rights to the Crash Bandicoot franchise, acquired through some convoluted take-overs in the mid naughties. The short and thick of it is that Crash was always owned by Universal Interactive Studios, which then eventually fell into game publisher Activision's domain. It's a common misconception that PlayStation own the rights to Crash Bandicoot, but really they only have a slice of the pie for the original five PlayStation games: Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, Crash Bandicoot 3: WARPED, CTR: Crash Team Racing and Crash Bash. To bring Crash back meant that Activision had been willing to do so. CEO, Eric Hirshberg had released a statement regarding the return of the orange marsupial, but fans were skeptical since there was no actual news on any new games, and the state of the video game industry appeared to focus more on realism and action, at the time.

Activision CEO, Eric Hirshberg, wanted to bring back Crash... or so he said.

Several years passed by with nothing announced related to Crash. Then something happened when the new wave of consoles were announced. Something... exciting.

From Bin to Win

The PlayStation 4 console was announced. With it, came a launch advert that showed various exciting imagery:

Towards the end, a sign showing a silhouette of Crash is shown in the background, with an arrow pointing to the PlayStation logo. The advert was crammed full of hidden gems and references anyway, but this one was particularly intriguing because it acknowledged something that the industry didn't seem to be acknowledging anywhere else. It acknowledged Crash. Sure, the silhouette was Crash from his 2004 outing, Crash Twinsanity, but it was Crash, none-the-less.

Crash appeared on suspicious sign on a PS4 advert...

The internet was sent into a frenzy. What did it mean? Well, everyone thought Crash was returning to the PlayStation, but... what did it really mean? No one had heard any news and speculation was rife. Did it mean that Sony had acquired the rights to the Crash Bandicoot franchise? That was certainly the question on everyone's lips.

The speculation didn't end there. Back in the days of Naughty Dog developing Crash, a certain individual from Universal Interactive Studios would work closely with the team to realise the bandicoot. His name was (and still is) Mark Cerny. Upon the announcement of the PlayStation 4, he was called up in front of a press conference audience to the Crash Bandicoot theme, unveiling it was he who had helped develop the console. Things like that don't just go unnoticed. Yet, still, no news on Crash. It was almost like Sony was teasing everyone, in hindsight.

Mark Cerny, showing off the then new PS4 to the Crash Bandicoot theme (from N.Sanity Beach).

The Crash T-Shirt

Months passed and it looked like anything new on Crash was dead in the water. Then, at the tail-end of 2015, Sony CEO Shawn Layden walks out onto the PlayStation Experience Keynote event... wearing a Crash Bandicoot t-shirt. All eyes were on that shirt. Everyone expected some kind of announcement. Yet... nothing happened during the entire event. Worst of all, he made no reference to it.

Now, I was present during a Twitch stream for the event with plenty of Crash fans whom I'd become acquainted with over the many years I'd been online. My name was SmazUgonih, and Smaz still stands as my online persona, particularly when it comes to Crash. The chat exploded with activity as soon as that t-shirt made an appearance. It went a little something like:

18:17:11 < fiercethebandit> CRASH
18:17:11 < zelecton11> WHAT
18:17:12 < lxshades> OOOH NICE SHIRT
18:17:12 < hp_zoner> WHAAAAT
18:17:13 < doomcorner64> CRASH SHIRT
18:17:13 < fiercethebandit> WTF
18:17:14 < taronuke> WHAT
18:17:14 < tritails> CRASH!
18:17:14 < crashratchetfan> FUCKING SHIT
18:17:15 < motwera> yep
18:17:15 < zelecton11> CRASH
18:17:15 < hp_zoner> WHAAAAAAAAT
18:17:16 < zelecton11> CRAAAASZH
18:17:17 < smazugonih> Goddamnit
18:17:17 < taronuke> CRASH????
18:17:18 < zelecton11> WHAAAT
18:17:19 < zelecton11> WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT
18:17:20 < betam> WHAT IS THIS
18:17:21 < chekwob> heher
18:17:21 < doomcorner64> THIS COULD BE IT
18:17:23 < zelecton11> YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES
18:17:23 < betam> WHAT ISSSSS THISSS
18:17:24 < lxshades> AWESOME SHIRT BRO
18:17:24 < zelecton11> YEEEES
18:17:24 < motwera> ueyeyeyeeyeusr
18:17:24 < taronuke> WHY WHAT WHY WHAT WHAT WHY WHAT?
18:17:25 < zelecton11> YES
18:17:26 < bringbackcrash> WHAT THE FUCK
18:17:26 < lxshades> WHERE'D YOU GET IT
18:17:27 < doomcorner64> TONOIGHTS THE NIGHT?
18:17:28 < fiercethebandit> CRASH WATCH MY SHIRT
18:17:28 < hp_zoner> STOP PLAYING WITH MY EMOTIONS
18:17:28 < lxshades> WHAT'S THE OCCASION
18:17:29 < bringbackcrash> THIS IS IT?!
18:17:29 < smazugonih> DON'T TROLL US LIKE THAT.
18:17:33 < tritails> HE WEARS A CRASH T-SHIRT
18:17:34 < betam> BAITED LIKE MAD
18:17:36 < fiercethebandit> FUCKING SONY
18:17:37 < bringbackcrash> THIS IS IT!!!????
18:17:37 < zelecton11> IM SO HAPPY
18:17:38 < zelecton11> IM SO
18:17:38 < updownleftwrite> CRASH SHItbgdf
18:17:38 < tritails> COULD IT BE?!
18:17:39 < motwera> i cant breath
18:17:39 < zelecton11> FUCKIN
18:17:42 < zelecton11> HAPPY
18:17:44 < taronuke> WHAT THE FUCK? WHAT WHY WHAT WHAT WHY WHAT THE FUCK WHAT WHY? WHY CRASH WHY
WHAT
18:17:45 < hp_zoner> I need to lie down.
18:17:47 < crashratchetfan> I HAZ A HAPPY
18:17:49 < bringbackcrash> I NEED TO GO
18:18:00 < smazugonih> I NEED TO PEE.
18:18:00 < fiercethebandit> I wish the crowd would start chanting for Crash
18:18:03 < taronuke> CRASH SHIRT WHAT THE TITS WHAT THE FUCK WHAT WHY
18:18:06 < tritails> Okay, calm down! calm down!
18:18:07 < bringbackcrash> THIS IS IT
18:18:09 < bringbackcrash> THIS IS IT
18:18:13 < smazugonih> THIS IS TITS
18:18:14 < bringbackcrash> IF ITS NOT HERE ITS AT E3
18:18:15 < taronuke> THIS CAN'T BE IT
18:18:18 < bringbackcrash> SHAWN'S SHIRT IS ALWAYS THE TEASER
18:18:19 < zelecton11> PLEASE
18:18:19 < tritails> They can always troll us.
18:18:20 < zelecton11> BE REAL
18:18:34 < zelecton11> PLEASE DO NOT TROLL US AGAIN PLEASE....
18:18:36 < taronuke> there's just no way
18:18:36 < doomcorner64> Be careful - remember ff7 last year
18:18:39 < taronuke> this is a troll
18:18:41 < tritails> CROSS OUR FINGERS!
18:18:47 < bringbackcrash> YEAH DOOMCORNER THE REAL DEAL HAPPENED 6 MONTHS LATER AT E3
18:18:49 < bringbackcrash> THATS WHAT I FUCKING REMEMBER
18:18:52 < hp_zoner> No way this is gonna be a trolling thing.
18:18:54 < fiercethebandit> and Crash
18:18:55 < hp_zoner> No. Way.
18:18:59 < doomcorner64> good point
18:19:03 < taronuke> this is definitely a troll
18:19:06 < lxshades> Guys
18:19:09 < taronuke> I can't believe it
18:19:11 < lxshades> Have any of us seen that specific shirt before?
18:19:11 < zelecton11> guys stop it
18:19:12 < lxshades> curious
18:19:21 < smazugonih> Hmmm... I haven't...
18:19:22 < bringbackcrash> that shirt is not a shirt that was released to the public
18:19:23 < zelecton11> this is not troll... this is real 🙁 please be real. 🙁 🙁
18:19:24 < bringbackcrash> but I think its old
18:19:36 < fiercethebandit> I has a Crash 1 Render
18:19:54 < hp_zoner> He wouldn't wear that specifically for this event just to troll everyone.
Would he...?

Oh, HP Zoner, he really, really did. Or so it seemed.

Shawn Layden trolled everyone with his Crash t-shirt at E3 2016

E3 2016

6 months later. E3 2016. Shawn Layden strolls out on an illuminated stage of a Crash Bandicoot beach paradise, complete to the Crash Bandicoot 3: WARPED theme and Crash shadow. The crowd explode in rapturous applause. He finally makes reference to the shirt, in that he's not wearing it this time, and announces that they've worked with Activision to bring back the original trilogy "from the ground up" for PlayStation 4.

Whilst we weren't aware of the meaning of the words at the time, "from the ground up" meant more than just a simple remake. It implied Crash was being built from scratch. This ended up being true, for the most part, as the N.Sane Trilogy was built upon the grey meshes for the original PlayStation levels. These meshes came from the original Naughty Dog development team, gifted to the new development team at Vicarious Visions, who got the gig from apparently being asked by publishers, Activision. Ooooh, I'd love to be a fly on the wall when that conversation happened.

It's intriguing thinking about what would have been discussed, but hindsight has made the situation a bit clearer. The N.Sane Trilogy was released on the PlayStation 4 in June 2017, and then finally on the Nintendo Switch, Microsoft XBox One and PC's Steam in June 2018... exactly a year later. It seemed that the deal would be for it to be a timed exclusive for a full year. Well played, Sony. Well played.

Crash takes a stroll down memory beach in the N.Sane Trilogy

Of course, I should make reference to the other aspect of that 2016 E3 announcement, which did kind of dampen the mood a little. That was there being no Crash video to show off the N.Sane Trilogy, leaving everyone in suspense... but then immediately revealing a video of Crash showing up in Skylanders: Imaginators in a bizarre design that didn't look too great at the time. Skylanders: Imaginators would be released before the N.Sane Trilogy, meaning for Crash's return, it would technically be in the form of a game based on toy statues and... well, not exactly liked by a lot of people. Suffice to say. Skylanders: Imaginators was actually a surprisingly fun experience, giving us a fully playable Crash and Cortex (his arch-nemesis) to hype up the release of the N.Sane Trilogy, later down the line.

Crash and Cortex kick some chompy butt in Skylanders: Imaginators

The Future's Orange

So there we have it, the long and worrying road of Crash's return. The question that now follows is what is planned for ol' fuzzy lugs, next? Since the reveal of the N.Sane Trilogy, Activision (and Sony) seem to be obsessed with remaking and remastering previous games, such as Call of Duty titles, Spyro: Reignited Trilogy and MediEvil, amongst others. Let's hope this isn't just a one-time return for Crash, and that it's more than just one last hurrah...