- Toys for Bob says Activision Blizzard did not push the studio’s decision to become independent again
- Study leader Paul Yan says: “Management on both sides were very open to the idea”
- Yan says the process was “complex” to navigate while planning Spyro: A Realm Beyond
Spyro: A Realm Beyond Developer Toys for Bob has said there was no “pushback” from Activision Blizzard when it chose to go independent, but the process was “complex”.
In 2024, one year after Microsoft officially bought Activision Blizzard and almost 20 years after being bought by the latter, Toys for Bob announced that it would separate from its parent company and return to its “roots” as an independent studio.
Now, during a press Q&A at Summer Game Fest 2026 while promoting Spyro: A Realm Beyondshared Studio Head Paul Yan that the team faced no opposition from Activision Blizzard or Microsoft and that “leadership on both sides was very open to the idea.”
“It was just complex,” Yan said, “because we were talking about navigating a lot of things in very compressed time, so just the logistics and the legalities of how to separate a company like that has never been done before.”
“I’ve never done that before, so I’m asking for something that’s going to require a ton of coordination across a lot of teams, across two new organizations that don’t even know each other,” he added, referring to the company’s acquisition of Microsoft, “or they’re just mostly married.
“In the meantime, we are also trying to navigate a course for this match [Spyro: A Realm Beyond]so we’re trying to make all of that happen at the same time.”
Yan said this was “the biggest challenge” overall, and reiterated that no one was opposed to Toys for Bob becoming independent again, although the process was something “we’ve never seen done before.”
Associate creative director Lou Studdard added that it was difficult to navigate the process while also “maintaining the continuity of the team’s experience of the team” and making sure it wasn’t “such a big culture shock for the studio.”
“It’s been a huge effort to make sure that about two years ago, and this happened when we really started, it was kind of like another day at the office in a good way, and that we’re a continued development team that knows how to work with each other and focus on our projects,” Studdard said.
Spyro: A Realm Beyond is Toys for Bob’s first game since becoming an independent studio again, and will launch in Spring 2027 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Series S, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC.
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