February 8th 2024.
Crash Bandicoot 4, the highly anticipated game from Toys For Bob, has been the subject of rumors lately. It has been said that the developer is working on a new Spyro game. However, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has made claims against Microsoft, stating that they have misrepresented their plans for Activision Blizzard. This is due to the fact that the creators of Skylanders, who were acquired by Activision Blizzard, have had their offices sold off.
Despite the acquisition being completed last year, the FTC is still trying to stop Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard. Their main argument is that Microsoft could potentially choose not to release games, such as Call of Duty, on rival platforms. This argument was made back in December, before rumors began circulating that Xbox games would be going multi-platform. Microsoft is set to host a "business update event" next week, which could potentially reveal more information about their plans.
If Microsoft does indeed make Xbox more multi-platform, it would weaken the FTC's case. However, they have a new angle to their argument. Last month, Microsoft announced 1,900 job cuts within their Xbox business. The FTC argues that this goes against their promise to maintain the pre-merger status quo of Activision Blizzard. The job cuts, which are a result of job duplication at Microsoft, demonstrate that Activision Blizzard is not operating independently as promised.
The FTC's filing to the US Court of Appeals, as highlighted by Charlie Intel, states that, "This newly revealed information contradicts Microsoft's representation in this proceeding, which seeks to temporarily pause Microsoft's acquisition of Activision pending the FTC's evaluation of the merger's antitrust merits." It is important to note that Microsoft had agreed to maintain the pre-merger status quo of Activision Blizzard, which the FTC argues they are not doing by cutting so many jobs and drastically reducing the number of staff at some studios.
Unfortunately, the people losing their jobs will not benefit from the FTC's case being strengthened. In fact, the FTC's case may be strengthened even further by the fact that Microsoft has just sold off the offices of developer Toys For Bob. While the studio has not officially been shut down, all staff are being forced to work from home, similar to how Sledgehammer Games was treated during the initial round of layoffs.
Toys For Bob, known for the Star Control franchise, was acquired by Activision in 2005. They found success with the Skylanders series, which was even more profitable for Activision than Call of Duty at one point. However, the series was quickly run into the ground and their most recent release, Crash Bandicoot 4, was not as successful as expected. As a result, Toys For Bob was turned into a support studio for Call of Duty. Their live service title, Crash Team Rumble, also failed, making them a prime target in the current round of redundancies.
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