Crash Bandicoot Rights Still Belong to Activision, Sony Confirms

The rights to Naughty Dog's Crash Bandicoot series continue to be held by Call of Duty publisher Activision. This was reiterated recently on Twitter by Adam Boyes, a VP of publisher relations for Sony.

Here is the tweet in question (via VideoGamer.com):

You can read this spoiler-filled post to find out why Crash Bandicoot is in the news again.

In July 2014, Crash Bandicoot creator Naughty Dog--which is owned by Sony--said it was open to the idea of making a new entry in the series someday. "We never forget our past and it'd be great for nostalgic reasons," Naughty Dog's Arne Meyer said about returning to the franchise.

However, it doesn't sound like this would happen anytime soon. Meyer explained that a new Crash Bandicoot, or a fourth Jak & Daxter game, don't match up very well with the developer's current trajectory.

"I don't know if it's playing to our strengths right now," Meyer said about making new entries in its classic franchises instead of moving ahead with story-driven, cinematic style games like Uncharted and The Last of Us.

The latest title to bear the jorts-wearing Bandicoot's name was mobile game Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 2 in 2010. Despite this, Activision said in 2013 that it "continue[s] to explore ways in which we could bring the beloved series back to life."

It's been rumored lately that the Crash Bandicoot series is coming back. In February 2016, the PlayStation Middle East Twitter account posted the tweet below, the English translation of which is, "Most wanted person... where are you Crash?"

Also that month, the director of toy company NECA mentioned a Crash Bandicoot revival, but the company later put out a statement saying the comments were "misunderstood."

Before that, at PlayStation Experience in December 2015, PlayStation boss Shawn Layden wore a Crash t-shirt, but no Crash announcements were made during the show.