Microsoft's decision to cut 1,900 team members from its various gaming divisions in late January hit its recently acquired group Activision Blizzard particularly hard. One of its game development studios, Toys for Bob, was seriously affected, with 86 members of its team cut. Activision reportedly shuttered Toys for Bob's physical offices, located in Novato, California.
Today, the developer announced on its official website that is now an independent game studio once again. Toys for Bob was first formed in 1989 and Activision acquired the studio in 2005.
Today's message made no mention of the layoffs that the studio suffered and also did not state anything about the physical location being shut down. Indeed, the blog post was extremely positive about going back to being an indie developer. It stated:
With the same enthusiasm and passion, we believe that now is the time to take the studio and our future games to the next level. This opportunity allows us to return to our roots of being a small and nimble studio.
In fact, the blog post says that Toys for Bob is considering partnering with Microsoft on an unnamed project. It may be a long time before the first details on that game will be officially revealed, but the blog post does say "our team is excited to develop new stories, new characters, and new gameplay experiences." Toys for Bob did not offer any info on whether any of its previously laid-off employees will be able to return to the studio.
Under the ownership of Activision, the studio created the Skylanders series of games that were extremely popular for a few years in the early to mid 2010's. In the last few years under that publisher, it became a support studio for its Call of Duty games but still developed the action brawler game Crash Team Rumble in 2023.
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