With more than three years having passed since Crash Bandicoot’s last outing, Dan Jenko argues it’s time for the legendary marsupial to make his return – and asks why platforming heroes have been abandoned in favour of muscular action types.
Former Naughty Dog artist Gabriel Betancourt explains why the "sweet spot" for game teams is under 200 people and how AAA "factories" kill creativity.
There’s definitely some truth to this. When teams get too large, coordination starts to outweigh creativity—layers of approval, risk aversion, and tight deadlines can turn bold ideas into “safe” ones. Keeping a team under ~200 people sounds ideal for maintaining clear communication and a shared vision. That said, massive AAA projects also come with huge technical demands and expectations, so scaling up isn’t always avoidable. The real challenge is figuring out how to keep that small-team creativity alive inside big studio structures.
More than that, it's logistically untenable. Inevitably, when teams get too large, how do you keep tabs on accountability? I suspect this massive team size is a consequence of the perfectionism streak Naughty Dog has.
I wish we could have so many people working on something and it turns out great because I'm all for collaboration in spirit - the problem is too many people as part of the larger team and smaller units. Suppose for example that you have too many people in the art department; you will very often come up against fiercely competing visions for how things should look. That competitive vision will cause friction between team members, team doesn't work as a unit, the back and forth can further delay parts that the other departments are waiting for, etc etc.
A 200-person team says, to me, that we need to scale back game development. Even if it means we go back to PS2 era costs and scale, why not? Those games are still great fun, the budgets were in check, and you could literally break the 200-man team into like 10 20-man teams working on different projects.
Chance Glasco, one of the co-founders of Infinity Ward and creators of the Call of Duty franchise, has claimed that Activision once pressured the studio to include an invasion of Israel by Iran.
Former CEO describes lawsuit filed by Swedish pension fund as a "collateral attack" on Activision Blizzard.
Kotick Made $155 million from MS in the buyout, the little b*tch needs to stop whining. Thanks to this Microslop deal and massive industry consolidation thousands upon thousands of devs and other workers lost their livelihoods. This greedy piggie pervert needs shut up and f-off.
Interesting article and about time someone else brought it up too. Although, seeing how Activision retooled Spyro for Skylanders, if Crash returns, will it still be the bandicoot we love?
Don't want it unless ND gets the rights back to it.
I find it funny that Sonic and Crash were both Mario's rivals and now they are on his home console
The lesson is dont be Mario's rival
I'm not sure why Crash didn't follow the course Spyro took. No it isn't pretty, but eventually it has to make something of it right?
@Pikajew
In fairness to Crash, he had to leave his creators(Naughty Dog/Sony)because of Universal. It was something in that nature.
But if Sony/Naughty dog had made an exclusive PS2 Crash Bandicoot follow by a exclusive PS3 Crash, its no telling what would Crash fame would of be today.