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= Toys for Bob =
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Introduction
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TFB Games, Inc., doing business as Toys for Bob, is an American video
game developer based in Novato, California. It was founded in 1989 by
Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford. The studio is known for creating 'Star
Control' and the 'Skylanders' franchise, as well as for working on the
'Crash Bandicoot' and 'Spyro' franchises.
Toys for Bob began as a partnership between Reiche and Ford. The two
had separately attended the University of California, Berkeley, in the
late 1970s before entering the video game industry in the early 1980s.
They later met through mutual friends in 1988, when Reiche was seeking
a programmer to develop 'Star Control' for Accolade. This led to the
formation of their partnership in 1989 and the debut of 'Star Control'
in 1990. The release was considered a landmark science fiction game
and led to the 1992 sequel 'Star Control II', which greatly expanded
the series' story and scale. 'Star Control II' is celebrated as one of
the greatest video games in history and is featured on several "best
of" lists for music, writing, world design, and character design. The
studio adopted the name Toys for Bob to stimulate curiosity and
differentiate themselves from other studios.
With Crystal Dynamics as their publisher, they developed several
games, including 'The Horde', 'Pandemonium!', and 'The Unholy War'. In
the early 2000s, the studio transitioned to working on licensed games
before being laid off by Crystal Dynamics. With Terry Falls as a
co-owner, Reiche and Ford incorporated the studio in 2002. Activision
became their publisher soon after, and eventually acquired the studio
in 2005. Toys for Bob created the 'Skylanders' series when Activision
merged with Vivendi Games and acquired the 'Spyro' franchise. The
developers at Toys for Bob had already been experimenting with using
physical toys to interact with video games and believed that this
technology would be ideal for 'Spyro's' universe of characters.
Credited with inventing the toys-to-life genre, the 2011 release of
'Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure' was considered a technological and
commercial breakthrough. This led to a spinoff series with several
successful games, generating a billion dollars in revenue for
Activision in the first 15 months and winning several awards. In 2018,
Toys for Bob assisted with the development of the remaster
compilations 'Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy' and 'Spyro Reignited
Trilogy', earning a reputation leading a revival of properties from
the original PlayStation.
After the release of 'Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time' in 2020,
Reiche and Ford left the company to start an independent studio. Toys
for Bob took on new leadership under Paul Yan and Avery Lodato while
working on the 'Call of Duty' series. After Activision's parent
company, Activision Blizzard, faced lawsuits over workplace harassment
and discrimination, Microsoft acquired the holding in October 2023.
Following layoffs at the studio, Toys for Bob spun off from Activision
in May 2024.
Partnership and ''Star Control'' success
==========================================
Toys for Bob began as a partnership between Paul Reiche III and Fred
Ford. The two founders separately attended the University of
California, Berkeley, around the same time, and both entered the video
game industry in the early 1980s. Ford started his career creating
games for Japanese personal computers before transitioning to more
corporate work, but after a few years working at graphics companies in
Silicon Valley, Ford realized he missed working in the game industry.
Meanwhile, Reiche had started his career working for 'Dungeons &
Dragons' publisher TSR before developing PC games for Free Fall
Associates. Reiche's producer at Free Fall took a new job at Accolade
and helped Reiche secure a three-game agreement with the publisher. At
this point, Reiche needed a programmer and Ford was seeking a
designer/artist, so their mutual friends set up a board game night to
introduce them. Those friends included fantasy artist Erol Otus, as
well as game designer Greg Johnson, who hosted the meet-up. Soon
after, Reiche and Ford formed their studio in 1989.
Reiche and Ford's first collaboration was 'Star Control', released for
MS-DOS in 1990. Originally called 'Starcon', the game began as an
evolution of the concepts that Reiche first created in 'Archon: The
Light and the Dark'. 'Archon's' strategic elements were adapted for
'Star Control' into a space setting, with one-on-one ship combat
inspired by the classic 1962 game 'Spacewar!'. During production,
Reiche and Ford spent time working on their collaborative process, and
this was partly why the game was limited in scope compared to its
sequel. Upon its release, 'Star Control' was voted the "Best Science
Fiction Game" by 'Video Games and Computer Entertainment', and decades
later, it is remembered as one of the greatest games of all time, with
numerous game developers citing it as an influence on their work.
The success of 'Star Control' led to a more ambitious sequel, 'Star
Control II'. Reiche and Ford aimed to expand on the first game's
combat system with deeper storytelling. Their goal of creating a
dynamic space adventure was largely inspired by 'Starflight,' designed
by Greg Johnson in 1986. While developing 'Starflight', Johnson had
shared office space with Reiche, who became so fascinated with the
project that he helped Johnson build the game's communication system.
Years later, this friendship led Reiche to ask Johnson to work on
'Star Control II', and Johnson became one of the game's most
significant contributors. 'Star Control's' story and characters were
vastly expanded from those of the first game. As Reiche and Ford
worked on the first version of the game's dialog, they recognized they
needed help with the writing and art and decided to enlist the help of
close friends. In addition to Johnson, they recruited Otus, who
contributed art, music, and text (as well as voice acting, in a later
release). Through mutual friends, they acquired the talents of fantasy
artist George Barr. The project eventually ran over schedule, and the
budget from Accolade ran out. During the final months of development,
Ford supported the team financially.
'Star Control II' received even more acclaim than the first game,
earning recognition as one of the best games of all time by numerous
publications since its release. It is also ranked among the best games
in several specific areas, including writing, world design, character
design, and music. 'Star Control II' has also inspired the design of
numerous games, including the open-ended gameplay of 'Fallout', the
world design of 'Mass Effect', and the story events of 'Stellaris'.
After finishing a 'Star Control II' port to the 3DO Interactive
Multiplayer (with additional voice acting and game improvements),
Accolade offered Ford and Reiche the same budget to produce a third
game, which they turned down to pursue other projects. As the pair had
retained the rights to their characters and stories from the first two
games, they licensed their content to Accolade so that the publisher
could produce 'Star Control 3' without their involvement.
Growth under Crystal Dynamics
===============================
The studio pitched their next game to Sega, but their contacts at the
company had already left for Crystal Dynamics, which led the studio to
pursue a publishing agreement with them instead. Around this time, the
studio was operating with Reiche, Ford, and Ford's brother Ken, with
additional freelancers hired for key tasks. Whereas their previous
games were released as a partnership under their legal names, their
subsequent games began to refer to their studio as Toys for Bob. They
initially wanted a name that would distinguish them from their
competitors. Reiche's wife Laurie suggested the name "Toys for Bob",
which was chosen to stimulate curiosity and allude to Reiche and
Ford's appreciation for toys.
The studio's first game under Crystal Dynamics was 'The Horde' (1994),
a full-motion video action and strategy game. Aiming to take advantage
of Crystal Dynamics's Hollywood connections and the increased storage
size of CD-ROMs for the video scenes, they hired a cast of
professional actors including Martin Short and Kirk Cameron. The game
received two awards from 'Computer Gaming World': "Best Musical Score"
for Burke Trieschmann's music and "Best On Screen Performance" for
Michael Gregory's role as Kronus Maelor. In 1996, Toys for Bob
released 'Pandemonium!', a 2.5D platform game for consoles. Their team
expanded to nearly 30 people to complete the project, with substantial
efforts to learn the mechanics of 3D game design. As the company grew,
so did the mythology around their name. According to Reiche, since
people frequently asked about the truth behind "Toys for Bob", he
instructed his team to invent their own "Bob" and swear he is the only
one, with the goal of "further confusing people".
As the studio prepared to release 'The Unholy War' in 1998, Crystal
Dynamics was acquired by Eidos Interactive. 'Unholy War' was a
fighting game with a strategic meta-game, similar to the combination
of game modes seen in Reiche's game 'Archon', and the original 'Star
Control'. Reiche and Ford thought the gameplay could be used for an
adaptation of a Japanese license such as 'SD Gundam', and Crystal
Dynamics helped them get in touch with Bandai, who promised them an
"even bigger license". Bandai ultimately had them produce 'Majokko
Daisakusen: Little Witching Mischiefs,' a game based on magical girl
characters from Japanese anime created in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.
Bandai's choice of license came as a surprise to Toys for Bob, and the
development process was fraught with translation challenges. As the
project dragged on, the studio continued to receive bug reports in
Japanese until they simply unplugged their fax machine, thus ending
development. 'Majokko Daisakusen' was released exclusively in Japan,
and Toys for Bob never learned how well the game performed.
Their next release was 'Disney's 102 Dalmatians: Puppies to the
Rescue', another major license that was considered of a higher quality
than other licensed games. Soon after the release, Crystal Dynamics
decided to fire the entire Toys for Bob team. After operating as a
partnership for more than a decade, Reiche, Ford, and Terry Falls
incorporated Toys for Bob in 2002, and announced that they were
seeking a new publisher after parting ways with Crystal Dynamics and
Eidos Interactive.
Acquisition by Activision
===========================
Soon after re-establishing their studio as an independent company,
Reiche and Ford released the source code for the 3DO version of 'Star
Control II' as open-source software under the GNU General Public
Licence (GPL) and enlisted the fan community to port it to modern
operating systems. The result was the 2002 open source game 'The
Ur-Quan Masters', released under a new title since the 'Star Control'
trademark was owned by Atari, who had acquired Accolade. An intern at
Toys for Bob began porting the game to various modern operating
systems, and the fan community continued the project with further
support and modifications. Reiche and Ford retained the original
copyrighted content within the first two 'Star Control' games, and
granted the fan-operated project a free, perpetual license to the
'Star Control II' content and the "Ur-Quan Masters" trademark.
Toys for Bob secured Activision as their new publisher, thanks to an
introduction from former staff who had founded Shaba Games and sold it
to Activision. As the industry found a thriving market for licensed
game adaptations, Activision asked Toys for Bob to work on 'Disney's
Extreme Skate Adventure', which combined the publisher's game engine
from 'Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4' with the studio's experience working
on Disney properties. The game was released in 2003 and gave the
studio more experience creating games for a younger audience.
Working with Activision, Toys for Bob continued to focus on licensed
games, such as 'Madagascar.' Their growing relationship with the
publisher led them to be acquired in 2005: the studio became a wholly
owned subsidiary under Activision, and the management team and
employees signed long-term contracts under the new corporate
structure. However, the release of 'Madagascar' showed that the market
for licensed games was beginning to dry up, in part due to the
negative reputation created by a flood of low quality licensed games.
By this time, the company was operating with 27 employees, and needed
a game that was successful enough to justify their growing team.
''Skylanders'' breakthrough
=============================
This culminated in the 2011 release of 'Skylanders: Spyro's
Adventure', which became a breakthrough success. They followed this
with 'Skylanders: Giants' in 2012, allowing the series to earn a
billion dollars in sales just 15 months after the release of the first
game. These successes led 'Gamasutra' to list Toys for Bob among their
top developers for 2012, stating, "we're not just impressed that Toys
for Bob successfully pulled 'Skylanders' off--it sold massively, after
all--we're impressed by how ballsy it was to begin with". Multiple
publications have credited 'Skylanders' with creating the toys-to-life
genre, attracting competitors such as Nintendo, Disney, and the Lego
Group to the multi-billion-dollar market sector.
In the years that followed, Toys for Bob created several successful
'Skylanders' video games, including 'Skylanders: Trap Team'. Their
last game in this series was 'Skylanders: Imaginators' in 2016, which
won several awards. However, slower sales and increased competition
suggested that toys-to-life games might have hit their peak, and
Activision decided to discontinue the 'Skylanders' series. Still, the
'Skylanders' series became one of the best-selling video game
franchises of all time. In late 2018, Toys for Bob donated hundreds of
'Skylanders' toys to The Strong National Museum of Play, which planned
to use them as an exhibit to document "one of the most significant
game franchises of the last decade".
Toys for Bob continued their development for important licenses under
Activision. They worked on a re-packaged 'Spyro Reignited Trilogy'
with updated sound and visuals, in consultation with developers from
the original 'Spyro' trilogy. Its 2018 release was considered one of
the best video game remakes of all time. Having ported the 'Crash
Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy' to the Nintendo Switch, Toys for Bob sought
to maintain the momentum of that title's success by developing 'Crash
Bandicoot 4: It's About Time', a direct continuation of the original
'Crash Bandicoot' trilogy. Upon the game's release in 2020, the studio
earned a reputation for leading a revival of properties from the
original PlayStation as part of a recent trend.
New leadership
================
Founders Reiche and Ford left Toys for Bob at the end of 2020 to
create an independent studio and commence development on a sequel to
'The Ur-Quan Masters'. Paul Yan and Avery Lodato became Toys for Bob's
studio heads, and the studio continues to operate with an estimated
180 employees. In April 2021, it was announced that Toys for Bob would
be working on 'Call of Duty: Warzone' as a support studio alongside
Raven Software, Infinity Ward, and Treyarch. This led to the release
of 'Call of Duty: Vanguard' in December 2021, with some of the game's
content also included in 'Warzone'. Throughout 2021, allegations of
workplace harassment surfaced at Activision's parent company,
Activision Blizzard, and Toys for Bob employees were among 500
employees calling for the resignation of Kotick. Reiche agreed with
the need for a change in leadership at Activision Blizzard.
On January 18, 2022, Microsoft announced that it intended to acquire
Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. Microsoft promised to strive
towards safer and more inclusive working conditions among Activision's
studios, including Toys for Bob. As the CEO of Microsoft's gaming
division, Phil Spencer expressed interest in having Toys for Bob
revive older game properties now owned by the conglomerate. Kotick
also expressed his long-term desire to revive the 'Skylanders' series,
believing this was now possible thanks to Microsoft's hardware
manufacturing and supply chain. As part of 1,900 job cuts instituted
by Microsoft in January 2024, 89 people were laid off from Toys for
Bob and the studio's offices in Novato were closed down. The remaining
staffers transitioned to work from home. In February 2024, the studio
announced plans to spin off from Activision. In the following month,
Windows Central reported that the studio had forged a partnership with
Microsoft to publish its first independent game. The studio became
independent again in May 2024.
Accolades
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* 'Spyro Reignited Trilogy' - Family Title of the Year, Australian
Games Awards, 2018
* 'Star Control' - 253rd Best Game of All Time, 'Polygon', 2017
* 'Skylanders: Imaginators' - Tillywig Toy & Media Awards, 2017
* 'Skylanders: Imaginators' - Best Toys of 2016, 'Parents', 2016
* 'Skylanders: Imaginators' - 2016 Hot Holiday Toy List, Toys "R" Us,
2016
* 'Skylanders: Imaginators' - Best Video Games of 2016, 'USA Today',
2016
* 'Skylanders: Imaginators' - Best Family Game of E3, 'Game Critics
Awards', 2016
* 'Skylanders: Imaginators' - Best Family Game, Gamescom, 2016
* 'Star Control II' - 'Hardcore Gaming 101' Best Video Games of All
Time, 2015
* 'Skylanders: Giants' - BAFTA Children's Game, British Academy Games
Awards, 2013
* 'Star Control II' - Best Classic PC Game, 'Kotaku', 2013
* 'Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure' - Outstanding Innovation In Gaming,
Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, 2012
* 'Star Control II' - 52nd Greatest PC Game, 'PC Gamer', 2011
* Toys for Bob - Top 50 most successful game studios, 'MCV/Develop',
2006
* 'Star Control II' - 'Computer Gaming World' Hall of Fame, 2006
* 'Star Control II' - 17th Best Game, 'IGN', 2005
* 'Star Control II' - 53rd Best Game, 'IGN', 2003
* 'Star Control II' - 'GameSpot' Greatest Games of All Time, 2003
* 'Star Control' - 45th Most Influential Game of All Time (Developer
Survey), 'PC Gameplay', 2001
* 'Star Control II' - 26th Best Game of All Time, GameSpy, 2001
* 'Star Control II' - 'GameSpy' Hall of Fame, 2000
* 'Star Control II' - 46th Best Game of All Time, 'Next Generation',
1999
* 'Star Control II -' 29th Best Game of All Time, 'Computer Gaming
World,' 1996''
* 'Star Control -' 127th Best Game of all Time, 'Computer Gaming
World', 1996
* 'The Horde' - Best Musical Score, 'Computer Gaming World', 1994
* 'The Horde' - Michael Gregory - Best On-Screen Performance,
'Computer Gaming World', 1994
* 'Star Control II' - 33rd Best Game of All Time, 'PC Gamer UK', 1994
* 'Star Control II' - 21st Best Game of All Time, 'PC Gamer US', 1994
* 'Star Control II' - Class of '93, Game Developers Conference, 1993
* 'Star Control II' - Game of the Year, 'Pelit', 1993
* 'Star Control II' - Adventure Game of the Year, 'Computer Gaming
World', 1993
* 'Star Control' - Best Computer Science Fiction Game, 'VideoGames
& Computer Entertainment', 1990
Games developed
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Year Title Platform(s) Notes
1990 'Star Control' Amiga, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, Sega Genesis
1992 'Star Control II' 3DO, MS-DOS
1994 'The Horde' 3DO, MS-DOS, Sega Saturn
1996 'Pandemonium!' PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Windows
1998 'The Unholy War' rowspan="3"| PlayStation
1999 'Majokko Daisakusen: Little Witching Mischiefs'
2000 'Disney's 102 Dalmatians: Puppies to the Rescue'
2003 'Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure' rowspan="2"| GameCube,
PlayStation 2, Xbox
2005 'Madagascar'
2006 'Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam' Wii
2008 'Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa' PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360
2011 'Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure' PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360
2012 'Skylanders: Giants' PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360
2014 'Skylanders: Trap Team' Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 3,
PlayStation 4, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
2016 'Skylanders: Imaginators' Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3,
PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
2018 'Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy' Nintendo Switch Port
development
'Spyro Reignited Trilogy' Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
2020 'Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time' Nintendo Switch,
PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
2021 'Call of Duty: Warzone' PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One
Additional work
2022 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II' PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5,
Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S Additional work
2023 'Crash Team Rumble' PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One,
Xbox Series X/S
'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III' PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5,
Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S Additional work
2027 'Spyro: A Realm Beyond' Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5,
Windows, Xbox Series X/S
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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toys_for_Bob
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