Ash Parrish

Acquired by Activision Blizzard in 2005, Toys for Bob is known for creating the popular Skylanders series and developing Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, but for the last three years, it served as a support studio for *checks notes* the Call of Duty franchise.

In the announcement, the company wrote that this change, “allows us to return to our roots of being a small and nimble studio.”

Security issues are indeed a concern for Rockstar as it suffered a massive data breach in which hackers leaked early footage of GTA VI. But it’ll likely be a hard sell convincing employees to return to the office full-time and could result in increased attrition.

Meanwhile...

Last week, OpTic Texas owner, Hector ‘H3CZ’ Rodriguez, sued Activision Blizzard for $680 million, calling out the company’s alleged 50 percent event and merchandise revenue split requirement and its exclusive rights to the most lucrative sponsorship partners.

Combine that with the fact that Nintendo likes to make its launch titles cross-gen and that the possible scope of Z-A seems limited to one big mega city which might reduce technological constraints if the game is working across two systems, and we’ve got a tinfoil-solid theory going on.

So... whadaya think?

Apple Arcade has been around since 2019 with The Verge’s Andrew Webster once calling it a “no-brainer” if iOS gaming was your thing. Since then it’s become the home hundreds of exclusives, including Sonic Dream Team and the South Park-joke-turned-real Hello Kitty Island Adventure.