In news that will likely come as a gut punch to fans of precocious marsupials, a new report from gaming historian Liam Robertson (thanks, VGC) alleges that Crash Bandicoot 5 was in development at Toys for Bob but was cancelled after Activision pulled funding in favour of live-service multiplayer offerings.
Apparently, this was due to what Activision considered to be soft sales following the release of Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, which would ultimately amount to some five million copies sold. That seems pretty strong to us, but besides Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy managing 20 million sales, perhaps it is soft. It's further claimed that Activision shot down other single-player sequel pitches during this period, including for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.
The report contains alleged story concepts and art that were being bandied about. One idea was that the game would take place at a school for villainous children, with villains from previous games set to return. Another concept proposed a team-up between Crash and Spyro in response to an interdimensional event threatening both universes, with the two characters being playable.