Activision announced a new multiplayer game called Crash Team Rumble, which will be coming to two generations of consoles in 2023. The upcoming spinoff was confirmed with a reveal trailer during the 2022 edition of The Game Awards, but Activision has been teasing a new Crash Bandicoot game since October.
The development of Crash Team Rumble is helmed by Toys for Bob, a former Crystal Dynamics subsidiary that was acquired by Activision in 2005. This is the same studio that handled the Switch port of the well-received Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy before independently developing Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, the latest mainline game in the 26-year-old franchise which hit PC and consoles in 2020.
Crash Team Rumble appears to borrow the action camera and character designs from Crash Bandicoot 4, but that's where the similarities between the two end. Mechanically, the new game is a multiplayer-focused experience that will pit eight players from two teams in deadly battles for Wumpa Fruit across a variety of island-based maps. The developers said each character will come with their own set of skills and abilities, which almost makes Crash Team Rumble sound like a MOBA. But that's only a guess, as not much has been shown in the way of raw gameplay just yet. Either way, this is definitely not a spiritual successor to Crash Bash, the only seemingly forgotten classic from Activision's Crash Bandicoot catalog.
The reveal trailer for Crash Team Rumble shows over half a dozen fan-favorite characters that will presumably be playable in the upcoming title, including Crash and Coco Bandicoot, Dr. Neo Cortex, Dingodile, Tawna, Dr. Nefarious Tropy, and Dr. Nitrus Brio. Crash Team Rumble will also seemingly introduce some new characters to the long-running franchise, as the promotional materials for the game also offer a few glimpses of an unnamed, bat-like creature which appears to be playing for the villain team.
Activision has yet to attach a firm release date to Crash Team Rumble, with the publisher only stating that the game is planned to debut at some point in 2023. Between the largely positive reception of the two Toys for Bob-developed Crash Bandicoot titles and the successful launch of Crash Bandicoot: On The Run, it stands to reason that Activision might have more installments in the iconic series in the works.
Crash Team Rumble is just one of numerous games showed off at the 2022 edition of The Game Awards. The December 8 ceremony also featured the announcements of Hades 2, Death Stranding 2, and Armored Core 6, as well as new gameplay footage from Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, and Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2, among many others.
Crash Team Rumble is coming to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S in 2023.