We learned the reason why Naughty Dog stopped after four games to change their strategy (which resulted in the birth of the Jak and Daxter series).

GamesRadar interviewed Jason Rubin, a co-founder of Naughty Dog, and he mentioned why they stopped focusing on the box-breaking marsupial after three platformers and one go-kart spin-off to start developing a new engine, which then became the basis of the Jak and Daxter series.

„Our relationship with Universal had gotten to the point where we couldn’t continue to make Crash Bandicoot games. Although we loved Crash Bandicoot and we loved working with Sony, it didn’t make any financial sense. Universal owned the IP, and there was a hostility there that was just brutal,” Rubin said. However, their relationship was much better with Sony – in 1999, their team was the first in the United States to own a PlayStation 2 devkit.

Andy Gavin, another co-founder, asked his quality assurance tester team if they wanted a „48-hour, all-expenses-paid trip to Japan with plenty of jetlag, and at least one good meal,” and the result was getting their hands on „the next-generation PlayStation it had been eagerly anticipating for years.” By the way, the Crash Bandicoot IP was owned by Universal, which later became Vivendi, and this French giant was behind the formation of Activision Blizzard (who now has the rights), from which they backed out.

Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time has a comparison video between the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X versions, as the game is now on the next-gen consoles, too. The analysis said: „[it has] dynamic 4K resolution on both platforms, although almost always close to 2160p. [The Xbox] Series X has a slightly higher average resolution. Both versions have perfect 60 FPS stability. [The] shadows [have] higher resolution on PlayStation 5, [and there are] slightly faster loading times on PS5.”

Until now, we didn’t know when the game’s PC port would arrive. It’s now confirmed to launch on March 26 for 40 dollars. Let’s take a look at the system requirements:

Minimum system requirements:

• Operating system: Windows 10 x64
• CPU: Intel Core i3-4340 or AMD FX-6300, or better
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 or AMD Radeon HD 7950, or better
• Free disk space: 30 GB
• An Internet connection (presumably because of Denuvo, as well as the Battle.net activation)
• Keyboard and mouse are supported

Recommended system requirements:

• Operating system: Windows 10 x64
• CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K or AMD Ryzen 5 1600X, or better
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon R9 390, or better
• Free disk space: 30 GB
• An Internet connection
• Keyboard and mouse are supported

The publisher’s money hunger can’t be shown any better than by the fact that the game won’t get a Steam version (if it will, it will be at a much later date…).

Source: PSL, WCCFTech, Gematsu