The purple dragon is back, with Toys for Bob entrusted with creating a new adventure in Spyro: A Realm Beyond, in development for Xbox, PS5, Switch 2 and PC and a Spring 2027 release.

Here’s the trailer’s blurb:

Take flight on a brand-new adventure through a strange and wondrous realm. When Spyro finds himself stranded, his journey to discover a way home is interrupted by the arrival of a vicious invading force known as the Scavs. Spyro must make new allies and rise to protect this realm before it’s changed forever. Feel the freedom of flight as you soar above vibrant landscapes, weave between treetops, dive off massive landmarks and wing your way through this new realm in Spyro ’s boldest evolution yet. Carve your path through the skies and chain together dives, climbs and tight turns as you navigate the world your way.

There had been rumours of a new Spyro being in development at Toys for Bob for a few years now, the studio having confirmed a partnership with Microsoft that Toys for Bob while announcing their newfound independence in early 2024, splitting out following the Activision purchase.

Toys for Bob was founded all the way back in 1989, but had their biggest and most notable success decades later with the toys-to-life Skylanders series – itself a Spyro spin-off – which ran for a few years before the genre quickly peaked and faded into nothingness. They then created the very well received Spyro Reignited Trilogy and Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time in 2018 and 2020 respectively, and last year’s Crash Team Rumble. However, they had also been sucked into the Activision-wide grind to produce supporting content for the Call of Duty franchise. Thankfully, with the studio going independent, they’ve been able to escape that grind and get back reviving classic platformer franchises.

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Publisher Activision and developer Toys for Bob have announced Spyro: A Realm Beyond for the Switch 2; the first brand-new mainline Spyro game in, well… bloomin’ yonks. Since 2008, if you don’t count the remake trilogy.

Described as Spyro’s “boldest evolution yet”, the new game appears to be more open than previous entries, with the trailer showcasing a brief snippet of gameplay in which the protagonist is flying freely through the air, shooting fireballs at targets as he goes.

Here’s a look at the official description from the trailer:

“When Spyro finds himself stranded, his journey to discover a way home is interrupted by the arrival of a vicious invading force known as the Scavs. Spyro must make new allies and rise to protect this realm before it’s changed forever.

“Feel the freedom of flight as you soar above vibrant landscapes, weave between treetops, dive off massive landmarks and wing your way through this new realm in Spyro’s boldest evolution yet.

“Carve your path through the skies and chain together dives, climbs and tight turns as you navigate the world your way. Crafted by Toys For Bob, this is a new evolution of Spyro, built to send the purple dragon soaring higher than ever before.”

There’s no date yet beyond the current 2027 release window, but we’re honestly thrilled to see the little guy back in a proper mainline entry. Toys for Bob did a fabulous job with the Reignited Trilogy, so we have high hopes for this one.

We’ll provide more updates on A Realm Beyond as soon as we hear more.

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Video games should investigate dabbling in product placement as heavily as some movies do, just in case it can help provide an alternative to live-service monetisation via microtransactions, former Dragon Age director has suggested. Yes! Yes, I say, because every single game should follow 007 First Light’s lead and force you to choose between seven different colour variants of the same branded timepiece.

I’m serious, this is what the industry needs. The time is now. Everyone must pick a watch!

“Is there an opportunity for games to take a step back and think about different ways that we could make money? I think there is,” Darrah said in a YouTube video discussing the topic. “Product placement is a very small part of video games right now compared to movies and television. Maybe it could be a larger part of development. Maybe there are relationships there to be formed.

“Maybe we need to change the way that games go into subscription services. Maybe it’s not forever. Maybe they go in for a while and then they leave the same way that movies leave Netflix. I think that the overreliance on microtransactions is overemphasising certain genres and preventing other genres from flourishing.”

As much as I reflexively reel at the example Darrah provides of a film which covered a huge amount of its costs via product placements and/or brand partnerships, The Smurfs 2, he’s making a salient point. If it’ll help make single player games like 007 more economically viable and isn’t too jarring, dipping more into branding might not be the worst thing in the world. Provided it fits and isn’t just being used to boost already gaudy profit margins and executive paychecks. Sadly, I fear that last bit is exactly what it’d be used for.

Wait a minute, what am I saying? I’m supposed to be arguing in favour of branded watches for everyone here. A swanky wrist ticker for Morrigan. A space age time-telling gadget for Commander Shepard. Go all out. Give the protagonist of Far Cry Primal a crude little stone sundial strapped to their arm with animal skins.

All of them available in a variety of stylish hues designed to suggest you’re a marginally different sort of person. None of them offering any tangible gameplay advantages. It’s the only way to save the video games from live-service oblivion. Speaking of which, get over here Hero of Kvatch, I’ve got a Rolex here to go with your Imperial dragon armour.

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