The Naughty Dog Universal Studios deal that gave the world Crash Bandicoot was one of the most hostile working arrangements in PlayStation history, according to Naughty Dog founder Jason Rubin. Speaking to The Game Business’ Chris Dring, Rubin describes a publishing relationship so dysfunctional that threats of violence were made against his staff, the air conditioning was switched off while developers worked through summer nights in a high-rise, and the servers themselves eventually started shutting down from the heat.
Crash Bandicoot launched in 1996, positioned by Sony as its answer to Sonic and Mario on the 32-bit PlayStation. The debut title sold 6.8 million units worldwide and seeded a franchise that is still going today. Yet Sony never owned the character. Crash was a Universal Studios property, the result of a three-game publishing deal brokered by Mark Cerny (described in the conversation as a video game legend) following Naughty Dog’s collaboration with Universal on the 3DO fighting game Way of the Warrior in 1994.
The Sony and Universal Publishing Arrangement
The scale of that arrangement became clearer in March 1996, when, according to Franz Inc., Sony Corporation announced an agreement with Universal Interactive Studios covering worldwide publishing rights to Crash Bandicoot. On paper, it looked like an enviable position for a young studio: a major publisher, a major platform holder, and a character with genuine mainstream appeal. The reality, as Rubin tells it, was rather different.
As reported by Eurogamer, the Naughty Dog team was relocated to Universal Studios as part of the publishing arrangement, placed in hallways on what Rubin calls the ’30-some-odd floor’ of the building. When development hours stretched into the early morning (as they routinely did) the conditions became genuinely dangerous. ‘They would turn the AC off at 6pm,’ Rubin explains. ‘Crash Bandicoot working hours ended at 4am. So by 4am on a summer’s day on the 34th floor it was over 100 degrees in the building.’
Rubin is careful to note this is not approximation: ‘I know that to be a fact because our servers would shut down at about 105 degrees.’ Universal refused to restore the air conditioning or allow the studio to bring in its own units. The solution was ice and fans, kept running to stop Crash Team Racing’s development from grinding to a halt entirely.
Naughty Dog Universal Studios Deal: Money Did Not Buy Goodwill
What makes the situation particularly hard to square is that Universal had paid handsomely for the privilege. ‘I want to point out they gave me a little over 100 million dollars in the first few weeks,’ Rubin says, ‘yet they were still doing this with us.’ His explanation for why relations deteriorated so badly is direct: ‘The reason for this was they realised they added nothing but owning the license.’
The working environment went beyond discomfort. Rubin describes an incident in which a Universal employee placed a target on the wall (one the employee stated had been shot with real bullets) and told Andy Gavin, Naughty Dog’s co-founder, that ‘your partner ought to look at this, I’m not a bad shot.’ Rubin is clear that Mark Cerny had no involvement in Universal at that point and bore no responsibility for any of this treatment.
‘There could be a movie about this,’ Rubin says. ‘It was a crazy time.’ He draws a firm distinction between leaving Universal and leaving Crash himself: ‘It was not hard to say goodbye to Universal, but it was extremely hard to say goodbye to Crash.’ The Naughty Dog Universal Studios deal had made the franchise possible, but by its end the two parties were barely on speaking terms.
The final chapter of that arrangement, Crash Team Racing, only happened because Sony intervened directly. ‘The fact that [Crash Team Racing] existed was Sony stepping up to the plate and doing the right thing for all parties,’ Rubin says, ‘and it wasn’t going to happen again.’ With the Universal licence retained, Crash Bandicoot moved on without Naughty Dog, and the studio moved on to what would eventually become the Jak and Daxter series, and later still, Uncharted and The Last of Us.
