How Naughty Dog Created Crash Bandicoot to Fill a Gap in 3D Gaming

Making Crash Bandicoot (2011)

In the summer of 1994, my partner Jason Rubin and I decided to expand Naughty Dog beyond our two-person team. After selling Way of the Warrior to Universal Studios, we drove to Los Angeles and conceived a 3D character action game to fill a market void left by Mario and Sonic. We chose the Sony PlayStation over the Sega Saturn and 3DO, betting on a new platform to launch our 'Sonic's Ass' concept, which would eventually become Crash Bandicoot.

"The odds of succeeding were next to nil. Remember, we were two 24 year olds whose biggest title to date had not reached 100,000 units sold! But if there was something we never lacked it was confidence."