With Crash Bandicoot and Spyro heading to Microsoft, PlayStation should revive Jak and Daxter

techradar.com:

Microsoft's agreed acquisition of Activision Blizzard for close to $70 billion is a monumental deal that’s thrown up all manner of talking points about the way we play video games, and the balance of power between the world’s biggest gaming brands.

But amid all the speculation about the future of the industry, debates over on Microsoft’s business practices, and the ongoing controversy over Activision Blizzard’s alleged exploitative working culture, the deal, if it goes through, has one particularly significant – if rather more flippant – implication for PlayStation fans: Crash Bandicoot and Spyro will be owned by Microsoft.

Once the poster boys of PlayStation, Naughty Dog’s spinning marsupial and Insomniac’s purple dragon will likely soon be owned by the creator of Xbox. It’s a stark sign of the extent to which the gaming world has been turned upside down; things simply weren’t meant to be this way. Microsoft owning the franchises isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however, and it could mean that future entries in the series are up to the caliber of 2020’s wonderful Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time. 

It does, though, throw up a pressing issue. With Crash and Spyro set to fly the PlayStation nest, it leaves a mascot-shaped void at the heart of its empire. Which long-standing character should become PlayStation’s new cheerleader? What recognizable face should Sony build its gaming brand around?

For my money, it should be none other than the long-forgotten platforming duo Jak and Daxter. And what better way to thrust them back into the limelight than with a brand-new game for the series.

Naughty Dog creations that first appeared in 2001, Jak and Daxter are PlayStation veterans of the PS2 era. They’re a odd pair: Jak is a human boy