"" was originally in development by Traveller's Tales. After a falling-out between Universal Interactive and the two entities, Traveller's Tales was forced to alter the game from a free-roaming title to a standard "Crash" title. Traveller's Tales had to begin development of the game from scratch and were given only twelve months to complete it. The game received mixed reviews but made the Greatest Hits lineup due to strong sales. Despite the rights of Crash Bandicoot going to Vivendi Universal, Sony still retained the rights for the distribution and porting of the original Crash Bandicoot game series.