24-08-2010
Food for thought

Artists and animators: scroll down to the bottom of the page. Crash fans: read on.

Okay, so we're all very excited about the videos and concept art of the unreleased Radical Entertainment game. So much so that many fans have decided to contact the artists who released these materials in order to learn more. Sounds cool, right? Well, let's think about it for a moment.

We're talking about a number of people who were essentially fired before their work was finalized. As a consequence, that work has mostly gone to waste, but they can still use it in their portfolios to help them find a new job, as well as to demonstrate what they're capable of. This also means that they have to leave some kind of contact so that people who are hiring may reach them. The problem here is that it was never predicted that people would find out as much as they have about this game, which has been leading hundreds of fans to contact these artists. Now, put yourself in their shoes. Imagine that you're looking for a job and you put your contact online, but then you get swarmed every day by hundreds of e-mails and phone calls about something else entirely. It doesn't sound very pleasant, does it?

Furthermore, these artists cannot answer any of our questions. It's simple, really: all artists have to sign an NDA (short for Non-Disclosure Agreement), which prevents them from talking about whatever they're developing until the holder of the license decides it's time to reveal it. Since this game was never released, the NDA for it is still active (at least until Activision decides to discard it), so they can't tell us anything about it. In fact, we're not even supposed to know all this stuff is related to an unreleased game. This is probably why many references to Crash (including the titular character himself) are censored in some of the concept art. Besides, if the artists could talk about the game, they would have done so from the beginning. They wouldn't need to be asked about it.

I understand that many people are just dying to know more about the game, and that this is all done innocently, but you have to consider these things before you decide to act. Some fans have already realized their mistakes and began removing videos or censoring out the contact information to avoid any more damage. Whatever you do, please refrain from contacting the artists, Radical Entertainment or Activision about this matter again. When and if we're meant to know something, we will, and it'll happen with or without the fandom's involvement. Don't worry about it.

To the owners of the much discussed material: This website would very much benefit from the videos and concept art that have been released, but nothing will be added without your agreement. If you'd like this website to share some of the released material with the rest of the world (under your optional annonimousity), please consider dropping a word so that all the necessary requisites can be estabilished. Thank you for the attention and good luck!