Spyro

Spyro the Dragon is a purple dragon platformer franchise created by Insomniac Games and originally published by Sony Computer Entertainment, launching on PlayStation in September 1998 and running across multiple development studios and publishers through the decades since. The original trilogy defined Spyro as one of the PlayStation era’s defining mascots before the franchise passed through several studios and a commercial decline. Toys for Bob revived the character with the Spyro Reignited Trilogy in 2018 and announced the first original Spyro game in nearly two decades, Spyro: A Realm Beyond, at the Xbox Games Showcase on June 7, 2026, with a Spring 2027 release date.

The Insomniac Trilogy (1998 to 2000)

Insomniac Games developed the original three Spyro games for Sony Computer Entertainment, releasing them as PlayStation exclusives across three consecutive years. Spyro the Dragon launched September 9, 1998, designed by Charles Zembillas and Craig Stitt under the studio leadership of Ted Price. The game followed a young purple dragon exploring interconnected worlds across a series of realms, rescuing crystallized elder dragons and defeating the villain Gnasty Gnorc. The visuals demonstrated what the PlayStation hardware could achieve, and the game’s soundtrack by Stewart Copeland, the drummer of The Police, became one of the more recognizable scores of the era. Carlos Alazraqui voiced Spyro across all three original games.

Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage released November 2, 1999, adding non-player characters, sidequests, and a more structured world design that expanded the original’s formula. Spyro: Year of the Dragon on October 10, 2000, introduced additional playable characters including Sheila the Kangaroo, Sergeant Byrd, Bentley the Yeti, and Agent 9 alongside Spyro’s core gameplay. Year of the Dragon concluded Insomniac’s involvement with the franchise, as Sony moved the character to other developers while Insomniac turned their attention to Ratchet and Clank.

The Post-Insomniac Era

Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly in 2002, developed by Equinoxe and Check Six and published by Universal Interactive, was the franchise’s first entry without Insomniac’s involvement and received significantly weaker reviews due to technical problems and incomplete content. Spyro: A Hero’s Tail from Eurocom in 2004 fared better critically while not recovering the original games’ commercial momentum. Multiple Game Boy Advance titles extended the franchise in parallel across the mid-2000s.

Sierra Entertainment and Activision rebooted the franchise entirely with The Legend of Spyro trilogy beginning in 2006, replacing the original continuity and tone with a darker, more action-oriented take. The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning in 2006 cast Elijah Wood as Spyro, with Gary Oldman voicing the villain Cynder’s controller. The series concluded with The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon in 2008, developed by Étranges Libellules, marking the end of original Spyro console games for a decade.

Skylanders and Toys for Bob

Activision launched Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure in 2011 with Toys for Bob as developer, a toys-to-life game series in which players placed physical figures on a Portal of Power to bring characters into the game. Spyro appeared as one of the starter characters but the franchise functioned as its own universe rather than a continuation of the classic games, with a different, younger version of the character rather than the Spyro players knew from the PlayStation era. The Skylanders series ran to six mainline entries through 2016 before declining commercial performance ended it.

Spyro Reignited Trilogy (2018)

The Spyro Reignited Trilogy, developed by Toys for Bob and published by Activision, released September 21, 2018, for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with PC and Nintendo Switch versions following in 2019. The collection rebuilt all three original Insomniac games from the ground up in a new engine while preserving their original level design, collectible placement, and structure, introducing a new visual style and replacing Carlos Alazraqui with Tom Kenny as Spyro’s voice. The Reignited Trilogy sold over ten million copies and confirmed the commercial appetite for the original character’s return after the Legend of Spyro reboot’s different direction. Toys for Bob collaborated with original Insomniac developers during production to ensure the character’s core qualities survived the visual rebuild.

Spyro: A Realm Beyond (2027)

Spyro: A Realm Beyond was revealed at the Xbox Games Showcase on June 7, 2026, developed by Toys for Bob, now operating as an independent studio following their departure from Activision, in partnership with Microsoft and Activision for publishing. The game releases in Spring 2027 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Nintendo Switch 2, and Windows PC, with Game Pass inclusion on Xbox platforms. Tom Kenny returns as Spyro’s voice. The central new feature is true dragon flight, full open flight capability rather than the limited glide mechanics of previous games, which Toys for Bob associate creative director Lou Studdert described as something fans had been asking for since the original trilogy. Studio head Paul Yan cited the Reignited Trilogy’s community engagement as the direct source for understanding what the franchise needed to evolve. The villain faction is called the Scavs, threatening a new realm Spyro has been stranded in.