Ratcicle King

I think with Raiden and Dante it's exactly as you said, the third parties weren't as pricey because the promise of advertising was strong. While Activision having nothing to gain outside of royalties, asked a price above the normal third party pricing, but still relatively reasonable, but Sony held on to the budget they gave the team instead of adding a bit more just for this case (And probably to save face, because if word got out, the other third party owners would probably want to raise their own price.) and basically rejected the offer. It could very well be Activision being Activision, like you said, but the more you look into the messy development of the game, the more you see how it could go both ways.

Then again, one wonders if Sony was just being a miser and they were just shifting the blame to avoid controversy. I doubt the one year exclusivity deal for the N.Sane Trilogy was any cheaper, and both would've accomplished the same thing, using Crash's popularity to lure people to a Sony console.

Those three are published by Sony tho'. They have some level of control over those IPs. @Jovahexeon Sonic Heroes That's what I was trying to say with my last post, Sony's lack of faith brings into question if the price was actually absurd, or it was actually reasonable but above what they were willing to pay.

And that does bring into question that quote where they mention Activision asked for a price too big for them. I've been wondering if the price was actually absurd or if Sony was just not willing to pay.

You're seeing this the wrong way, it's not Activision going ''I'm not letting these two go to the Sony Crossover, no, they're going to the Nintendo crossover because Nintendo offered us more.'' It's literally that right now it's a different time compared to 2013, just compare 2013 -Activision had no plans for either franchise outside of Skylanders -Sony would've probably wanted both in their classic designs, which, for Spyro, would in no way benefit Skylanders as advertisement -Activision had nothing to gain from this crossover outside of royalties, so they asked for something big Now let's compare it to 2018 -Both Crash and Spyro have a 5 year plan of both games and merchandising planned -Their classic styles have been reintroduced into pop culture -Activision, besides royalties, would get a big bump in advertising by having the two franchises they're trying to push hard appearing on a big crossover. It's not that ''Nintendo pays better'', it's that literally 5 years ago, both franchises were dead, while today they're selling like water. If there's ever a new PSASBR, you can bet you'll see Crash and/or Spyro in it, unless both franchises die again.

PSASBR suffered from the worst possible timing tbh. These crossover fighters work as advertising for the franchises that take part, and PSASBR released at a time both franchises had no game coming out so there was nothing to advertise, so there was no real push on the owners of the IPs to have the characters on the games, since outside of a certain amount of royalties money, they'd get nothing out of it.

Comparing MHA to DBS when it comes to the overall plot isn't honestly fair. MHA is a modern shonen, and if fully utilizes that to it's advantage, playing with stuff other series of the same style did in the past, either subverting, averting or twisting them into something different. While DBS is basically still functionally the same classic style of DB and DBZ, both of which basically created the tropes MHA usually plays with, playing them straight at the time because they were new, Super following the same path, while every once in a while subverting them to throw us for a loop, and while the basic storytelling is simple, the writing usually follows Toriyama's rather wild style of humor and action, meaning you know how it'll end but not always how they'll get there. Speaking as someone who enjoys both shows, it's fun to have something that plays with your expectations, but at the same time, there's nothing wrong with something a bit more classic and predictable, as long as both are enjoyable and fun.

Welp