To be honest we're seeing this with a lot of Activision's old franchises. They seem to know what they're doing better than any other studio on this front.
If you've fucked up your franchise, it's okay to take a few steps backwards and ask for a do-over. Consumers will forgive you because all they want are good games.
Though we can't confirm it yet, Crash 4 looks great. Crash Team Racing Nitro Fuelled is great. THPS1+2 is a fantastic remake, and I expect we have games like Spyro 4 on the horizon soon.
More developers should take note. If you can't figure out what you're doing with your IP anymore, perhaps go back to when it was great, and then you can try and iterate from there. From a good foundation you can move the franchise forward to something new and appealing.
I think there's often a misconception with these older titles that it was just nostalghia, and that they weren't truly good games, but I think games like THPS prove that that just isn't true. If anything, those older titles, driven to entertain above all else, are much more enjoyable than many modern games that seem driven to get as much time (and money) out of consumers as possible.
