An interview with Jason Rubin (Co-founder of Naughty Dog)

Keiji Dragon · Jun 17, 2008

Did you ever thought how cool the old PS1 Crash games were? Many fans consider the ND games to be some of the best PSX , so a few fans at Crash Mania managed to come in contact with Mr. Rubin and asked him a few things about how it was like working on the ND Crash series, their relationship with SCEA at the time, etc.
http://hpzr.proboards61.com/index.cgi?board=games&action=display&thread=4214

I found this to be one of the more interesting parts of the interview:

- Why exactly was Crash's girlfriend, Tawna (That female bandicoot that you had to save in Crash 1), removed from the games? There have been many rumours floating around for a long time, but most fans are still searching for a definite answer.

The truth is as follows: the marketing director of Universal Interactive Studios was a very small minded woman. She saw the designs of Tawna, hot of the press, and insisted that the character would never get into the game as drawn. The original designs, which I think can still be found on the Naughty Dog website were reminiscent of Jessica Rabbit from the Roger Rabbit moviesâ€¦ SEXY. The marketing director was not impressed. She called me into the office and yelled at me that women were not to be objectified in such manors, and that no real woman would EVER wear such clothing. We had drawn Tawnaâ€™s clothing based on another employees outfit that day. When the woman wearing Tawnaâ€™s outfit in real life walked by the office door, the marketing director lost it. We were both forced to listen to half an hourâ€™s ranting about womenâ€™s issues that culminated with a tirade about some womenâ€™s shoe commercial that featured women playing basketball in high heels. She also insisted that as of that date â€œno video game would ever be successful because of a sexy woman ever again.â€ None of this was relevant, of course. What was relevant was that the marketing director got the president of Universal Interactive so nervous that he asked us to change Tawna to her specifications. Thus the final Tawna that made it in the game was heavily toned down and forced to wear the kind of clothing that a woman might on safari in the late 1800â€™s. We had a lot of arguments with the marketing director, including her insistence that Crash be named â€œWezâ€, â€œWuzzlesâ€, or (my favorite) â€œWizzy, the Wombatâ€. We won 99% of them. Somehow she prevailed on Tawna. The end result was such a disaster that we yanked her from the sequels.BTW: Lara Croft (Tomb Raider) launched shortly thereafter and took the video game world by storm and the marketing director left games forever. Now you have the whole story.
Click to expand...

:lol: GOLD. ABSOLUTELY GOLD. :yatta:

Enjoy!

PhreQuencYViii · Jun 18, 2008

LMAO! Awesome, Jason Rubin is awesome.

I always wondered why she dissapeared from the later games...and booyah to Tomb Raider!

Keiji Dragon · Jun 18, 2008

If there's one thing I've finally learned more about marketing, is that it consists of people who are born in Hell with no chromosomes, just DNA of pure soul-sucking evil.

An interview with Jason Rubin (Co-founder of Naughty Dog)

Keiji Dragon Enthusiastic Member

PhreQuencYViii Champion of the Forum

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An interview with Jason Rubin (Co-founder of Naughty Dog)

Keiji Dragon Enthusiastic Member

PhreQuencYViii Champion of the Forum

Keiji Dragon Enthusiastic Member

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