A recent update to the slypcooper.com website domain by Ghost of Tsushima developer Sucker Punch Productions has fuelled rumors of a revival of the classic platformer series.
As spotted on Reddit, the official Sly Cooper website domain was updated on March 4, which some eager fans have taken to suggest a new announcement for the series is imminent (thanks, GamesRadar).
The domain remains registered to series creator Sucker Punch, further prompting some players to believe the studio is behind a potential revival of the series.
Neither Sucker Punch nor series publisher Sony has officially revealed any plans to reboot or remaster the Sly Cooper series, but this is the first suggestion that some kind of update may be in the works behind the scenes.
Notably, the slycooper.com website is still publicly inaccessible, meaning that whatever update was performed on the website can’t be seen.
Although official channels haven’t commented on the possibility of a Sly Cooper revival, if the series were to ever receive a reboot, 2022 would be a likely year for it to happen. This September will mark the 20th anniversary of the pastiche film-noir platformer, providing a fitting moment for its return.
Debuting in 2002 with Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, the stealth platformer series went on to spawn two sequels on the PS2 and a fourth installment for the PS3 in 2013, developed by Sanzaru Games.
The original trilogy has already received one remaster - The Sly Collection, released in 2010, ported the three games to the PS3 with updated HD graphics - so who knows what another revival could entail.
Analysis: is a Sly Cooper revival likely?
As eager as fans might be to see Sucker Punch return to Sly Cooper, a single website domain update doesn’t mean a whole lot. In the absence of other, credible sources claiming a Sly Cooper reboot or remaster is in the works, it’s best to remain cautiously optimistic about this latest update.
Sony may be planning something around the series' 20th anniversary, but that could be as small as making the HD Sly Collection available on the PS4 and PS5 store (it’s currently only available on the PS3 online store) rather than a full game release.
Despite the slycooper.com website domain still being registered to Sucker Punch, it’s unlikely the developer will have much to do with a rerelease. Sucker Punch left the mascot platformer genre long ago, developing the InFamous series for PS3 and PS4, and most recently releasing the open-world epic Ghost of Tsushima. The precedent of other developers working on Sly Cooper was set years ago when Sanzaru Games took up the series.
Sly Cooper may strike many as an odd mascot to revive, but the raccoon thief was one of PlayStation’s most recognizable mascots in the early 2000s. Although he never quite reached the heights of notoriety that Crash Bandicoot or Ratchet & Clank enjoyed, Sly held a seat at the table of Sony’s primary IPs.
With most of Sony’s exclusive characters now found in games oriented to older players - Nathan Drake of Uncharted, Kratos in God of War, Aloy in Horizon Forbidden West - and with more family-friendly characters from Activision (like Crash and Spyro) that were heavily associated with Sony soon to belong to rival Microsoft, a Sly Cooper comeback could make commercial sense.
