Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex is a platform game published by Universal Interactive Studios and developed by Traveller’s Tales for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Nintendo GameCube video game consoles. The PlayStation 2 version was released in North America on October 29, 2001 and in Europe on November 23, 2001. The Xbox version was released in North America on April 15, 2002 and in Europe on April 26, 2002. The GameCube version was released in North America on September 17, 2002 and in Europe on November 1, 2002. It was also one of the launch titles for the Xbox Originals service on December 4, 2007. Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex is the sixth installment in the Crash video game series. It is the first platform game in the series not to be developed by Naughty Dog and is the first in the series to be released outside the PlayStation consoles. The game's story centers on the appearance of a new superweapon by the main antagonist of the series, Doctor Neo Cortex, along with a group of destructive masks known as the Elementals. The main protagonist of the series, Crash Bandicoot, must travel the world and gather special Crystals that will return the Elementals to a hibernational state and defeat Cortex's new superweapon, a genetically-advanced bandicoot named Crunch Bandicoot.