Bubsy in: the Purrfect Collection was produced by self-proclaimed "Bubsy World Heavyweight Champion" Audi Sorlie (who also worked on another tribute to maligned 1990s platformers, Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore). Sorlie claims that, growing up shy and quiet, he gravitated towards Bubsy for being "outgoing, extroverted, [and] exciting". He had previously done a documentary video on the Bubsy franchise for the Digital Foundry YouTube channel, the overwhelmingly positive response of which he claimed was a major factor in preventing him from committing suicide. Sorlie and Atari, the current license holders of Bubsy, wanted the compilation to be "sincere, fun, and personal", as opposed to the self-deprecation that had defined the Bubsy franchise during its previous ownership by Tommo Inc., stating:

On June 9, 2022, a fan animation was uploaded to YouTube by FlippinDingDong, depicting a tape recording of a fictional 1990s Saturday morning cartoon series based on the Gex franchise, framed as airing on the now-defunct TV channel Toon Disney. The video reuses Gex's one-liners and music from the original games. The animation went viral and FlippinDingDong would later be commissioned by Square Enix to animate the reveal trailer for Gex Trilogy. The trailer appears to play off of speculation that was spreading at the time about a GoldenEye 007 re-release, bait-and-switching the viewer into believing it would be a James Bond game before revealing Gex, who also has a spy theme, though the trailer would release after a GoldenEye 007 re-release was confirmed.

Later, a trailer would be released for Bubsy in: the Purrfect Collection that was also animated by FlippinDingDong. This trailer reused assets from the first trailer, including music and sound effects from the Gex games, as a double bait-and-switch, owing to Bubsy and Gex commonly being associated with one another on the internet (despite Bubsy games not having James Bond-inspired imagery).