Phil Spencer Wants to Revisit Old Activision Blizzard Games “With the Respect They Deserve”

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For gamers, one of the most alluring possibilities created by Microsoft's finally-completed acquisition of Activision Blizzard is the prospect of games like Call of Duty, Diablo, and Overwatch on Game Pass. Microsoft's subscription service is already a hell of a deal, and adding annualized iterations of Call of Duty plus everything Blizzard does makes it even more attractive. And it will no doubt happen eventually, but not anytime soon: Activision said last week that its games won't arrive on Game Pass until 2024 at the earliest, and in a recent interview with the Official Xbox Podcast, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said that timeline is «accurate.»

«The amount of franchises that we now have in our portfolio is kind of inspiring; it's daunting.»

Microsoft made several headlines when they unveiled their interest in bringing on another acquisition. After Zenimax Media, Microsoft went after a massive name with Activision Blizzard. The purchase brought in over $68 billion, and it was an uphill battle for Microsoft. They had to go through a series of regulators to ensure that this deal wouldn’t hurt competition. Of course, the significant component that hit the headlines was the fact that Microsoft would own Call of Duty. That made many players worried about a scenario in which Call of Duty would no longer be available on the PlayStation line of consoles. The folks over at Xbox continued to ensure this wouldn’t be the case. 

Mobile is bigger than console and PC, and Spencer discusses what Microsoft needs to do to find success there.

Microsoft finally managed to close its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard last Friday, following a saga that started in mid-January 2022 and went through film-worthy twists and turns.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer wants to see the classic Hexen series return, and one developer took the opportunity to say they’re “very well suited” to make it happen. 

Whether you think Microsoft's recent acquisition of Activision Blizzard is a move toward a dry gaming monopoly or a financial windfall for Activision and Blizzard games both, it's definitely happened. The UK's CMA has given the thumbs up, Kotick's on his way out—the deal's closed, and now we get to see the impact ripples spread.

There’s been plenty of excitement over Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard. We’ve been watching the back and forth on this purchase for what felt like ages. Microsoft had to appease the different regulators to ensure they could proceed with this purchase. However, it wasn’t until recently that the company received the last approval required to go forward. The CMA gave the thumbs up, and now Activision Blizzard’s merger deal is finalized, and the massive names in the video game industry are now under the control of Microsoft. With that said, there were plenty of rumors and speculation that we would start seeing some games like the Call of Duty franchise on Xbox Game Pass. That’s not going to be the case for a little while.

Phil Spencer has explained how he will be handling Activision Blizzard’s extensive library of games.

Phil Spencer really, really wants someone within Xbox Game Studios to make a new Hexen game. First, he wore that Hexen T-shirt at the Xbox Games Showcase earlier this year. And now, he's name-dropping Hexen repeatedly as a franchise he wants someone within Xbox to revisit somehow. But, Spencer notes, only if the team doing so is genuinely passionate about it — or whatever other older franchise they're plucking from Xbox's catalog to refresh.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has said he'd be "all in" when it comes to revisiting the company's "trove" of IP.