Xbox Is "All In" If Activision Studios Want To Revive Older Titles

18.10.2023 - 05:01 / thegamer.com / Phil Spencer / Bobby Kotick

Activision Blizzard and all of the studios under it now belong to Microsoft, along with every single franchise they own. Even though Activision Blizzard is primarily concerned with Call of Duty these days, the acquisition has brought with it a whole bunch of dormant titles that fans are hoping get a new lease on life now that Xbox is essentially calling the shots. We don't know what the plans are at the moment, but Xbox head Phil Spencer has stated that the company will be "all in" if any Activision Blizzard studios want to revisit games from the past.

Speaking on the official Xbox podcast, Spencer stated that while there are very few plans actually in place right now, he wouldn't be against teams going back to older titles with their "full focus on it". That doesn't mean every single developer underneath the Xbox umbrella is itching to revisit some of their older work though, and Spencer also says that he doesn't want to force anything onto teams that may not feel passionate about working on old franchises.

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"I don't think that a team working on something that isn't their passion leads to the best result," says Spencer. "I want to make sure that when we're going back and visiting something, we do it with our complete ability. A motivated team that wants to go work on something and make a difference, not just create something for financial gain or create something for a PR announcement and not deliver."

"If teams want to go back and revisit some of the things that we have and do a full focus on it, I'm gonna be all in on that, because I think there's just an amazing trove of things we can go and touch again..."

While it might be nice for Toys for Bob to get to work on a new Spyro game, or for someone to drag out the corpse of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 + 4, it sounds like Phil Spencer doesn't want anyone to be working on something they aren't passionate about. That being said, there will undoubtedly be a few people at Activision Blizzard excited about the prospect of working with old franchises again, so we'll have to wait and see what the future holds.

However, we do know that one iconic series that could be making a return is Guitar Hero. Shortly before the Activision Blizzard acquisition finally crossed the line, CEO Bobby Kotick held a staff meeting in which he talked about the possible "re-emergence" of Guitar Hero thanks to all of the resources that would be available as part of Xbox.

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