One of the very best things to come from Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision is the speculation of what might happen to all the IPs that are set to find themselves in new hands. Will Crash and Spyro become Xbox exclusives, purely for that jab at the 90s PlayStation kids? No, probably not. And what about all those different game series that have just gone unused for years on end - could they be making a comeback? Actually, yeah, it’s looking like they will. Result!
Speaking to The Washington Post, Xbox CEO Phil Spencer has expressed a lot of interest in bringing back some of Activision’s more ‘classic’ franchises, that will no doubt be childhood favourites for many: “I was looking at the IP list, I mean, let’s go!” he said. “King’s Quest, Guitar Hero, I should know this but I think they got HeXen.”
While you're here, check out this guy completing one of Guitar Hero's most iconic difficult songs at 165% speed - I'm not going to be challenging him on this one.
Spencer confirmed that the Xbox team plan on talking to developers about working on a number of different IPs from within Activision’s bountiful bank of goodies: “We’re hoping that we’ll be able to work with them when the deal closes to make sure we have resources to work on franchises that I love from my childhood, and that the teams really want to get,” he said. “I’m looking forward to these conversations. I really think it’s about adding resources and increasing capability.”
I’m sure that this can only be exciting news for everyone - I mean, who doesn’t have some kind of nostalgic memories surrounding Guitar Hero? Admittedly, while a lot of people might fondly think back on the fun times had with friends, I bet even more will remember the nightmare of attempting to wrestle all those gigantic guitar peripherals into some kind of storage. Seriously, even one guitar was enough for anyone.
Speaking of which, it makes you wonder if they would bring back the huge controllers if the series was revived. While it’d make a pretty cool throwback, I think I can speak for the majority of us when I say that we had our fill of them by about 2010. It’ll be interesting to see what happens, anyway - roll on ‘Through the Fire and Flames’.
Featured Image Credit: Cassidy James Blaede via Unsplash, RedOctane/ActivisionTopics: Activision, Microsoft, Xbox