Current Events > Phil Spencer is stoked about their IPs of older games, namedrops HeXen

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/01/20/xbox-activision-blizzard-phil-spencer/

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/0/9/AABfkMAAC1Dp.jpg

Please do something with guitar hero that doesn't make it suck.

Also Toys For Bob and other devs - which was consolidated into working on the CoD games - may work with MS to work on other/older Activision IPs again

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/1/1/AABfkMAAC1Dr.jpg

Oh fuck yeah Hexen was awesome

Honestly even if this is just PR speak, it sure is encouraging to feel like somebody is enthusiastic about making games. Activision-Blizzard has felt like a study in bottom-line lethargy. Where they stopped having fun and started focusing only on user engagement metrics and monetization... nobody in the company even seems to like making games lol

All the enthusiastic talent left a while back. Let's see if we can revitalize the studios and make things fun again. That would be a dream come true.

Screw Hexen, bring back King's Quest

Not only do they have Hexen, they have the company that made it, Raven Software.

This was kind of the silver lining of all this bullshit for me

its clear activision didnt have any interest in any series they couldnt make a billion dollar cash cow

i think Xbox is def more interested in a well-rounded portfolio for gamepass

Mecha Sonic posted...

Screw Hexen, bring back King's Quest

This.

Though there's absolutely no way that anything that respects the spirit of King's Quest would sell well now-a-days.

Hexen does kick ass

idk if i'm up for spending money on DLC for 2 music games, lol

Wait a min...

Does that means that Tony Hawk is now a Xbox game?

Ohh shit....

Phil Spencer sounds like a majestic nerd in that quote. God bless him.

I want a remaster of Heretic II. That game was actually pretty cool

Mecha Sonic posted...

Screw Hexen, bring back King's Quest

They did bring back King's quest though.

Toys 4 Bob remake of Banjo Kazooie please

Phil Spencer needs to approve a Crash Bandicoot Series S bundle with his face plastered all over it just to twist the knife in heh.

Activision were really buckling under that COD development cycle and wouldn't budge so it will be interesting to see if things change under Microsoft and if the developers themselves have some ideas on how to handle it better.

Hexen was a really cool game.

Phil Spencer being an actual gamer does actually make a big difference with Microsoft's image lately, not gonna lie

Crash was never an official Sony mascot.

ViewtifulGrave posted...

Crash was never an official Sony mascot.

Neither was Spyro. They were exclusive to PSOne and were mascots, which in the 90s era of "Sonic Clones" generally meant console mascots, but I never really thought of either as true PSOne mascots.

I could REALLY go for a new Descent game though

Punished_Blinx posted...

Phil Spencer needs to approve a Crash Bandicoot Series S bundle with his face plastered all over it just to twist the knife in heh.

Why would I want Phil's face on my xbox?

ViewtifulGrave posted...

Crash was never an official Sony mascot.

Marketing wise he was heh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTi5EaocGaY

But yeah Sony never owned him.

Jabodie posted...

Why would I want Phil's face on my xbox?

To match the Todd Howard one
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/6/4/AACT2jAAC1Eg.jpg

DarkRoast posted...

I could REALLY go for a new Descent game though

YES!

DarkRoast posted...

I could REALLY go for a new Descent game though

They were making a new one, but....

https://www.pcgamer.com/descent-reboot-devs-provide-update-on-legal-dispute-say-it-may-be-renamed-ships-that-fight-underground/

Raven Software must be pretty stoked about possibly leaving the Call of Duty mines

Gobstoppers12 posted...

Honestly even if this is just PR speak, it sure is encouraging to feel like somebody is enthusiastic about making games.

That's the thing, I don't think it is PR speak. When the Xbox first came about, they really seemed to actually wanna do this right and I think they still have that passion.

This is good to hear.

I have no interest in games Activison makes right now (outside of crash and tony hawk) but if this Microsoft acquisition can breathe life into some older forgotten IPs this would be really good for the industry.

KFHEWUI posted...

Not only do they have Hexen, they have the company that made it, Raven Software.

And the company that published it, Id Software

SuperShake666 posted...

Phil Spencer sounds like a majestic nerd in that quote. God bless him.

Well yeah, instead of leaving GameStop with a handful of swag from the bargain bin its coming home from the board meeting with a handful of IPs.

KFHEWUI posted...

They were making a new one, but....

https://www.pcgamer.com/descent-reboot-devs-provide-update-on-legal-dispute-say-it-may-be-renamed-ships-that-fight-underground/

I vaguely was aware of it, but it sounded like it was Dev Hell'd and that looks to be the case

Gwynevere posted...

And the company that published it, Id Software

This was Phil's plan all along. He bought Bethesda and Activision solely so he could get a new HeXen.

The quality of these developers aren't going to get much better. MS's goal is to be the Netflix of gaming and to fill their subscription service with as much crap as possible. Quality doesn't matter when not you're not competing for sales. Then they'll use these IPs to justify jacking up the price.

TendoDRM posted...

This was Phil's plan all along. He bought Bethesda and Activision solely so he could get a new HeXen.

The M Night Shyamalan twist

Screw Hexen, he can make Heretic 2 playable again for the first time in 20+ years

I wonder if they can do anything with all of that old licensed stuff. Presumably Spider-man is locked out unfortunately.

Punished_Blinx posted...

I wonder if they can do anything with all of that old licensed stuff. Presumably Spider-man is locked out unfortunately.

They can probably only re-release, though getting remaster approved might be possible.

Also, with Raven comes both Xmen Legends games and the first Ultimate Alliance

Son of a bitch, this is gonna make me buy an Xbox, isn't it?

TMOG posted...

Son of a bitch, this is gonna make me buy an Xbox, isn't it?

Get a gaming PC. There hasn't been a single Xbox game since mid 360 Era worth playing that you couldn't get on pc.

Once, I would have been excited over a new Hexen.

But I've been burned too many times over old favourites being 'reimagined'.

Horrorbooksguy posted...

They can probably only re-release, though getting remaster approved might be possible.

Also, with Raven comes both Xmen Legends games and the first Ultimate Alliance

I was gonna say.. more X-Men Legends please.

It would be awesome if they turned Pitfall into the new Uncharted

At the very least an X-Men game from Raven makes a shitload of sense. X-Men from Xbox writes itself.

Can the internet collectively will Phil Spencer into buying hi-res studios so that we can get a true and proper Tribes sequel?

s0nicfan posted...

Can the internet collectively will Phil Spencer into buying hi-res studios so that we can get a true and proper Tribes sequel?

God now that's a franchise that needs some love. Tribes: Ascend was pretty fun, but balancing issues and the F2P model kinda killed it over time.

s0nicfan posted...

Can the internet collectively will Phil Spencer into buying hi-res studios so that we can get a true and proper Tribes sequel?

Hirez is owned by tencent so Microsoft would have to buy tencent.

A new Guitar Hero could absolutely kill. Would have been awesome during the first part of the pandemic too.

Activision lost the rights to make Marvel games a few years ago. It's why games like Deadpool and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1&2 were delisted from all digital stores. So don't expect to see those games magically show up again, Activision has nothing to do with marvel anymore.

Set Raven, Neversoft, Toys for Bob, and Vicarious Visions free. Although, I think Neversoft might've been dissolved, unfortunately. These studios are great but got screwed over hard by Activision.

Raikuro posted...

Activision lost the rights to make Marvel games a few years ago. It's why games like Deadpool and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1&2 were delisted from all digital stores. So don't expect to see those games magically show up again, Activision has nothing to do with marvel anymore.

I get that. But Microsoft has more of incentive to renew those agreements than Activision ever did. With the BC program they probably wouldn't even need to port it.

Nintendo probably has Ultimate Alliance and Sony probably has Spider-man, Iron Man and Wolverine locked down so that's probably a roadblock though.

Punished_Blinx posted...

Nintendo probably has Ultimate Alliance and Sony probably has Spider-man, Iron Man and Wolverine locked down so that's probably a roadblock though.

Ultimate Alliance probably won't be as much of a roadblock. Nintendo and Microsoft are pretty friendly with each other, so Nintendo definitely won't want to stand in their way if they're able to renew the agreements with Marvel/Disney.