Phil Spencer wants to bring back dormant Activision IP, plans to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation

header_0120_1920x1080.jpg

Phil Spencer recently sat down with The Washington Post for an interview following Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard a few days ago. He discussed his plans for the studios acquired under the Activision Blizzard banner, and plans to revive dormant IPs. “I was looking at the IP list, I mean, let’s go!” Spencer said. “ ‘King’s Quest,’ ‘Guitar Hero,’ … I should know this but I think they got ‘HeXen.’ ” (Activision Blizzard does own Hexen.) Some other notable IP now owned by Microsoft include Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, and Geometry Wars.

"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," Spencer said on the topic of developer Toys for Bob, who made the well-received Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time before being reassigned to work as a support studio on Call of Duty: Warzone last April. "I'm looking forward to these conversations. I really think it's about adding resources and increasing capability."

Meanwhile, Spencer has also addressed the subject of whether or not Activision Blizzard titles would continue to appear on PlayStation. "Had good calls this week with leaders at Sony," began a recent Tweet from him. "I confirmed our intent to honor all existing agreements upon acquisition of Activision Blizzard and our desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation. Sony is an important part of our industry, and we value our relationship."

:arrow: Source
 

pedro702

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2014
Messages
12,714
Trophies
2
Age
33
XP
8,668
Country
Portugal
Honestly, as long as Microsoft tries it's best to support the games it's studios will be creating for both existing and dormant IPs then I'll be happy. All I've wanted is the game studios to have the time and drive to create amazing things for us to play.
yeah i would beleive that but then i remenber Rare... they did no supporting and no guidance or if they did it was very bad since they never made anything good or with significance again has they bought them over 20 years ago.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Borgman2018

Wolfy

Person That Never Was
Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2015
Messages
1,123
Trophies
0
Age
25
Location
Somewhere In The Aether...
XP
2,976
Country
United States
yeah i would beleive that but then i remenber Rare... they did no supporting and no guidance or if they did it was very bad since they never made anything good or with significance again has they bought them over 20 years ago.

True, although the only two things I remember them doing with Rare's IPs was Banjo Nuts&Bolts that people disliked, and Rare Replay which I remember a lot of people enjoying. They still should be doing more with Rare's IPs though since they were still very much loved.
 

pedro702

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2014
Messages
12,714
Trophies
2
Age
33
XP
8,668
Country
Portugal
True, although the only two things I remember them doing with Rare's IPs was Banjo Nuts&Bolts that people disliked, and Rare Replay which I remember a lot of people enjoying. They still should be doing more with Rare's IPs though since they were still very much loved.
well rare replay is just emulated old rare stuff before being acquired by microsoft lol
 

Wolfy

Person That Never Was
Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2015
Messages
1,123
Trophies
0
Age
25
Location
Somewhere In The Aether...
XP
2,976
Country
United States
well rare replay is just emulated old rare stuff before being acquired by microsoft lol

Indeed, but as long as it runs good and can be easily run on modern consoles where everyone can enjoy without having to buy overpriced retro carts and consoles and then have to deal with a subpar image due to the limitations at the time. Nothing wrong with letting people play old games on new consoles in my eyes unless it's a horrible cash grab like some more recent products.
 

Dr_Faustus

Resident Robot Hoarder
Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2021
Messages
680
Trophies
0
Age
34
Location
The Best State on The Best Coast
XP
826
Country
United States
yeah i would beleive that but then i remenber Rare... they did no supporting and no guidance or if they did it was very bad since they never made anything good or with significance again has they bought them over 20 years ago.
They were still green at the time of buying a game studio and trying to make it work when it was not going to work that easily. Even when it tried to work for them it still was not what people wanted.

well rare replay is just emulated old rare stuff before being acquired by microsoft lol
I guess Project Bean was nothing either then? Sure it never got released but what was leaked showed promise before other entities stomped out that fire.

Bash Microsoft all you want if it makes you feel better about your preference in gaming, but at the end of the day the studios under them have a far better chance of surviving with their IP's in tact compared to say....EA?
 
  • Love
Reactions: ChibiMofo

ChibiMofo

Elon Musk is my dog
Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2019
Messages
682
Trophies
0
XP
2,802
Country
Canada
"I confirmed our intent to honor all existing agreements upon acquisition of Activision Blizzard and our desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation. Sony is an important part of our industry, and we value our relationship."

It literally means that they are going to do nothing more than the existing contracts REQUIRE them to do. The statement makes it abundantly clear that they have no intention whatsoever of doing anything on Playstation that they are not already contractually obligated to do. What we do not know is if those agreements go beyond any shipping/announced titles.

But it is great news that they are considering bringing back great games of the past. Even if Guitar Hero was always inferior to Rock Band, especially song-selection wise.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sloppycrap

lordofcombo

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2015
Messages
118
Trophies
0
Age
37
XP
657
Country
Mauritania
I'm sure Sony will try to find an answer to this blow,who knows ? Sega merger ,Capcom or even Konami,these 3 are the only ones who have something of value compared to Activision.Namco and square enix sucks too much.
This gen is gonna be very competitive between Sony/Xbox with Xbox having better hardware and software .
I'd kill to know what will fanboys of Xbox and Sony will throw at each other's this year
This E3 ,chary will have alot of work to do to cover it lol.
 

pedro702

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2014
Messages
12,714
Trophies
2
Age
33
XP
8,668
Country
Portugal
They were still green at the time of buying a game studio and trying to make it work when it was not going to work that easily. Even when it tried to work for them it still was not what people wanted.


I guess Project Bean was nothing either then? Sure it never got released but what was leaked showed promise before other entities stomped out that fire.

Bash Microsoft all you want if it makes you feel better about your preference in gaming, but at the end of the day the studios under them have a far better chance of surviving with their IP's in tact compared to say....EA?
what ip intact?

Conker- xbox made a full remake but censored the game which killed the ip and was bashed.

Banjo they turned the ip into a make you car type of game with nuts and bolts and killed the ip

Perfect dark they made a sequel that was atrociously bad on xbox360 and killed the ip(well they announced a remake of the first game this month but its been dead since early 2000s and no idea if they will remake it right or turn it generic fps style)

killer instinct they made a reboot and it wasnt bad or good, it just existed, very few people even recall the reboot.

battletoads they made a sequel which was awful and panned across the board.

So yeah not sure what ips microsoft bought and expanded on them, tell me one that was bought(not created like halo or gears) but an previously established ip and improved on them, i can wait...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Borgman2018

LordBritish

Member
Newcomer
Joined
Jan 21, 2022
Messages
5
Trophies
0
XP
5
Country
United Kingdom
what ip intact?

Conker- xbox made a full remake but censored the game which killed the ip and was bashed.

Banjo they turned the ip into a make you car type of game with nuts and bolts and killed the ip

Perfect dark they made a sequel that was atrociously bad on xbox360 and killed the ip(well they announced a remake of the first game this month but its been dead since early 2000s and no idea if they will remake it right or turn it generic fps style)

killer instinct they made a reboot and it wasnt bad or good, it just existed, very few people even recall the reboot.

battletoads they made a sequel which was awful and panned across the board.

So yeah not sure what ips microsoft bought and expanded on them, tell me one that was bought(not created like halo or gears) but an previously established ip and improved on them, i can wait...
We would have already gotten Elder Scrolls 6 if it wasn't for Microsoft rereleasing Skyrim
 

banjojohn

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2007
Messages
156
Trophies
1
XP
2,081
Country
Has the memory of it being driven into the ground passed yet? I figure we are probably 6-7 years at least away from any kind of real nostalgia for them to mine. Custom work is nowhere near the sorts of things we were seeing with dance mat games, if we can ignore rocksmith (and it is quite different when all is said and done) there are no real pretenders to the throne all that active (Rock Band is similarly nowhere, Wii music I mention to get some groans/giggles, nobody really has much on a phone/handheld either), price for controllers is still about as rock bottom as they were following the crash, ditto games (though most of that is DLC I suppose so not quite slow burn classic that we see with the Skate games).


If polish falls under the "10% of the project takes 90% of the effort" and people are willing to pay for the 90% basically beta software (if not worse) then good luck with that one, and that is before we consider the complexity of code most people seem to be going in for these days.
Rock bottom prices in controllers?
In my country they are very hard to come by these days... Especially for PS4 (Rock Band 4)
 
Joined
Mar 30, 2011
Messages
1,284
Trophies
2
Age
31
Location
Arcadia
XP
3,674
Country
Italy
All I'd want is for Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled to be ported on pc. I want to be able to play it without the need to buy a console I don't care about.



And before anyone says "emulate the switch version", yeah, I did it, unfortunately my pc doesn't run it too well, lol.
Plus I'd also like to be able to play online with others, and without having to pay to do so, mh.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 64bitmodels

TheZander

1337
Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2008
Messages
2,135
Trophies
2
Location
Level 7
XP
3,850
Country
United States
I'm always really happy to see candy crush in video game banners. im really glad that particular game has stuck around and not gone anywhere. I reallly am excited to see where they take that franchise if it is a franchise i dont know. really good, when i get the next generation of console i always make sure to have candy crush installed first thing. The detail of the candy on the PS5 on an 8k TV is astounding.
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
    K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2: Those IHOP chips are actually pretty damn good