Hasbro has expressed an interest in bringing back the Activision Transformers games. However, there’s a snag, and it’s not really one you would expect.
In Hasbro’s SDCC 2023 panel, they were asked about this, and this is the answer that Hasbro provided:
“Sadly, apparently Activision’s not sure what hard drives they’re on in their building. When a company eats a company that eats a company things get lost, and that’s very frustrating.
Hope is that now that the deal is moving forward with Microsoft and Xbox that they’ll go through all of the archives and every hard drive to find it all, because it’s an easy Game Pass add. We want those games back up for people to have a chance to play.”
Now, the reason this came up at all was because one of the product lines that Hasbro is talking about in the panel is called Transformers Studio Series Game Edition.
So, this line is about making Transformers toys based on their appearance on the various video games. Thus far, they have been making toys based on their appearance on Transformers: War for Cybertron.
Released in 2010, Transformers: War for Cybertron was co-produced by Hasbro, Activision, and game studio High Moon Studios. This game explored the origins of the Transformers themselves, in particular the civil war the Autobots and Decepticons waged in their home planet.
It is generally accepted that the Transformers: War for Cybertron games, alongside PlatinumGames Transformers: Devastation, are the best video games in the franchise. Eight years after, Hasbro produced a new project with animation studio Rooster Teeth and Netflix called Transformers: War For Cybertron Trilogy. The general premise of the Netflix series and video game series is similar, but they do have completely different stories.
As for why Hasbro was even asked, well, they are actually making more toys based on the video games, and specifically games based on the 2010 Transformers: War For Cybertron.
Now, interestingly enough, as revealed by TransformersWorld in their coverage of this panel, Hasbro explained they own the rights to all of the video games. Hasbro’s reps spoke about making a new Devastator based on his appearance in Transformers: Devastation, or recreating the 5th generation console look of the Transformers Beast Wars video games. They have even considered the possibility of making a new sprite graphics Ultra Magnus toy based on his appearance in the notorious Famicom bomb Transformers: Mystery of Convoy.
The only possible snag is when it comes to the video games that are based on the Transformers movies. For those games, Hasbro and Activision have to discuss copyrights with the car manufacturers and Paramount, but everything else – including cartoons like Transformers Prime – are all owned by Hasbro.
It’s a shame that Activision can’t just rerelease the games right now, but it is good news that Hasbro turned out to have all the rights to it after all. That means the game won’t get lost in copyright hell and stand to never be rereleased, like the notorious No One Lives Forever.
With a mindset towards video game preservation, ideally Hasbro, Activision, and Microsoft would rerelease all the Transformers video games that they have, including the forgotten or unpopular ones, based on the movies, for example. For now, we can only hope that Activision finds their masters for a proper port to newer systems.
