Phil Spencer has explained how he will be handling Activision Blizzard’s extensive library of games.
While few games were being actively developed by Activision Blizzard at the time they were managed by Microsoft, their history goes back to the very beginnings of both PC and console gaming, and they have some popular games from pretty much every gaming generation.
There’s two aspects to this library; taken together, they represent a significant portion of the history of video games. However, they also represent a big part of the video game industry, which is to say, many of the most successful, best-selling games fall under Activision Blizzard King’s umbrella.
So what this means for the IP holders is they would want to make games that would tap into the nostalgia of older gamers. At the same time, however, they would also be thinking about ways to make these older games successful again, reliving their older glories, one could say.
This is why Bobby Kotick’s enthusiasm for bringing back Guitar Hero was so interesting. Nobody thinks that Bobby picked up guitar because of the game, but when he talks about using new technology like AI on the franchise, he’s thinking about how disruptive Guitar Hero was in its time, and how to do that sort of thing all over again.
And so, we go to the new boss in charge of that library, Phil Spencer. In his latest interview in the Official Xbox Podcast, Phil talked at great length about what he thought about those games. As reported by Video Games Chronicle, here’s the main gist of his message:
“The amount of franchises that we now have in our portfolio is kind of inspiring, it’s daunting. I feel that we have to be a great custodian for the content that we touch. These are memories from people on different platforms, different decades.”
As you can tell, Phil actually put serious thought on this situation that he has been placed in. He goes further:
“And I want to make sure that when we’re going back and visiting something, that 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 on the product.”
Phil has directly addressed a key concern gamers could have about all this. If Microsoft brings back Guitar Hero, they won’t just be doing it because it was one of the last things Bobby said he wanted to come back, for example. They’ll bring back old games with a real plan to make those comebacks permanent, and something to employ developers for a long time, keeping old and new fans happy with each new game.
Phil ends this with another hopeful note:
“So, I’m going to start with the teams, and what are they passionate about, and that’s why I’m excited to go on these [studio] visits and then we’ll look at it.”
So there you have it. While Xbox fans themselves are salivating at the prospect of Microsoft dropping all those classic games on Game Pass (and who wouldn’t want to jump over the Pitfall crocodile heads for $ 10 a month?), Phil is thinking long term. If he can really bring a game back from this history, he plans to really throw Microsoft’s resources at it. That’s something to look forward to more than just making a video game Netflix, to potentially make the same mistakes Netflix did.
