Microsoft acquisition may bring back old Activision Blizzard games Spencer: I support it

The acquisition by Microsoft and Activision Blizzard has finally come to an end, but its impact on the gaming industry has only just begun. In a recent interview on the official Xbox channel, Xbox head Phil Spencer confirmed that the acquisition is indeed good news for fans of Activision Blizzard's previous games.

"I do think that with GamePass we have the ability to pick a few IPs each year and have it almost like a 'revisit' version... There's really a lot of opportunity to look back when you see all the massive IP that we have on the team," Spencer said.

The merger of two of the largest gaming companies with Microsoft will indeed be "fertile ground" for the development of remakes. However, Spencer insists that Xbox has no intention of "grabbing money" through simple remakes: "I want to make sure that when we look back at some of the things in the past, we do it to the best of our ability... rather than just creating something for financial gain (or PR) without actually making a good product."

But at the end of the day, while he has his own wish list, Spencer said that renovating old games has to be something that developers are interested in first. He said that's important: "If the team wants to go back and revisit some of the things we have and focus entirely on them, I'm all for it. I think there's a ton of amazing games that we can get our hands on again."

"One that comes to mind is that idSoftware just put out Quake 2: Remastered, and I think it's awesome. They did a really good job of revisiting the game and making it relevant to the current era, but at the same time not forgetting its history. I'd love to see more stuff like this."

But these are plans for the future. Spencer said that we may not see Activision Blizzard games at XGP this year in 2023: "The truth is, the regulatory process of acquiring Activision Blizzard King took a long time...We were unable to obtain Activision Blizzard content and collaborate on the previous game catalog. Now that the deal is completed, we have started the work, but there is still a lot to do."