Now That Microsoft Owns Activision Blizzard, Fans Are Setting Out Their Resurrected Games Wishlist

By | October 13, 2023
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In case you did not know, Microsoft now owns Activision Blizzard after announcing the plans over a year ago. With the merger now complete, Xbox owns some of the biggest gaming franchises, including Call of Duty, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft.

The 13 Biggest Franchises Microsoft Will Own After the Xbox and Activision Deal

While it is easy to craft a wishlist of games you wish would be produced because of this new merger, such as a Halo game made by Infinity Ward, a Crash Bandicoot racing game by Playground Games, or even a new Call of Duty game from 343 Industries. Yet, many users on the social media platform X wish and remain hopeful that Xbox will leverage these new IPs to revive some classic, forgotten gems in Activision’s IP vault.

The biggest one is Guitar Hero, the music rhythm game that uses plastic guitars to play rock music. The irony of this comes a few days after a report was published that revealed Activision CEO Bobby Kotick brought in James Corden during a company meeting earlier this week and teased the revival of the dormant franchise.

After the acquisition was announced in early 2022, Xbox head Phil Spencer said he was eager to visit abandoned Activision franchises, with Guitar Hero being one such property name-dropped during an interview with The Washington Post.

And some are even pointing out to stop at Guitar Hero and bring back the series’ spinoff game DJ Hero, too.

Fans of the 90s shooter Hexen are pouring out support, trying to manifest the return of the franchise. Fans were hopeful when Phil Spencer wore a Hexen shirt during the Xbox showcase in June. Only for the head honcho of Microsoft’s gaming arm to reveal that the t-shirt was not hinting at the return of the series but rather a nod to how much he loved the series. But there could be a possibility with Xbox now owning both the game’s developer (Raven Software) and the publisher (Id Software).

And you have people that really want Xbox to revive Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. Unlike the previous games mentioned in this article, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater most recently had a remake of the first two installments released for modern consoles.

Unfortunately, the developer, Vicarious Visions (who also developed the Crash N. Sane Trilogy), was merged and reassigned as a support studio. Of course, Xbox will have leverage to add the previous entries onto its subscription service, Xbox Game Pass.

One post I enjoyed came from Ted Timmins, the Senior Creative Director at Raven Software, who posted about his excitement for the merger and also asked users how they felt about a sequel to the 2005 business simulation game The Movies, which was published by Activision and developed by the defunct Fable developer Lionhead Studios.

What is interesting to point out is that Timmins used to work at Lionhead.

Of course, this is a small sample size of all the games Xbox could theoretically revive from Activision Blizzard’s portfolio. The sky is the limit, but we must wait and see. Until then, if you want to catch up on the history of this historic merger, check out our timeline. Or see how the industry reacted to the news.

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

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