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Phil Spencer Expresses Passion-first Approach For Teams Returning To Legacy IPs At Xbox Game Studios

Over the past weekend, Microsoft officially welcomed the addition of Activision Blizzard King. More than a year – close to 20 months since the initial announcement for the acquisition – the $70 billion deal went through opening Call of Duty, Overwatch, and Candy Crush to the Xbox firm. In extension to the purchase closing, Microsoft also shared in a press release that CEO Bobby Kotick is to leave come 2024 as per an agreement with Phil Spencer.

In terms of the possibilities that could follow the Xbox deal for Activision Blizzard King, reports are already hinting at the first IP to make a return. In that, Guitar Hero is suggested to be facing some form of revival in the coming future. Previously, Spencer expressed his excitement for the deal being passed with the portfolio of franchises that Activision currently backs and those in the vault too.

Regarding how Spencer views team exploring these projects, in the most recent Xbox Podcast episode, he explains that the first aspect to consider is the team’s passion to pursue these games rather than acknowledging how much money it makes.

The first thing, as I kind of mentioned before, is to go spend time with the teams. Because I just don’t think that a team working on something that isn’t their passion leads to the best result. So I might have my list of things from my memories in history that I want to see made again. Everybody will. When I just think about- not just not just about Activision Blizzard King. You add in Bethesda. you add in Xbox’s history, Rare- like, 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. 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.

“So I’m going to start with the teams, and what are they passionate about. That’s why I’m excited to go on these visits. and then we’ll look at it. I think we’ve done an ok job as Xbox I don’t think we’ve done an A+ job on looking at our franchises and revisiting them. It’s always a trade-off between what do you do that’s new, and going back and doing something. I do think with Game Pass, we have the ability to maybe pick a couple franchises every year and almost do a revisited,” Spencer further explains.

“But I do think when you look across all of the franchises that are part of our teams, there’s an opportunity for us to go back, even if it’s just to recognize the moment and what those things meant in gaming’s history, and do something right with it. Make it available to people through Game Pass. I think there’s an opportunity. There’s not a plan for that, but there’s an opportunity.

“If people want to- if teams want to go back and revisit some of the things that we have and do a full focus on it, I’m going to be all in on that. Because I think there’s just an amazing trove of things that we can go and touch again. It doesn’t just have to be about Activision and Blizzard. Like I said, when you look across all the portfolio.”

What are your thoughts on Spencer’s statement?

[Timestamp 16:02]
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