Microsoft is the "custodian" of new franchises, says Phil Spencer.
Xbox head Phil Spencer sees Microsoft as a “custodian” of Activision franchises and IP, and will wait for “motivated” teams who want to tackle new iterations.
“I think not just about Activision Blizzard King, you add in Bethesda, Xbox’s history, Rare, the amount of franchises we now have in our portfolio is kind of inspiring, it’s daunting,” Spencer said, speaking on the Official Xbox Podcast.
“I feel we have to be a great custodian for the content that we touch. These are memories from people on different platforms, different decades,” he continued.
“And I want to make sure that when we’re going back and visiting something, 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 but not deliver on the final project. So I’m going to start with the teams and [find out] what they’re passionate about.”
Spencer also seems to be in no hurry to rush out new titles from existing IP.
“I think we’ve done an OK job at Xbox, I don’t think we’ve done an A+ job of looking at our franchises and revisiting them,” he continued. “It’s always a trade-off between what do you do that’s new; 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’ – I just made up that term, it’s not a brand…
“But I do think when you look across all the franchises that are part of our teams there’s an oppurtunity for us to go back – even just to recognise 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 oppurtunity. There’s not a plan for that but there’s an oppurtunity.”
What do you hope to see from Microsoft and Activision Blizzard King in the wake of their new merger?
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