Microsoft’s head of gaming Phil Spencer said that the company will be careful in approaching Activision Blizzard’s vast back catalogue of games.

After the massive acquisition from Microsoft, about US$69 billion which is anything but a small sum, the company will be respectful when approaching classic franchises Call of Duty, WarCraft, Diablo, Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Overwatch, Crash Bandicoot, and many, many more. Here’s what Spencer said in the official Xbox podcast: 

“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, and that’s why I’m excited to go on these [studio] 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 of franchises every year and almost do a ‘revisited’ – I just made up that term, so it’s not a brand, it’s not on a box.

But you know, I tease about things like Hexen just because I remember playing it as a kid. I have no plan for that, 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 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 opportunity—there’s not a plan for that—but there’s an opportunity.”

In related news, Xbox says not to expect a surprise Activision Blizzard Game Pass free game drop in 2023. If we’re at 2024? That’s more likely.