Microsoft’s long-fought $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard King might just be the most expensive bit of business the gaming industry will ever see, but what does that mean for players like you? Well, it should mean that Xbox and services like Xbox Game Pass get even better – and we’re not just talking about the new Activision Blizzard games on Xbox Game Pass, either. Xbox head Phil Spencer says the company is open to revisiting older franchises and series, that it’s ready to work with teams to bring these games to more players than ever before.
When you look at a list of all the Xbox Game Pass games available right now, there are quite a few older titles on there – things like Battlefield 3, Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts, and Mass Effect are all games you can jump into and play with the service. Although, we always seem to think that the best Xbox Game Pass games are the big budget new titles – like Starfield and Forza Motorsport. Well, what if this library of games included titles like Crash Bandicoot 2 Cortex Strikes Back and Guitar Hero World Tour, or even the original Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater? We think that list might look a little different, even with all the new Xbox games on the way, and that’s something Xbox is ready to work towards – if everyone else wants to as well.
Discussing the acquisition itself on the Official Xbox Podcast, and Xbox’s plans now things are being approved, Xbox head Phil Spencer reveals that “with Game Pass, [Xbox] has the ability to pick a couple franchises every year and [revisit them]”.
“When you look across all of the franchises that are a part of our teams, there’s an opportunity for [Xbox] to go back… and make it available to people through Game Pass”, Spencer adds.
While exciting, he is quite clear when he says that there currently “isn’t a plan for that” to happen at the moment – even though Call of Duty on Xbox Game Pass seems more and more likely. However, as Spencer continues, “if teams want to go back and revisit some of the things we have and do a ‘full focus’ on it”, he – and presumably Xbox – are “all in”.
You can check all of this out from around the 17:30 mark in the video below:
What does this mean for you right now, though? Well, Spencer is only just starting to make his way around key Activision Blizzard studios, so we don’t think anything major will be announced for a little while yet. Although, it does mean that we could see some of the best RPG games, the best FPS games, and some of the best open world games from years gone by join Xbox Game Pass in the future.
If you’re already finding yourself overwhelmed with what’s on offer, you should considered picking up one of the best Xbox expansion cards when you can. Managing storage space is a nightmare at the best of times and this should ease the pressure a little bit and afford you the space you need to install all the Xbox Game Pass games you want to hop between.