Over the last few years, many of Activision Blizzard’s most beloved franchises have fallen to the wayside, as the publisher has placed increased attention on the Call of Duty series. When Microsoft announced plans to purchase Activision Blizzard, many fans got excited about the prospect of franchises like Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon getting another chance at life. It remains to be seen whether that will be the case, but Chris Seavor is skeptical, to say the least. The video game designer and voice of Conker the Squirrel Tweeted that “history would suggest not” in reply to an article by Den of Geek suggesting defunct Activision franchises might return under Xbox.
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Seavor’s Tweet can be found embedded below.
Conker’s Bad Fur Day first released on Nintendo 64 in 2001. A few months later, Microsoft purchased the game’s developer, Rare Ltd., from Nintendo. In theprocess, franchises like Banjo-Kazooie, KillerInstinct, and Conker’s Bad Fur Day fell under the Xbox umbrella. While the foul-mouthed Conker seemed like a perfect mascot for the Xbox brand, Microsoft has all but forgotten about him. A remaster called Conker: Live and Reloaded released on Xbox in 2005, while the original Conker’s Bad Fur Day was included as part of the Rare Replay collection in 2015. Banjo-Kazooie has similarly been mostly ignored since 2008, while the future remains uncertain for Killer Instinct.
It’s unclear whether Activision’s defunct franchises will face a similar fate. Last year, Kotaku asked Phil Spencer about the possibility of Rare franchises returning, and the Xbox boss replied by stating that he leaves those decisions up to Rare, giving them freedom to create what they want to work on. Once the Activision Blizzard deal closes, it’s possible Spencer could give that same level of freedom to its newly acquired studios. If teams like Toys for Bob decide they want to shift away from working on yearly Call of Duty games (as has been suggested), perhaps those franchises could return. For now, it’s understandable why people like Seavor might be skeptical!
What Activision franchises would you like to see return? Do you agree with Seavor? Let us know in the comments or share directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!
