Activision Blizzard is no stranger to digging into its back catalog of games and IP to pull out a few wins. The publisher brought Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon out of hibernation and gave World of Warcraft new life with the launch of Classic. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare could even be considered a reimagining in a way. On today’s financial call, Activision Blizzard said it is getting ready to announce “a number of remastered and reimagined titles” this year.
While the publisher didn’t elaborate further, one only has to look at the extensive history of Activision Blizzard games to begin the speculation. Activision has games that date all the way back to 1980, while Blizzard can reach back to the mid-’90s. Games like Diablo 2, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (2 and 3, if I had my way), Tenchu, GUN, Shrek Smash n’ Crash Racing, Prototype, Shrek: Forever After, Shrek 2, and Blur sit dormant, waiting for some loving executive to call upon them once again. In all seriousness, Activision has a very deep history of published games, and that list doesn’t even account for IP that were purchased later like Crash Bandicoot or Spyro the Dragon, two of Activision’s most successful recent franchise revivals. Skylanders has been awfully quiet in recent years too. Perhaps Activision has been dreaming up a reimagining of the franchise that was once a Spyro offshoot.
Many of Activision’s older games were licensed, which cuts a big chunk of potential reimaginings off the list. It’s not likely, for example, that we’ll see any of the Activision published Spider-man games make a comeback now that Sony and Insomniac have more or less taken over that mantle.
The term “remasters” should also be viewed with caution as the term has changed over the last few years. Previous remasters were simple graphics improvements, where more recent efforts have been complete overhauls and rebuilds of classic experiences for a newer audience. It’s no coincidence that “remasters and reimaginings” were lumped together.
Today’s Activision earnings call also confirmed the existence of Call of Duty 2020. The publisher failed to mention a specific developer for the upcoming game, however. Some reports indicate Treyarch took over development after issues with Sledgehammer arose.
What Activision remasters and reimagined titles do you want to see get announced this year?
