Before it mainly focused on Call of Duty, Activision used to publish many licensed games. Transformers made up a decent portion of these titles, but, according to Hasbro, the Call of Duty publisher doesn’t know where these robot-centric games are.
Hasbro wants the Transformers games on Game Pass
As noted by Video Games Chronicle, the Hasbro team at Comic-Con participated in an interview with Transformers World. One such question was regarding the Activision games and the Hasbro employees there made it clear that one party was mostly to blame.
“Sadly, apparently Activision’s not sure what hard drives they’re on in their building. When a company eats a company that eats a company things get lost, and that’s very frustrating. Hope is that now that the deal is moving forward with Microsoft and Xbox that they’ll go through all of the archives and every hard drive to find it all, because it’s an easy Game Pass add. We want those games back up for people to have a chance to play.”
The Hasbro representatives then admitted that Hasbro had some of the game assets needed to make toys, but not everything. Activision didn’t have the CAD files, which are helpful for getting information on a 3D model.
“We do [have some assets], but it’s very interesting. [Fall of Cybertron], we have everything. For [War for Cybertron], we had to rip it ourselves, because they could not find it – they kept sending concept art instead, which we didn’t want, we need the CAD. So we booted up an old computer and ripped them all out from there. Which was a learning experience and a long weekend, because we just wanted to get it right, so that’s why we did it like that.”
Lulu Cheng Meservey, CCO and EVP of corporate affairs at Activision, later noted that Activision has not lost the code for these games. Hasbro then released a statement to AllSpark stating that its initial comments were made in error.
“To clarify, comments that suggest Transformers games have been lost were made in error. We apologize to Activision and regret any confusion; they’ve been great partners, and we look forward to future opportunities to work together.”
Activision’s run with Transformers spanned for almost a decade. It mostly began around the time the Michael Bay films started blowing up, as Activision published the adaptation of the 2007 movie. Even though many were tepidly received, High Moon Studios’ War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron reviewed fairly well. PlatinumGames’ Transformers: Devastation, while far behind the team’s most acclaimed titles like Bayonetta and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, was also met with decent reception.
Because of the license, many Transformers games aren’t widely available since many have been digitally delisted. This calls into question how they would all be an “easy Game Pass add,” but it’s certainly possible if both parties cooperate.
