If Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard were to go through, this franchise, for example, would be on the operating table.

Xbox CEO Phil Spencer has previously said that he would like to bring back older Activision Blizzard IPs if the nearly $70 billion deal would see the Redmond tech giant take over Activision Blizzard King (not forgetting their mobile presence) after ZeniMax Media (=Bethesda’s parent company). Still, in a new interview, he suggested that older series would not be neglected if Microsoft could take over one of the biggest publishers in the gaming industry.

“The first thing I would say is, I’m not allowed to make any decisions about what happens at Blizzard, Activision, or King. So this is all just kind of talking and thinking about what the opportunity is. Not only StarCraft but WarCraft, when you think about the heritage of RTS games that we’re talking about here, specifically from Blizzard. I don’t have concrete plans today because I can’t get in and work with the teams. But StarCraft was a seminal moment in gaming, right?” said Spencer in an interview with Wired.

For him, just being able to talk to the publisher’s three pillars to see what older games are in their catalogues is exciting so that he can assess the possibilities. At Blizzard, even The Lost Vikings is a thought-provoking option. At Activision, there’s Pitfall, Prototype, or even the Crash, Spyro duo (we did try to get some more familiar names from them if Spencer has already done so for Blizzard), though the two platformers that have recently gained some attention.

In the case of StarCraft, it would be challenging for them to do something new and possibly revolutionary (especially as this IP has to be favoured towards eSports), so if the deal can be done, Microsoft will have its work cut out for it. True, many more studios and IPs would join them this way, but they would also need to be monitored.

Source: VG247