Xbox boss Phil Spencer wants to bring back old IP, but only with “motivated team”

Phil Spencer has doubled down on his previous comments about supporting Xbox studios hoping to revisit older franchises, but he says it would need to be “a motivated team that wants to go work on something and make a difference,” not just make a quick buck.

With Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal now complete, Spencer appeared on the Official Xbox Podcast and spoke about Microsoft’s view on teams wanting to revive older franchises. Between Xbox Game Studios, Rare, Bethesda, and Activision Blizzard (thanks, Klobrille for the image background), Microsoft has access to a wealth of shelved IPs that are just gathering dust, but Spencer says Xbox isn’t going to force any of its studios to work on projects they’re not passionate about.

“I just don’t think that a team working on something that isn’t their passion leads to the best result,” Spencer said, later adding: “When I just think about, not just about Activision Blizzard King, you add in Bethesda, you add in Xbox’s history, Rare… the amount of franchises that we now have in our portfolio is kind of inspiring, it’s daunting, I feel that we have to be a great custodian for the content that we touch. These are memories for people on different platforms, different decades, and I want to make sure that when we’re going back and visiting something that we do it with our complete ability — a motivated team that wants to go work on something and make a difference, not just create something for financial gain or create something for a PR announcement and not deliver.”

Although Spencer also admitted that he doesn’t feel like Xbox has “done an A+ job” at looking at its older franchises so far, before later saying, “If teams want to go back and revisit some of the things that we have and do a full focus on it, I’m going to be all in on that.”

Naturally, Spencer cited Xbox Game Pass as a good way for studios to give older or dormant franchises a jolt of life without committing to anything too full-on. During his appearance on the podcast, Spencer also explained why we won’t be seeing any Activision Blizzard titles added to Xbox Game Pass until 2024.