To a platform holder, new IP’s are important, but so is bringing back sequels to games that excited your fans before. It ensures that you’ll keep their loyalty, and perhaps lure back those who’ve owned your previous systems but haven’t yet bought your latest and greatest system.
A recent series of comments from Microsoft’s Phil Spencer indicates that some of the most popular titles from the Xbox (and Rare’s) past are looking to be making a comeback to the Xbox One. Unsurprisingly, Phil Spencer is maintaining closed lips to exactly what we’ll be seeing though.
This all started when a fan tweeted Phil Spencer a list of “10 franchises Microsoft needs bring back for Xbox One”. This list, which hails from a recent list put together by GameInformer has numerous fan favorites on it. Titles such as Crackdown, Blue Dragon, Banjo Kazooie, Battletoads and Lost Odyssey were present.
Phil Spencer replied to this with the comment: “We might do ok over this generation checking off some of these. Was surprised not to see Gears.”
The lack of Gears of War isn’t really that surprising, at least to me. Most take it as a given that there’ll be a Gears of War (or another of its type) on the Xbox One. Clearly the point of this list to is bring back some franchises. Games such as Banjo Kazooie and Battletoads would make for interesting diversity on Microsoft’s platform. While many would agree that the Xbox One’s launch line up was slightly better than Sony’s with the PS4, we don’t want a console filled with simply third person shooters.
@PenguinLamont @gameinformer @XboxQwik We might do ok over this generation checking off some of these. Was surprised not to see Gears.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) January 2, 2014
So, I suppose the question is which titles will we be seeing reappearing on the Xbox One? There’s already been numerous hints that Crackdown will be getting the next generation treatment.
