'Guitar Hero' (Image: Activision)
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is interested in possibly reviving two of Activision’s defunct franchises after Microsoft announced that they would be purchasing the company for $70 billion.
In an interview with VentureBeat, Kotick said that he was interested in creating new entries in the Guitar Hero and Skylanders game series, two franchises that had massive success but have since faded into obscurity.
“You look at all the opportunities that we get with a company like Microsoft,” Kotick said. “I’ll give you one great example. Phil [Sepncer] and I started riffing on things for the future. I’ll give you three that are really compelling. I wanted to make a new Guitar Hero for a while, but I don’t want to add teams to do manufacturing and supply chain and QA for manufacturing. And the chip shortages are enormous.”
Kotick also mentioned Skylanders as a series that could potentially benefit from Microsoft’s new ownership of the company.
“One of the great disappointments of my career is that other people came in and they came out with crappy alternatives. And they dumped all of these crappy alternatives in the market, and basically destroyed the market for what was a really cool future opportunity,” he said. “If you look at Skylanders, with its hardware and manufacturing and supply chain, there are the same kinds of things that we can’t do but Microsoft can.”
Both series had major success, with Guitar Hero grossing an estimated $2 billion, and Skylanders grossing an estimated $3 billion, but eventually fizzled out as their popularity waned.
Guitar Hero had a reboot titled Guitar Hero Live that was released in 2015 and was greeted with lukewarm sales, with its last traditional title Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock releasing in 2010. Meanwhile, Skylanders had its last release in 2016 with Skylanders Imaginators.
Microsoft has expressed interest in revisiting Activision Blizzard’s catalog but hasn’t given any concrete plans on what series they plan to revive. They will also own Activision’s active franchises, such as Call of Duty and Overwatch, which might end up taking priority over some of their older titles.
It is also unknown how much influence, if any, Kotick will have under the new management as the company continues to be involved in a scandal after it was accused of mistreating employees and allowing a company culture that discriminates against women and minorities to exist.
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