Now that Activision Blizzard is owned by Xbox, fans are hoping for some old IP revivals, with Doom-like FPS Hexen being a popular choice. Xbox boss Phil Spencer is a huge fan of the IP, wearing a shirt of the shooter at a past Xbox event, and remaster specialists Nightdive Studios are more than interested in doing it.
Spencer appeared in the Xbox Podcast and was asked about bringing back old IPs now that Microsoft can has access to them. The Xbox boss specifically brought up Hexen and said there would be interest in bringing them back, especially if they can get the old devs or teams.
"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", Spencer said during the podcast.
Samuel Villareal, the lead engine developer at Nightdive Studios, tweeted at Spencer and said that their studio would be more than willing to remaster Hexen and Heretic. Villareal said that the team has extensive knowledge of what makes the FPS tick and it seems that fans are in agreement.
“Just letting you know, having a long-running history and extensive knowledge with Heretic and Hexen, just want to point out that me and my team are very well suited for the job,” Villareal tweeted.
The dev is far from wrong about that, as Nightdive has done an exquisite job of remastering these older shooters. It wasn’t that long ago when Nightdive used their magic to make an excellent Quake 2 remaster, with 8-player multiplayer and a ton of new features. For better or worse, Nightdive also made a one-to-one remake of System Shock, giving fans the same visuals and creepy, if somewhat outdated, gameplay.
Hexen was pretty unique for its time, as it was a fantasy first-person shooter. The unique environments and creepy enemies helped it stand out from the pack, even if it still played like a lot of other FPS games from its era.
Read More: Nightdive Studios wants to remaster The Darkness
Of course, it’s not just Hexen that fans want to see remastered for Xbox Series systems. Fans also want to see new installments for Spyro and Crash Bandicoot after the devs were banished to the Call of Duty mines. Hopefully, whatever old IP gets brought up, Xbox will bring it back.