Xbox boss Phil Spencer has revealed the one game we would love to see revived: MechAssault.
MechAssault launched for the original Xbox in November 2002, and was one of the first games to support Xbox Live online multiplayer. Day 1 Studios’ third-person action game went down well with fans, and spawned a sequel MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf, released in 2004. A Nintendo DS game, MechAssault: Phantom War, launched in 2006. Day 1 Studios is now known as Wargaming Chicago-Baltimore, and works on World of Tanks.
In 2017, Mitch Gitelman, who previously worked as the head of FASA Studio (Day 1 Studios worked with FASA on MechAssault), revealed Microsoft decided to pull the plug on the franchise after MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf didn’t sell well enough. “It didn’t turn into the franchise that Microsoft was looking for. That’s all,” Gitelman said. “At the time there was sort of a sales bar. You don’t hit that sales bar and it’s like, ‘Okay, that was that.’ “
Now, 21 years after the first MechAssault game came out, Spencer has said he’d love to see it come back. Speaking in an IGN Japan Q&A at Tokyo Game Show 2023, Spencer namechecked the series.
“I’ve always wanted us to go back and revisit the Mech Assault/Mech Warrior space,” he said. “I think there’s a lot we could do. There was so much about that whole franchise that in some ways I think was ahead of its time and it would be nice to get to go back and revisit. We don’t have a plan today, so it’s not a leak of anything – speaking of leaks – but that would be a nice one.”
Spencer’s mention of leaks is a reference to last week’s huge Xbox leak that revealed the company’s hardware plans for a mid-gen console refresh, a next-gen Xbox for 2028, and even Bethesda’s release schedule.
Meanwhile, fellow Xbox executive Sarah Bond said she was aware of fan requests to revive Blizzard’s StarCraft series, and wondered aloud whether the much-loved real-time strategy series could enjoy a comeback.
“Especially since I’ve been here this week, a lot of fans, and I’ve had a lot of people ask me in interviews about StarCraft. So I know a lot of you want that [points at audience] which is what’s most important, so it’ll be fun to see if that’s something we can do in the future.”
StarCraft’s last release was 2015’s Legacy of the Void, a standalone expansion pack to StarCraft 2. Blizzard has since favoured its other franchises, including Overwatch, World of Warcraft, and Diablo. With Microsoft set to buy Activision Blizzard for $69 billion in October, Bond’s comments are particularly eye-catching.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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