If you watched the Xbox Games Showcase event yesterday, you might have noticed the t-shirt Phil Spencer was wearing was a print of the box art for Hexen: Beyond Heretic, a 90s fantasy FPS shooter. While many wondered if Spencer was teasing an impending announcement, sadly, those suspicions are not true.
Well, so he says.
In an interview with Polygon, Spencer insisted he was not teasing a revival for the game. “That wasn’t me trying to pre-announce it,” Spencer said. “But it was me recognizing the importance of some of the games in our portfolio.”
Spencer went on to explain a bit more about how Hexen was a game he “loved”, noting how the shirt was more for nostalgia with no hidden underlying meaning beyond that.
“So for me, wearing the [Hexen] shirt wasn’t as much about a tease forward as it was just about nostalgia,” Spencer explained. “I recognize that as our portfolio grows, we’ve got important [games] that we have to kind of protect and nurture and maybe bring back at some point.”
Hexen: Beyond Heretic, developed by Raven Software and published by Doom creator Id Software, was released back in 1995.
With Microsoft buying Id Software and the rest of the ZeniMax Media properties back in 2020, Xbox now owns the rights and could make another Heretic or Hexen game.
And if Xbox manages to acquire Activision-Blizzard, perhaps the company could tap Raven Software to develop it (again). We can only dream.
In case you missed it, here’s our Xbox showcase roundup, and here’s everything shown during the Starfield Direct. Check out our Summer of Gaming 2023 schedule to find out what’s coming next.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
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