Given how many first party studios now fall under the Xbox Game Studios banner, it’s no surprise that Microsoft technically has the power to oversee revivals of as many dormant franchises as it can- a list that’s bound to grow further still once the company’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard is finalized. However, one name in particular that Xbox boss Phil Spencer has personally had his eyes on that may take some by surprise is MechAssault.
During a recent interview at Tokyo Game Show, when asked about which of Microsoft’s published now-dormant properties he would like to see a revival for, Spencer brought up MechAssault, saying that the series was “ahead of its time”, and that it’s something that he would love to “revisit”.
“I always wanted us to go back and revisit MechAssault/MechWarrior space, I think there’s a lot we can do,” he said. “There’s so much about that whole franchise that in some way was ahead of its time, and it would be nice to get to go back and revisit.”
Jokingly referring to the recent, massive Microsoft leaks, Spencer added that nothing related to MechAssault is currently in the works, so you shouldn’t take his words as confirmation of a revival. “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,” he said.
We have, of course, continued to see new games in the BattleTech franchise – primarily with MechWarrior games – but the last mainline MechAssault game we saw was 2004’s MechAssault 2: Long Wolf, which released for the original Xbox. It was also followed by a Nintendo DS spinoff, MechAssault: Phantom War, in 2006, though that wasn’t published by Microsoft.