Activision Blizzard bought by Microsoft

Microsoft has announced they are acquiring Activision Blizzard for nearly $70 billion to bring joy and community of gaming to everyone across platforms and will provide building blocks for the metaverse. IPs include “Warcraft,” “Diablo,” “Overwatch,” “Call of Duty” and “Candy Crush,”. We can safely assume including "Spyro the Dragon", "Skylanders" and "Crash Bandicoot", but currently there are mixed reception about the planned acquisition.

With three billion people actively playing games today and fueled by a new generation steeped in the joys of interactive entertainment, gaming is now the largest and fastest-growing form of entertainment. Today, Microsoft Corp. announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard Inc., a leader in game development and interactive entertainment content publisher. This acquisition will accelerate the growth in Microsoft’s gaming business across mobile, PC, console and cloud and will provide building blocks for the metaverse.

When the transaction closes, Microsoft will become the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue, behind Tencent and Sony. The planned acquisition includes iconic franchises from the Activision, Blizzard and King studios like “Warcraft,” “Diablo,” “Overwatch,” “Call of Duty” and “Candy Crush,” in addition to global eSports activities through Major League Gaming. The company has studios around the word with nearly 10,000 employees.

“Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO, Microsoft. “We’re investing deeply in world-class content, community and the cloud to usher in a new era of gaming that puts players and creators first and makes gaming safe, inclusive and accessible to all.”

 

Xbox CEO Phil Spencer expresses interest in bringing back old games from Activision Blizzard's vaults as a result of the merger. 

 

The games created by Activision Blizzard’s developers provide the centerpiece of Microsoft’s strategic thinking around the acquisition. The titles are some of the most popular in the world. And those Activision Blizzard properties extend well beyond Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush.

In discussing some of the intellectual properties owned by Activision Blizzard, Spencer’s excitement may have mirrored the enthusiasm of a “StarCraft” player noticing the long-dormant franchise’s logo in Microsoft’s acquisition announcement.

“I was looking at the IP list, I mean, let’s go!” Spencer said. “ ‘King’s Quest,’ ‘Guitar Hero,’ … I should know this but I think they got ‘HeXen.’ ”

“HeXen,” indeed an Activision Blizzard property, is a cult hit first-person game about using magic spells. Microsoft’s pending acquisition of Activision Blizzard also means owning the rights to many creations from gaming’s past, including Crash Bandicoot, the original Sony PlayStation mascot. There’s also the influential and popular Tony Hawk skateboard series and beloved characters like Spyro the Dragon.

Toys for Bob, one of the studios working under the Activision Blizzard banner, successfully launched games like “Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time,” but was later folded into supporting Call of Duty games. Spencer said the Xbox team will talk with developers about working on a variety of franchises from the Activision Blizzard vaults.

“We’re hoping that we’ll be able to work with them when the deal closes to make sure we have resources to work on franchises that I love from my childhood, and that the teams really want to get,” Spencer said. “I’m looking forward to these conversations. I really think it’s about adding resources and increasing capability.” 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/01/20/xbox-activision-blizzard-phil-spencer/ 

 

Crash Bandicoot On the Run! - Dark Spyro Concept Art

Aurelia de Boüard, concept artist at King, released concept art of Dark Spyro, who appeared in the Crash Bandicoot mobile game, Crash Bandicoot: On the Run, as the season boss in the Battle of the Dragons event. 

References of Skylanders Academy Dark Spyro were used to help bring this character to life in the Crash mobile game.

 

Interviews with the Composer of the hand-held ports of Spyro: The Eternal Night

Spyro fan, Waffled, interviewed Tom Miller, the composer of the Nintendo Gameboy Advance and DS versions of The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night. 

Waffled wrote:
"Last October, I reached out to Tom Miller, Composer for the Handheld TEN games (GBA and DS), to ask a few questions about his work.

I compiled all the questions and answers into a document on OneDrive (and now also a Google Docs file which I thought would look nicer but eh) and made it availbile via the links below.

I shared this around some Spyro-related Discord servers and Forums a few months ago, but I've recently just finished uploading a 'Part 2' as of yesterday and so thought it might be a good opportunity to share it here also!"


Links
OneDrive version: Part 1 | Part 2
Google Docs version: Part 1 | Part 2 

 

The Ring of Heroes are Disbanding

The game developer, Com2Us, announced that Skylanders: Ring of Heroes will stop its services on February 28th, 2022. 

 https://www.facebook.com/SkylandersRingofHeroes/posts/3191664537733369 

Greetings Portal Masters,

We would like to thank all our players and communities for all their incredible support for the game, and let you know that, with a heavy heart, as of “Feb. 28th, 2022, KST”, the game will no longer be in service. 
As a part of the termination procedure, all in-game packages will be removed on “Dec. 30th, 2021, KST”, but players can continue to play and use their currencies/items in the game until the termination date. 
Refunds will be available for those who have the paid currencies left in their accounts for a certain duration after the termination. 

For more details, please refer to below dates.

1. Service Termination: 02/28/2022 KST

2. In-app Purchase & Download Disable Dates
a. 12/30/2021 KST: In-app Purchase Disable (All packages in the in-game shop will be removed)
b. 2/28/2022 KST: Market Download Disable (App will be removed from the app store)
※ Based on above schedule, In-App Purchase will be disabled, but downloading from the App Stores will be available until the service termination date.

3. Refund Schedule
(1) Dates for Refund Request: 3/1/2022 ~ 4/30/2022 KST
(2) Refund Policy
- Remaining “Paid” currencies as of service termination
* Non-refundable subjects
a. In-game currencies that are given through events, push rewards, in-game play, etc
b. Items that were purchased with the currencies
c. Refund request outside the above-mentioned dates
(3) What you will need to provide for the refund inquiry
a. HIVE ID
b. CS CODE
c. Market (IOS/AD)
i. If Android, your Google email is needed

For any other inquiries, please contact us through http://www.withhive.com Customer Support channels.

Thank you for your wonderful memories. 

 

 

Glyde The Dragon

If you're looking for a Legend of Spyro-inspired game with dragons, there's an indie game in development made by Valefor. 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1821600/Glyde_The_Dragon/ 

 

 

Spyro Reignited Trilogy PC - Space Spyro Mod

The release of the Gasmoxia Grand Prix in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled has increased fan demand for the Space Spyro skin to be added as a PC mod for the Spyro Reignited Trilogy. The modding community were unable to add it as a mod right away due to the difficulty of attaching a character rig to the Space Spyro model. Despite this explanation the modders was constantly pestered by the impatient portion of the Spyro fanbase.

In response to the constant fan demands, the modding community held off the Space Spyro release, lacking motivation, and made the requests for the mod a jokey meme in their discord server for a time. Nearly two years after the Gasmoxia Grand Prix release, the long-awaited Space Spyro Mod was finally released to the public after the modders got the model working.

 

Spyro Reignited Trilogy PC - Enter the Dragonfly Mod

A Reignited Trilogy PC mod is in production by the Spyro modding community. It is set to be based on Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly and will be reusing assets from Reignited.

 

 

Hunter the Cheetah was considered for Skylanders

According to Paul Reiche III, Toys For Bob considered reintroducing Hunter the Cheetah as a Skylander in Skylanders: Giants, but chose not to to avoid more backlash from Spyro fans and to make way for more original characters.

Personally I wouldn’t mind Hunter as a Skylander. He’d probably play similar to Flameslinger or the Bowslinger Skylander Senseis or Imaginators if they kept his bow and arrow. Hunter may even share Hugo’s dislike for sheep, a reference to Classic Hunter and the sheep saucers. X3

 

Toys For Bob Hosts Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure 10th Anniversary

For the tenth anniversary of Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, Toys For Bob posted a flurry of images related to the game, including characters, prototypes, and their 3D printer they used to test out 3D printed figures. They even posted concept art for their mock cover of Spyro's Kingdom. 

For such an occasion, they did a livestream on their prototype build of Spyro's Kingdom. 

https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/skylanders10  

Crash Bandicoot: On the Run! - Inferno Gnasty Gnorc Available

Inferno Gnasty Gnorc is currently available for a limited time as a gang boss for Season 6 in CrashBandicoot: On the Run!