Hasbro, the company responsible for the Transformers franchise, expressed their desire to include older Transformers video games on Xbox Game Pass. However, they faced a setback as the games’ developer, Activision, could not locate the necessary files.
Over the years, Activision and its subsidiaries developed and published numerous Transformers games, such as Transformers: Fall of Cybertron and Transformers: Devastation. Currently, Splash Damage, known for Brink, is working on a new game called Transformers: Reactivate. Unfortunately, fans hoping to revisit older titles before the release of Transformers: Reactivate are out of luck.
Acquiring copies of Transformers games from the previous console generation, such as the PS4 and Xbox One era, is nearly impossible and costly. The situation worsens when trying to obtain games from even earlier console generations. Despite being aware of Transformers fans’ desire to play the older titles, Hasbro explained in an interview with fansite Transformer World 2005 during San Diego Comic Con that they currently have no plans for a re-release.
A Hasbro spokesperson mentioned that the games would be a simple addition to Xbox Game Pass, but Activision faces difficulties in locating the hard drives where the game files are stored within their building. With mergers and acquisitions complicating the situation, files may have unintentionally been misplaced or lost. Hasbro expressed hope that Microsoft’s ongoing acquisition deal with Activision Blizzard would prompt a thorough search through all archives and hard drives to recover the missing games.
Fortunately, Hasbro managed to retain some assets from the games, enabling the design of a new line of Transformers based on them. While everything needed for Fall of Cybertron was available, Hasbro had to extract files for War For Cybertron from the game itself since Activision couldn’t provide them. Instead, Activision kept sending concept art, which was not what Hasbro required. They needed the Computer-Aided Design (CAD) files.
Fans longing to play Activision’s older Transformers games must wait and see if the missing files can be located once Microsoft’s acquisition of the company is finalized.
