Hasbro wants Activision-published Transformers games recovered, put on Game Pass

gamedeveloper.com:

Hasbro thinks it's time for Activision Blizzard's Transformers games to come to Xbox Game Pass. At a recent Q&A with Transformer World 2005 at San Diego Comic-Con earlier in July, a spokesperson for the toy company was asked about older games in the series being re-released for newer consoles. 

During the late 2000s and 2010s, numerous games for the Transformers brand were released. Several of them, like High Moon's Transformers: War for Cybertron and its sequel Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, are locked to their respective consoles (and Steam) and have never been ported to future systems or made backwards compatible.

The spokesperson revealed that Activision Blizzard apparently lost the games years ago, saying the developer "[isn't sure] what hard drives they're on in their building." While admitting their frustration at those games being lost, they think Xbox's possible acquisition of Activision Blizzard may result in the titles being found again. 

"The hope is that now that the deal is moving forward with Microsoft and Xbox that they’ll go through all of the archives and every hard drive to find it all, because it’s an easy Game Pass add," the representative said. "We want those games back up for people to have a chance to play."

2015's Transformers: Devastation from PlatinumGames was the last Transformers game to be published by Activision Blizzard, and one of the franchise's last major releases overall. After Activision Blizzard lost the license in 2017, that game and many others were delisted.

The next major game for the brand is Splash Damage's Transformers: Reactivate. 

That Activision Blizzard has seemingly lost any trace of its Transformers games underlines the need for stronger game preservation. Earlier in the