One of the greatest tragedies of gaming is when a game ceases to exist. In the modern landscape of property ownership and development, there is a myriad of reasons why this could happen – and none of them feel good.
Just a few short moons ago, Activision’s library of Transformers games came to a shocking end when their license to publish such titles ceased, and was not renewed. While there was a hefty number of titles in this basket, two much-lauded titles vanished into the ether – Transformers: War for Cybertron and it’s sequel, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron.
Fast forward to now, and a Transformers Q&A session at San Diego Comic Con has actually cast a ray of hope on whether we could ever see these amazing games again – albeit with a slightly worrisome wrench in the works: The game files appear to be missing.
Hasbro has commented on Activision's Transformers games, and hopes Microsoft / Xbox will bring them back. 👀https://t.co/qZiuvXWz3N #Xbox #Transformers
— Jez (@JezCorden) July 29, 2023
In a nutshell, a discussion was happening regarding a recent Transformers toyline – one that actually focuses on gaming-relevant appearances of the big bots. The first figures in this line rightfully are from the War for Cybertron continuity, revisiting the awesome designs that were present in High Moon Studio’s first Transformers outing.
Astute question-askers were quick to ask how Hasbro approached the creation of these figures, given that the games have since become lost media – suffering the cruel fate of being delisted from stores everywhere. Humorously, the designers actually pointed out that this made the act of creating the toys a little more challenging – before dropping a rather casual bombshell:
Q: Possible to re-release the Activision TF games to coincide with Gamer Edition?
A: Sadly, apparently Activision’s not sure what hard drives they’re on in their building. When a company eats a company that eats a company things get lost, and that’s very frustrating. 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. We want those games back up for people to have a chance to play.
Firstly, the games are currently MIA within the miasma that is Activision and it’s properties. Secondly – they do genuinely want the games back out there. A shocking revelation for many, who considered that perhaps Hasbro (a toy company) didn’t really put too much onus on their gaming presence.
So now fans are lit up with a flicker of hope, albeit at the mercy of Activision combing through their archives.
We haven't seen a re-release of the good Transformers games because Activision…isn't sure where they are? pic.twitter.com/Hl8szXLuIf
— Spawn Wave (@SpawnWaveMedia) July 29, 2023
It’s a whacky position to be in – many members of both the gaming and Transformers community have already thrown their hand in the air and offered to rifle through whatever data repositories may house these hallowed games. If they need someone to dig through unlabelled hard drives, there is no shortage of volunteers.
It’s absolutely a much better position to be in, considering that prior to this was just fans rifling through preowned bins in the hope of finding physical media containing the game, and definitely brightens the possibility of getting these bangers back online.
Did you get to experience the Cybertron games? Are you excited to maybe get another chance to enjoy them? Let us know in the comments or on social media.
Known throughout the interwebs simply as M0D3Rn, Ash is bad at video games. An old guard gamer who suffers from being generally opinionated, it comes as no surprise that he is both brutally loyal and yet, fiercely whimsical about all things electronic. On occasion will make a youtube video that actually gets views. Follow him on YouTube @Bad at Video Games
