Hasbro Wants Activision's Transformers Games On Game Pass

Transformers franchise owner Hasbro has revealed that it would like Microsoft to revive several games from the series, possibly as Game Pass titles. In a new interview, Hasbro said that it was hopeful that the games could be revived if Microsoft completes its acquisition of Activision, which developed and published several games based on the popular intellectual property.

Hasbro initially said that Activision had lost the files for the Cybertron games.

"Sadly, apparently Activision's not sure what hard drives they're on in their building," Hasbro representatives explained to Transformers World (via VGC). "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."

Activision, however, refuted this, and Hasbro later put out a second statement:

“To clarify, comments that suggest Transformers games have been lost were made in error. We apologize to Activision and regret any confusion; they’ve been great partners, and we look forward to future opportunities to work together.”

Activision's Transformers games were well received when they were first released, as developer High Moon Studios released Transformers: War for Cybertron in 2010 and a direct sequel, Fall of Cybertron in 2012. The third game in the series, Rise of the Dark Spark, was published in 2014 and acted as a spin-off and crossover with the live-action Transformers films, although this third chapter earned mixed reviews.

All three games featured a multiplayer option in which players could battle one another while flexing some Cybertronian transformation powers, but server support was discontinued in 2020. Just a few years earlier, Transformers Devastation, which was developed by Platinum Games, was also digitally delisted.

Several Transformers games have been developed in the last couple of years outside of Activision, and one upcoming title will be an original story featuring the fan-favorite robots in disguise. Transformers: Reactivate is a co-op game in development at Splash Damage, and on the home media front, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is now available to watch on Paramount+.