Remasters are all the rage these days, but one of the world’s biggest game publishers, Activision, has mostly stayed away from their back catalog. Activision has dabbled in the remaster market (producing Call of Duty Classic in 2009, GoldenEye 007/GoldenEye 007: Reloaded in 2010/2011, and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD in 2012), but they haven’t made that big push into their past like Capcom, Sony, Square Enix, and several others.
However, that attitude might be up for a reevaluation as fans have begun to request remasters of Call of Duty titles from the PS3/Xbox 360 era. Rather than shut down such speculation, Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg is encouraging it, and confirmed that the company thinks about doing a Call of Duty remaster “a lot.” Speaking to Game Informer, the executive specifically cited Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Black Ops as two games he’d like to see remade:
“If done well, I think [remasters] can be great,” Hirshberg says. “You talk about nostalgia, and people have such connection to the games they love from the last cycle. They want to see what it would look like if someone did it right for this cycle. It’s always the opportunity cost, meaning we need every body we can get to make the content we’re already committed to for our new games. It’s always a matter of finding great people to do that work. I would love to play Modern Warfare 1 or the original Black Ops. There’s certainly a deep well there. No announcements, but it’s something we talk about and think about a lot.”
Activision has aggressively expanded the Call of Duty franchise over the last decade, building it up into one of the biggest franchises of all time. If I had to guess, I think Hirshberg sees a Call of Duty remaster as a matter of “when,” not “if.”
