Phil Spencer seems interested in bringing Hexen back

Although it was only nostalgia that made him wear the T-shirt with Hexen print during the Xbox Games Showcase.

Raven's and id Software's Hexen: Beyond Heretic was released back in 1995 and became very popular. It was heavily inspired by Doom, but had a fantasy setting with guns replaced by magic and medieval weapons. But Hexen II from 1997 never reached any commercial success and the franchise was abandoned - but never forgotten.

Today the rights are split between id Software and Activision Blizzard (who owns the developer Raven), and a revival seems unlikely. But during the Xbox Games Showcase last weekend, the Xbox boss Phil Spencer surprised people when he entered the stage in a Hexen themed T-shirt. Spencer often have game T-shirts for events like these, and the fans are always trying to read things into it.

Sometimes they are right, as he once had a Battletoads T-shirt, which eventually led to a comeback for the franchise, but is Hexen coming back? This is exacty what Polygon asked him, and Spencer replied:

"That wasn't me trying to pre-announce it. But it was me recognizing the importance of some of the games in our portfolio."

A boring answer perhaps, but there was more to it as he later admitted that he thinks Microsoft have important games that could eventually be brought back:

"So for me, wearing the [Hexen] shirt wasn't as much about a tease forward as it was just about nostalgia. I recognize that as our portfolio grows, we've got important [games] that we have to kind of protect and nurture and maybe bring back at some point."

And the Xbox boss himself certainly wouldn't mind a new Hexen, which turns out to be one of his old favorite games, implying that a new Hexen is a possibility in the future:

"Hexen was a game that I loved. If you know anything about, like, where that game was built, or where it was published... There's just these games that kind of come together — or that have the potential to come together — that I get excited about. [...] If you think about where our future could go, there's kind of some interesting intersection."

If Microsoft eventually buys Activision Blizzard, they own all the rights to the game, and it seems like the chances are fairly good it could be brought back in this scenario.