Microsoft"s Xbox leader Phil Spencer has stated on more than one occasion that he is a fan of Raven Software"s early games like the Heretic and Hexen series. He even wore a t-shirt with the Hexen box art during last June"s Xbox Games Showcase. Raven Software is an Activision development studio that Microsoft now owns as of a few days ago.
The subject of reviving old games like the Heretic and Hexen titles from Activision"s catalog came up again this week when Spencer was being interviewed for the official Xbox podcast. He stated, "If teams want to go back and revisit some of the things that we have and do a full focus on it, I"m going to be all in on that."
As it turns out, one person is throwing his and his team"s hat in the ring to release remastered versions of those games. Samuel Villarreal, the lead engine designer at Nightdive Studios stated on X (formerly Twitter),
@XboxP3 Just letting you know, having a long running history and extensive knowledge with Heretic and Hexen, just want to point out that me and my team are very well suited for the job. Just saying.
The fantasy-themed first-person shooters Heretic and Hexen were based on id Software"s Doom engine, and were released in 1994 and 1995, respectively, by Raven Software. Hexen II was based on the Quake engine and was released in 1997. The final game in the series, Heretic II, switched things up and was a third-person fantasy shooter. It was a Quake II-based game and laws aunched in 1999 under publisher Activision.
Nightdive has been remastering 1990s shooters for a while now, including Doom 64, Quake I and II, Rise of the Triad, Blood, and many more. It plans to release two more remastered games before the end of 2023, Turok 3, and Star Wars: Dark Forces.