Over the last couple of days, I’ve been playing the recent Heretic + Hexen remaster that was announced and revealed at QuakeCon 2025 (thank you, Bethesda Softworks, for the code).
This compilation is a loving enhancement of Raven Software’s original games that’s been carefully brought to modern hardware through the efforts of the remaster experts at Nightdive Studios, who are working once again alongside developer id Software.
There are even entirely new expansions to play (crafted in tandem by Nightdive and id Software) alongside both classic titles.
Playing through these games and seeing the love poured into them has me reflecting a bit on how fruitful this partnership has been over the last few years, as well as wondering what could be next.
Nightdive is a master of reviving older games
For the unfamiliar, Nightdive Studios is a team that specializes in porting older games to modern hardware, going out of its way to hunt down the rights to titles long thought abandoned or impossible to revisit.
The studio’s ongoing work with Bethesda and id Software began back in 2020 with the surprising announcement of a modern port for DOOM 64. This was the start of a near-yearly tradition, with the companies continuing by launching remasters of Quake, Quake 2, and DOOM + DOOM 2 in 2021, 2023, and 2024, respectively.
These ports are some of the most definitive remasters available, with a wide range of options and improvements like improved animations, entirely new campaigns, 120 FPS support on Xbox Series X|S and PC, and much more. Nightdive’s work has been fantastic everywhere, but for me, it’s these collaborative remasters that have set an industry standard.
It’s honestly been a fun tradition to look forward to, with my friends I frequently speculating about what could be next on the docket.
At just $15 (as well as being available in Xbox Game Pass), Heretic + Hexen continue that trend of fantastic remasters, and I highly recommend checking them out if you haven’t yet.
This year’s remaster also takes the aforementioned collaborative step a bit further, adding in games from Raven Software, a studio that now sits under Activision.
For a long time, this kind of remaster might’ve been impossible, as the publishing rights to Heretic and Hexen were held by id Software’s parent company, ZeniMax Media, but the development rights fell under Activision. With both Activision and ZeniMax now owned by Microsoft, the rights to a handful of games are no longer divided.
It’s that aspect that has me wondering what could be next.
What’s next for Nightdive and Xbox?
While I’ve thoroughly appreciated the consistent flow of remasters that Nightdive has provided by working with the teams at Bethesda, id Software, MachineGames, and now Raven Software as well, I’m curious as to just what could be next.
These systematic remasters have seriously thinned the list of remaining “obvious” games from that time period that can be brought forward into the modern era. There are a handful of games left (Hexen 2 feels fairly obvious at this point), but the list is getting thin.
To that end, perhaps Nightdive could start doing even more ambitious work on newer games that graced the end of the original Xbox or even the Xbox 360? The studio’s leadership has previously noted that the team is interested in working on Xbox 360-era titles.
With reports of a Wolfenstein TV series in early production and MachineGames seemingly focused on Indiana Jones, Raven Software’s 2009 Wolfenstein game seems the perfect target for Nightdive to stretch its skills.
Expanding further into the Activision catalogue, the underrated Singularity is another Raven Software game that has never been ported to modern hardware before.
Even id Software’s DOOM 3 could use a revisit. I’m aware of the BFG Edition that’s available on all platforms, but for the grumpy purists such as myself who loved the dark lighting and conscious choice of using a flashlight, the BFG Edition feels a bit too watered down.
You can go through the trouble of getting DOOM 3 working beautifully on a modern PC (I did so just recently), but this type of gaming history deserves a more dedicated effort.
These are just a few examples, but I’m ultimately just hopeful we’ll see more of Nightdive’s work across the Activision and Bethesda libraries, whatever form it ends up taking.
Heretic + Hexen (and Nightdive’s other remastered id Software titles) are available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC (Steam and Xbox PC), PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch.
