In a time of reboots, remakes, and remasters, there has been one game that gets a constant call for a new iteration but has seemingly gotten nowhere: Def Jam. The Def Jam games has its diehard fanbase that constantly calls for its reboot or remaster, especially after franchises like Spyro the Dragon and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater have released their own remasters to commercial success. One famous name has revived the chorus asking for a reboot to Def Jam: Ice-T.
Ice-T featured as a playable character twice in the franchise in Def Jam: Fight for New York and Def Jam Fight for New York: The Takeover back in 2003 and 2004 respectively. The rapper and actor is also heavily into the gaming scene and uses his Twitter to sporadically weigh in on gaming topics or to reply to fans and diss some repliers that are a bit out of pocket. His recent tweet calls for a reboot to the hip-hop infused wrestling franchise that hasn't had a new entry since 2007 with Def Jam Icon. This is also just the lasted call to action from Ice T looking for a new Def Jam title as he made a similar request in 2020.
The rights to the Def Jam franchise are currently held by Electronic Arts. Once published under the EA Sports: BIG moniker then EA Games, the games and the brand has fallen silent as EA stepped away from most of its arcade-style sports games. Every few months, a new discussion for a new entry in the Def Jam franchise kicks off online, but it so far has not culminated into tangible evidence that EA will begin working on another game.
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In 2018 and 2020, Def Jam Recordings teased a potential revival game being in the works. Since then there have been no new reports on development progress nor any official word of the game actually going into development. Fans got excited for the new announcement from a certified source after being duped by fan-made cover art for years. But all talk about the new game has fallen silent. With another signal blast from Ice-T, fans can hope maybe this time there can be some progress made towards development.
The landscape in both the music industry and the gaming industry has changed since the prime of Def Jam games. Circumstances on how music can be used in games and getting the rights for recreating likenesses of musicians have more red tape to cross than before. Even as icons like Ariana Grande manage to get into the Fortnite scene, games based solely around rappers and their music in this copyright climate are could be far more arduous than before.