While not the most controversial thing to come out of Activision last year, the news that Vicarious Visions would be merged into Blizzard Entertainment didn’t resonate well with a lot of people. While it was naïve to expect the decision to be reversed, many are still disappointed to learn that the merge is officially complete, meaning the Vicarious Visions name no longer exists.
The studio itself broke the news over Twitter, bluntly saying that its development team will remain in Albany, NY, and reiterating that it will focus only on Blizzard-developed games. So, it won’t be leading development on any projects of its own, only supporting Blizzard’s projects, as it did with last year’s Diablo II remake.
Vicarious Visions was responsible for a plethora of games dating all the way back to 1996. While its catalog consists of a lot of movie tie-ins and Skylanders games, it successfully revived the Crash Bandicoot and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater franchises with the N. Sane Trilogy and Pro Skater 1 + 2 remakes respectively. Both games were massive hits, critically and financially, and yet the studio’s reward felt like a demotion to some, which is why the move is widely unpopular with fans of its work.
Any future Crash Bandicoot or Tony Hawk games will now be helmed by a different studio, although Activision hasn’t formally announced anything on that front. There have been concerns that the rest of Activision’s franchises are being left to the wayside considering the company’s growing focus on Call of Duty. That said, following news of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said he’s eager to work on IPs besides Call of Duty, name-dropping both Guitar Hero and King’s Quest.
