In recent years, Vicarious Visions has won the love of many gamers for projects like the remasters of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and Crash Bandicoot. That said, you should no longer expect them to work like this with other Activision properties, as the studio was taken over by Blizzard.
According to information from GamesIndsutry.biz, as of today Vicarious Visions is part of Blizzard Entertainment. This means that the roughly 200 studio employees will now work for Blizzard and dedicate their time to “Blizzard games and initiatives.” It also means that they will cease to be a main studio developing games.
“After collaborating with Vicarious Visions for some time and developing a great relationship, Blizzard realized that there was an opportunity for them to provide long-term support,” a Blizzard spokesperson explained to the source.
As part of this move, Jen Oneal, head of Vicarious Visions, will serve as Blizzard’s executive vice president of development. This means that he is part of the company’s leadership team and that he will report directly to J. Allen Brack, president of Blizzard.
Vicarious Visions headquarters will remain in Albany, New York, United States. So the team won’t have to move to California, where Blizzard is located.
WHAT HAS VICARIOUS VISIONS DONE?
In case you didn’t know, Vicarious Visions is a development studio that was founded in 1990. The studio started out with small projects for PC and Game Boy Color. Years later he got important contracts to make ports or license games for laptops.
It was in 2005, when Activision closed a deal to add Vicarious Visions to its ranks. Thanks to this deal, it became a studio that worked on major franchises like Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk, Skylanders, Call of Duty, Crash Bandicoot, and even Destiny.
And to you, what did you think of this news? Do you think the talent of Vicarious Visions brings a lot to Blizzard Entertainment?
