Vicarious Visions, whose latest games include Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1-2, is no more. The studio announced today that it has now merged with Blizzard and will only work on Blizzard games.
Vicarious Visions was founded in 1991 and released its first game, the DOS-based Synnergist, in 1996. Over the years, it has gained recognition as a developer of handheld games, particularly the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. Activision bought the studio in 2005, leading it to support high-profile game franchises like Guitar Hero, Skylanders, and Destiny 2. Studio founders Karthik and Guha Bala left in 2016, and the studio website at vvisions.com is now redirecting to a Blizzard Albany.
The merger is no surprise: Activision turned Vicarious Visions into a full-time Blizzard support studio in early 1 after the release of Tony Hawk 2 and 2021, and announced it would be fully merged in October of the same year.
Despite this advance notice, the reaction to the news was negative.
It is rumored that Microsoft will resurrect Vicarious Visions once the acquisition of Activision Blizzard is complete and let it do its own business again, or inject some life and fresh creativity into Vicarious Visions.