Vicarious Visions will reportedly merge fully with Blizzard, dropping its old name
The studio behind last year’s Tony Hawk remasters was repositioned as a Blizzard support studio in January.
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Earlier this year,Activisioncelebrated the release of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 by announcing developer Vicarious Visions would berepositioned to solely support Blizzard games. Now,Polygon reportsthat the studio will drop its name entirely as it fully merges with the Warcraft-maker.
Sources at Vicarious Visions told Polygon that the name drop was announced at a town hall yesterday, and that while no new name has been confirmed, many suspect the studio will be rebranded as Blizzard Albany in line with the studio’s other satellite offices. Prior to the announcement, staff told Polygon they expected Visions would continue to operate as its own entity under (but not explicitly a part of) Blizzard.
While staff noted that this wasn’t an entirely unexpected move, some felt blindsided by its positioning in a “light and quick” meeting. Bizarrely, management also made the announcement during a studio Halloween costume day, with Polygon noting that many employees were dressed up in spooky outfits when the news broke.
“For all of the leadership’s talk about being more transparent in response to the lawsuit and resulting fiasco, the fact they decided to blindside us all with this feels about as far from transparent as you can get,” commented one employee.
That “fiasco” refers to Activision Blizzard’songoing lawsuitwith two government bodies overaccusations of sexual harassment, abuse and discrimination. This week the publisher’s attempt tokill the lawsuit over a conflict of interest was denied, though it’s unlikely Activision will stop trying to use the dispute between California’s Department for Employment and Housing and theEqual Employment Opportunity Commissionto its advantage.
Vicarious Visions leadership reportedly told staff that no layoffs are planned as part of the merge. In May, Activision similarly pivoted Spyro developer Toys for Bob intoa Call of Duty support studio, though it remains to be seen if that studio will similarly be absorbed by one of the publisher’s bigger hitters.
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20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she’s not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it’s the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.
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