Vicarious Visions, the Activision studio most recently known for remakes like Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2, has now fully merged into Blizzard. The process began in January 2021, but Vicarious Visions has now dropped its own name to become Blizzard Albany.
“We’ve officially merged with Blizzard Entertainment,” the official Vicarious Visions Twitter account says. “Our development team will remain in Albany, NY and fully dedicated to Blizzard games. We invite you to follow us @Blizzard_Ent.” This is the studio’s only tweet since November 2021. Prior to that, it was primarily retweeting promotions for Diablo II: Resurrected.
Blizzard’s jobs page now refers to the studio as Blizzard Albany – and as the name suggests, the studio will remain in Albany, New York. Polygon reported in October 2021 that employees were informed in a surprise meeting that Vicarious Visions would be dropping its own name, but it’s only today that this has become official. According to the same report, no layoffs were planned.
The studio is expected to provide “long-term support” on Blizzard games. If you had your fingers crossed for Vicarious Visions to follow up on those excellent Tony Hawk remakes, well… Maybe we’ll get a Lost Vikings remake or something instead.
In July 2021, the state of California filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard alleging years of workplace discrimination and harassment. The story has since embroiled CEO Bobby Kotick and prompted the US federal government to open an investigation. It continues to unfold and to be of immense importance to the game industry. You can catch up on all the developments so far in this regularly updated explainer article.
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