Employees at Vicarious Visions were informed about the merger by Activision Blizzard on Wednesday during a town hall meeting.
The studio will be losing it’s name as a result of the merger with Activision Blizzard. No name has been put in place as of yet. Blizzard Albany is suspected as the replacement, as that is where Vicarious Visions is based. The team believed they were to still be operating as their own studio while being owned by Blizzard (thanks, Polygon). Apparently, the announcement wasn’t much of a surprise to most of those who spoke with Polygon. The merger will not result in any layoffs, reportedly.
It’s currently unclear what the Vicarious Visions merger with Activision Blizzard means for the studio. It’s possible they’ll continue to work on Blizzard’s IPs. There’s a chance they’ll still work on remasters of older Blizzard titles. There’s no way of knowing for now.
a concerning merger
The Vicarious Visions merger initially took place in January of this year. The team is behind the development of Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 remasters. They also made the recently released Diablo II: Resurrected remaster. The studio has a long history, having worked on the Skylanders games as well as a big list of licensed IPs.
It’s important to remember that Activision Blizzard is still involved in a messy legal battle. Fully merging a studio while the company is failing to look after their huge number of employees is concerning. Blizzard has a huge number of staff, adding more to the mix just means more staff who aren’t protected. The company should be focusing on the safety of their staff. News like this will only distract from the issue. They also recently announced the cancellation of BlizzConline, supposedly to focus on development.
Featured Image Credit: Activision Blizzard