Vicarious Visions will be no more. Activision Blizzard have moved the developer from under Activision to Blizzard, Gamesindustry.biz reports.
Blizzard operates as one entity- no separate studio names from the public’s perspective. So the 200 or so people under Vicarious Visions will now be Blizzard employees, though will remain based in Albany, New York. They are now “fully dedicated to existing Blizzard games and initiatives.”
Vicarious Visions studio head Jen Oneal has also been promoted to Blizzard executive vice president of development as a result.
Vicarious Visions were known for their ambitious handheld ports, but more recently, their amazing faithful remakes of PS1 classics – namely the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy And Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 releases. It’s a shame the name will be discontinued with this merge, as a lot of goodwill has been garnered from their amazing track record.
The other faithful remake dev Activision has left is Toys For Bob, makers of Spyro Reignited Trilogy. They recently made the new Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time.
Maybe with the VV team working in-house under Blizzard, we can get better remakes of Blizzard classics.
Source: Gamesindustry.biz