Blizzard Albany (formerly Vicarious Visions, Inc.) is an American video game development division of Blizzard Entertainment based in Albany, New York. Founded in 1991, the company was acquired by Activision in January 2005. In January 2021, Vicarious Visions became part of Activision's sister company Blizzard Entertainment and was merged into it in April 2022.
History
The studio was founded by brothers Karthik and Guha Bala in 1991 while they were in high school. In the late 1990s, Vicarious Visions appointed Michael Marvin, an Albany-based investor and entrepreneur, and founder and former CEO of MapInfo Corporation; and Charles S. Jones, investor, who sat on the boards of various software and industrial companies including Geac and PSDI, to its board of directors. Under their leadership, a sale of the company was negotiated to Activision, earning the original investors over 20x their initial investment. In 1999, Vicarious Visions partnered with Vatical Entertainment for a three-year strategic alliance, where Vatical published titles Vicarious Visions is developing, including Game Boy Color. In January 2005, Vicarious Visions was acquired by publisher Activision. In June 2007, Activision closed the Vicarious Visions' office in Mountain View, California. On April 5, 2016, the Bala brothers announced that they had left the company. The brothers then founded Velan Studios in November 2016.
On January 22, 2021, Vicarious Visions was moved by Activision Blizzard from a subsidiary of Activision to a subsidiary of Blizzard Entertainment. Going forward, more than 200 employees of Vicarious Visions will be employees of Blizzard. Vicarious had been working with Blizzard for about two years prior to this announcement, and specifically on the planned remaster of Diablo II, Diablo II: Resurrected, and Blizzard felt the move would be best as to have Vicarious' group provide continued support not only on the remaster but also on other Diablo properties including Diablo IV. Vicarious Visions studio head Jen Oneal moved to Blizzard's management and was succeeded by Simon Ebejer, previously the studio's chief operating officer. On October 27, 2021, Blizzard informed Vicarious Visions employees that the studio would change its name. The studio was fully merged into Blizzard on April 12, 2022, and was renamed Blizzard Albany, otherwise retaining its offices.
Blizzard Albany's quality assurance team, about 20 members in size, announced a unionization drive in July 2022 as Game Workers Alliance Albany. It follows Raven Software, another Activision Blizzard subsidiary, whose QA team voted to unionize earlier in the year.
Game history Terminus, an online multiplayer space trading and combat simulation game, won two Independent Games Festival Awards in 1999. They became known as a leading developer of handheld games breaking ground by the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series, developing Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS titles in the franchise's main series as well as one spin off. They developed the first three Crash Bandicoot GBA games. Vicarious Visions developed Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro, Ultimate Spider-Man, Crash Nitro Kart, Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, and Doom 3 for the Xbox. Vicarious Visions developed for the Guitar Hero series on the Nintendo DS and Wii platforms. For Guitar Hero: On Tour, Vicarious Visions created the "Guitar Grip" peripheral for the Nintendo DS, which emulates the guitar controller for the portable system.
It was revealed on June 10, 2011, that Vicarious Visions was working on the 3DS version of Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, and would go on to have an important role in developing the Skylanders game series, creating the games Skylanders: Swap Force and Skylanders: SuperChargers. On December 8, 2016, Vicarious Visions announced that they were partnering with Bungie to work on the Destiny franchise.
Game engine Vicarious Visions Alchemy is the company's game engine. It was released in 2002. It was originally called Intrinsic Alchemy and developed by Intrinsic Graphics before being renamed after Vicarious Visions acquired Intrinsic Graphics in 2003.
Games developed Year Game Platform(s)Notes 1996 Synnergist MS-DOS 1997 Dark Angael Windows 1999 Zebco Fishing Game Boy Color Vigilante 8 2000 Polaris SnoCross Game Boy Color, Nintendo 64, PlayStation, Windows Terminus Windows, MacOS, Linux Spider-Man Game Boy Color The Wild Thornberrys: Rambler Pro Darts Barbie: Magic Genie Adventure Jimmy White's Cue Ball 2001 Wanadoo SnowCross Game Boy Color, Windows Rescue Heroes: Fire Frenzy Game Boy Color Blue's Clues: Blue's Alphabet Book SpongeBob SquarePants: Legend of the Lost Spatula Zoboomafoo: Playtime in Zobooland Monsters, Inc. Kelly Club: Clubhouse Fun Sea-Doo Hydrocross PlayStation Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 Game Boy Advance Power Rangers: Time Force Spider-Man: Mysterio's Menace 2002 Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 Frogger Advance: The Great Quest SpongeBob SquarePants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman The Powerpuff Girls: Him and Seek Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 Game Boy Advance, PlayStation Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast GameCube, Xbox Whiteout Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox 2003 The Muppets: On With the Show! Game Boy Advance, Windows Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced Game Boy Advance Bruce Lee: Return of the Legend X2: Wolverine's Revenge Finding Nemo Jet Grind Radio Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure Disney's The Lion King 1½ Tony Hawk's Underground SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Disney's Brother Bear Crash Nitro Kart PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube Crash Nitro Kart Game Boy Advance Spy Muppets: License to Croak Game Boy Advance, Windows Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy Xbox 2004 Rivet Mobile phone Spider-Man vs. Doc Ock Shrek 2 Game Boy Advance Crash Bandicoot Purple and Spyro Orange Shark Tale Tony Hawk's Underground 2 That's So Raven Shrek 2: Beg For Mercy! Codename: Kids Next Door – Operation: S.O.D.A. Spider-Man 2 Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable Crash Nitro Kart N-Gage 2005 Doom 3 Xbox Madagascar: Operation Penguin Game Boy Advance Batman Begins X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse PlayStation Portable Madagascar Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS Ultimate Spider-Man Tony Hawk's American Sk8land 2006 Over the Hedge Over the Hedge: Hammy Goes Nuts Game Boy Advance Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam Nintendo DS Marvel: Ultimate Alliance PlayStation Portable, Wii 2007 Spider-Man 3 Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Wii Shrek the Third Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Wii Transformers: Decepticons Nintendo DS Transformers: Autobots Tony Hawk's Proving Ground Bee Movie Game 2008 Kung Fu Panda Guitar Hero: On Tour 007: Quantum of Solace Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Wii Guitar Hero World Tour 2009 Guitar Hero 5 Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 Band Hero Nintendo DS, Wii Mixed Messages DSiWare Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - Decepticons Nintendo DS Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - Autobots Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits 2010 Transformers War for Cybertron: Decepticons Transformers War for Cybertron: Autobots Guitar Hero iOS Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock Wii 2011 Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure Nintendo 3DS 2012 Skylanders: Cloud Patrol iOS, Android, Kindle Fire Skylanders: Lost Islands iOS, Android Skylanders: Battlegrounds Skylanders: Giants Wii U 2013 Skylanders: Swap Force PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One 2014 Skylanders: Trap Team iOS, Android, Kindle Fire 2015 Skylanders: SuperChargers PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One, iOS 2016 Skylanders: Imaginators (Crash Edition) PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch2016Call of Duty: Infinite WarfarePlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows 2017 Destiny 2 WindowsAs a support team for Bungie Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows 2020 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo SwitchCall of Duty: Black Ops Cold WarPlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S Assisted Raven Software 2021Call of Duty: Warzone Diablo II: Resurrected PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, WindowsCo-developed with Blizzard Team 32023Diablo IV2024Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred2026Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred
Cancelled games Year Game Platform(s) 2000 AMF Xtreme Bowling Game Boy Color VR Sports Powerboat Racing Carnivale 2001 Sea-Doo Hydrocross Game Boy Color, Dreamcast, Nintendo 642003Shaun Palmer's Pro Snowboarder 2Game Boy Advance Static Shock 2008 Call of Duty: Roman Wars Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
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