In recent years, developer Vicarious Visions has carved out a spot for itself as a premiere studio for remastering some of gaming's most iconic classics from the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Activision subsidiary has put out several high-profile remasters between the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2, and most recently assisting Blizzard with the development of Diablo 2: Resurrected. Now, Vicarious Visions has announced the next stage of the developer's ongoing partnership with the World of Warcraft developer.
While Vicarious Visions has grown into a gaming staple in recent years for its plethora of classic remasters, the developer has a long history in the gaming industry of working with a variety of studios. The developer previously developed multiple licensed games alongside other studios as well as assisting Neversoft with Wii versions of Guitar Hero for most of the popular rhythm game franchise's life. Vicarious Visions has an extensive history with Activision as well, working with the studio on the Skylanders franchise, and now Vicarious Visions has officially revealed the studio will be fully merging with Blizzard.
Vicarious Visions confirmed the merger Tuesday morning through the studio's official Twitter account. The N. Sane Trilogy developer will be fully merging with Blizzard Entertainment and shifting its focus to directly working on Blizzard's games while Vicarious Visions' development team will remain at its current offices in Albany, NY. While the future of the Vicarious Visions brand remains unclear based on the tweet, the announcement directed fans to follow Blizzard's official Twitter account.
While many fans of the studio will likely be sad to see the developer shifting its priority to Blizzard games and likely sunsetting the Vicarious Visions brand, the developer has a long history of working with both Blizzard and its parent company, Activision. Vicarious Visions has been a subsidiary of Activision since 2005 and the merger of the two developers has been in the works for over a year with Activision shifting management of the studio to Blizzard last January, with the Tony Hawk remaster being the developer's final game released under the Activision label.
The merger of Vicarious Visions and Blizzard comes as the most recent entry into a year that has seen Activision Blizzard dominating headlines in the gaming world. The high-profile acquisition of the studio by Microsoft early in the year sent shockwaves through not only the gaming industry, but the tech world as a whole and Blizzard has been teasing fans with the future of several of its biggest franchises. Vicarious Visions will look to hit the ground running, joining a Blizzard team with titles like Diablo 4, Overwatch 2, and a new World of Warcraft expansion on the horizon.