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Vicarious Visions loses name as part of Blizzard merger

Vicarious Visions loses name as part of Blizzard merger

Activision Blizzard is apparently removing the name of developer Vicarious Visions as the studio becomes part of Blizzard Entertainment.

As reported by Polygon, staff at the firm were told this news in a town hall meeting yesterday (Wednesday, October 27th), which came as a surprise to some given that they were under the impression they would remain a separate studio. It's not clear what Vicarious Visions will be called moving forward, though speculation points to the developer being named Blizzard Albany after the city it is headquartered in.

News that Vicarious Visions would become part of Blizzard broke in January of this year. This news came hot off the heels of the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 remake which the studio worked on. The firm also developed the recently-released Diablo II: Resurrected remake.

The former boss of Vicarious Visions – Jean Oneal – stepped up to become co-head of Blizzard, alongside Xbox vet Mike Ybarra, after the firm's president J Allen Brack stepped down. This came in the wake of a lawsuit filed by California's Department for Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) which alleged a toxic working culture. Brack was one of two people directly named in the lawsuit.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.