“We’ve officially merged with Blizzard Entertainment,” the developer tweeted today. “Our development team will remain in Albany, NY and fully dedicated to Blizzard games.” The developer then shared a link to the main Blizzard Twitter account, and invited its current followers to join them there. Last year, Vicarious Visions staff were reportedly told about this rebranding on a company call. However, at that time, nothing was officially confirmed. The move follows the company’s more recent alignment with Blizzard (rather than the Activision arm of the company) and its work on Diablo 2: Resurrected. Vicarious Visions was originally founded in 1991 and became part of Activision in 2005. Its prolific output included work on the publisher’s Guitar Hero and Skylanders franchises, as well as Destiny 2. More recently, it found acclaim for its work on the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, and the well-received Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2. Activision Blizzard meanwhile is currently facing intense scrutiny and numerous lawsuits over its toxic workplace environment, with multiple reports of sexual misconduct and abuse. In light of these accusations, the embattled publisher has appointed Kristen Hines as its new chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer.
