That was in January 2021 Activision Blizzard has confirmed that Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 studio Vicarious Visions have been permanently merged into Blizzard Entertainment.
This means that instead of working on franchises like Crash, Spyro and Tony Hawk, Vicarious Visions will now be “completely dedicated to existing Blizzard games and initiatives.” This Announced before the acquisition From Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard, of course, and when the acquisition was announced in January, many Xbox fans took to social media to Ask Microsoft to undo the decision:
Today, however, Vicarious Visions confirmed that the merger has officially been completed, which means that “Our development team will remain in Albany, New York and fully dedicated to Blizzard Games.”
There is a belief that Vicarious Visions will actually lose its name as part of the merger (according to a report from Polygon last year), and former studio head Jen O’Neal left the company a few months ago, so this is a big change.
Hi Microsoft,
Day One Changes: Unexplained changes studio Toys For Bob and Vicarious Visions and letting them go back to Spyro, Crash, Tony Hawk, Skylanders… Please and thank you. pic.twitter.com/hJ9mtqNlMg
– Jasoninquires January 18 2022
Of course, today’s confirmation came More Xbox fans saddened by the news:
I hope this is undone when you are part of Microsoft. Shame to see.
– Edward King (@3DK1NG2022) April 12 2022
They are a great remake studio. The Crash n-sane and THPS 1 + 2 trilogy was a very cool game remake. If Microsoft is smart, they will undo this ASAP and allow indirect insights to be the equivalent of Sony bluepoint studio
– Rockstar (@R1028737373) April 12 2022
Unfortunately for those who were disappointed with the decision, it seems very unlikely that Microsoft will simply reverse the decision to make Vicarious Visions a Blizzard studio. However, Xbox head Phil Spencer has indicated that he would like to Activision Blizzard has worked on some classic franchisesSo hopefully, Crash, Spyro, and Tony Hawk can be a part of that.
As you can see from the tweets above, Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time and Spyro Reignited Trilogy’s studio Toys for Bob also went through a similar situation recently after being transferred to work on the Call of Duty franchise in April of last year. It’s not clear what the future holds for this studio, but hopefully the move to CoD won’t be permanent.
What is your reaction to the news? Let us know in the comments section below.
“Beer Geek. The Evil Ninja of Pop Culture. Life Coffee Scholar. Professional Internet Teacher. Meat Teacher.”
More Stories
Screenshot: Meaning, How to Take a Screenshot & Uses
6 Great Secrets to Edit Sports Videos
WhatsApp: The function allows you to reply to messages in notifications