Vicarious Visions, the studio behind the recent Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Tony HawkPro Skater 1 and 2 remasters, is now part of Blizzard Entertainment, reports GamesIndustry.biz. The studio was merged with the developer behind World of Warcraft, Overwatch and Diablo to provide “long-term support,” Blizzard said in a statement to GamesIndustry.
Blizzard has been working with Vicarious Visions for some time, said a Blizzard representative, but it is unclear on which projects. Blizzard has a relatively high number of advertised titles in development, including Diablo 4, Overwatch 2and Diablo Immortal. None of these games have announced release dates, however.
We can learn more about Blizzard’s plans – and how they involve more than 200 Vicarious Visions employees – soon. BlizzConline, an online-only version of the BlizzCon developer’s annual game convention, will take place from February 19th to 20th.
Vicarious Visions was founded in 1990 and initially focused on titles for Game Boy and PC platforms. The company was acquired by Activision in 2005 and started developing games in the Guitar Hero, Transformers, Crash Bandicoot, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and Skylanders franchises. Vicarious Visions Studio Director Jennifer Oneal has been promoted to executive vice president of development at Blizzard and will report to Blizzard president J. Allen Brack.