No need to dramatize: the “disappearance” of the studio does not imply laying off hundreds of people, but the operation is nonetheless rather rare since part of the group also needs reinforcements (Activision) parts with a team of over 200 people to meet the seemingly more pressing needs of the other party (Blizzard).
“We have officially merged with Blizzard Entertainment. Our development team remains in Albany, NY, and is fully dedicated to Blizzard games. We invite you to follow @BlizzardEnt“, can we read on what should therefore be the ultimate tweet of Vicarious Visions, whose official site is no longer online and redirects to Blizzard. Remember that the team’s first job as a member of Blizzard was to develop Diablo II: Resurrected.
Subscriber to games on portable consoles since its creation and bought by Activision in January 2005, Vicarious Visions has generally remained a shadow studio despite having worked on many famous franchises including Spider-Man, Star Wars, DOOM, Guitar Hero, Marvel or even James Bond. It was when the Skylanders franchise arrived in 2011 that the studio gained responsibility by supporting Toys for Bob for years before becoming the main developer on certain episodes such as Skylanders SuperChargers.
In recent years, Vicarious Visions seemed to have found its way by developing Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, a huge commercial success which had exceeded 10 million in sales at the start of 2019. After porting Destiny 2 to PC, the studio confirmed its talent for remasters with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 which quickly surpassed one million copies sold and achieved the best launch of the franchise in the United States. In 2018, the studio had planned to expand strongly to reach 300 employees, but that was before Bungie and Destiny continued their path away from Activision. And since Vicarious Visions hasn’t worked on Call of Duty in 30 years, it ultimately no longer met the Activision family’s most important criteria.