Vicarious Visions Purchased by Activision

January 20, 2005, 10:30 am EST
Total comments: 7

The prolific handheld and console developer is Activision's latest addition.

Activision Acquires Game Developer Vicarious Visions

Acquisition Further Strengthens Activision's Next-Generation Development Capabilities

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Jan. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Strengthening its next-generation development capabilities, Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI - News) today announced that it has acquired game developer Vicarious Visions, the creative studio behind the #1 best-selling third-party Nintendo® DS title, Spider-Man 2(TM). Vicarious Visions' proven proprietary Alchemy(TM) middleware technology and tools will be combined with Activision's next-generation tools and libraries to further enhance the company's overall development efforts.

The acquisition underscores Activision's strategy to continue building its technical infrastructure in order to take full advantage of the high-growth potential of the next-generation hardware platforms by acquiring technical and design talent with a history of high-quality product creation, while over time enhancing the company's financial operating model.

Vicarious Visions has developed five games that have sold more than one million-units each and is currently co-developing the highly anticipated DOOM 3(TM) for the Xbox with id Software, as well as Spider-Man 2, which will be a launch title for the upcoming PSP platform. In addition, they have developed such popular titles for the Game Boy Advance as Shrek 2(TM), Shrek 2: Beg for Mercy(TM), DreamWorks' Shark Tale(TM) and Tony Hawk's Underground 2 and Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro(TM) for the PlayStation game console.

Kathy Vrabeck, President of Activision Publishing, said, "Vicarious Visions' talented development team and proprietary technology combined with our internal systems and capabilities will play a key role in Activision's continued leadership on the next-generation platforms. Vicarious Visions has a track record of success and we are very excited to partner with them."

Under the terms of the agreement, Vicarious Visions' 100-person studio, headquartered in Troy, NY, with offices in Mountain View, CA, has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision. As part of the transaction, Vicarious Visions' management team and key employees have signed long-term employment contracts with Activision.

"We have shared a strong relationship with Activision over the past five years on platforms ranging from Game Boy Color to most recently the Nintendo DS, Xbox and Sony PSP," said Karthik Bala, CEO of Vicarious Visions. "Joining the Activision family seemed like the logical next step and we look forward to continuing to build great games and a great company together."

Guha Bala, President of Vicarious Visions adds, "We've always admired Activision's ability to expand and evolve with the ever changing video game industry. Their franchises include some of our favorites, and their strong marketing and development capability makes them a great partner for our studio."

Talkback

joshnickersonJanuary 20, 2005

This is getting out of hand. How many developers is EA going to buy bef--

Oh, Activision bought them. Never mind then.

MaleficentOgreJanuary 20, 2005

I was just going to say the EA thing. I do hope that vicarious is allowed to have some creative freedom now. I'd like to see what they can do with origional properties.

ArbokJanuary 20, 2005

Am I the only one who doesn't care at all? I have yet to see a release from this company that has been worth picking up, although Spider-man for the DS looked good in preview videos I will give it that, and only that.

FamicomJanuary 20, 2005

They bought them to use their technology (you know, since they developed Doom 3) for next gen consoles. Hopefully they can do some good with it. Only Activision properties I play are Tony Hawk, and that's become stale.

DjunknownJanuary 20, 2005

At least they don't have the track record of Atari(Infogames) or Acclaim. They have SOME worth while games that they published. X-Men legends is awesome, and no doubt they'll get a pretty penny for the console port of Doom 3.

Hopefully, this won't start a disturbing trend of other companies starting to swallow the smaller ones, just so they can keep up with the proverbial Jones's.

TheYoungerPlumberMichael Cole, Associate EditorJanuary 21, 2005

START a trend? This has been happening for years. Microsoft bought lots of developers for the Xbox. EA has bought developers at a steady rate. Then there are mergers (a varient of purchases), like Square Enix and Sega-Sammy. The pace is just picking up, though.