Game news Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater: The license in danger? New at Vicarious Visions
On January 22, 2021, Blizzard announced that Vicarious Visions, the studio behind Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2, was now a studio “entirely dedicated to Blizzard games and initiatives”. Today, we learn that the development house is no more.
Vicarious Visions is no more, long live Vicarious Visions
After working alongside Activision Publishing for nearly 15 years to shape titles like Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2then following joining Blizzard Entertainment to make the very good Diablo II : Resurrected, we learn today that Vicarious Visions is no more. In effect, the developer will no longer make games as lead developer, but will, in the future, be exclusively a support studio.
The news was shared today on the studio’s Twitter account. On the latter, Vicarious Visions announces that their team has been fully merged with that of Blizzard Entertainment to be able to fully focus on Blizzard productions.
We’ve officially merged with Blizzard Entertainment. Our development team will remain in Albany, NY and fully dedicated to Blizzard games. We invite you to follow us @Blizzard_Ent
— Vicarious Visions (@VvisionsStudio) April 12, 2022
We have officially merged with Blizzard Entertainment. Our development team will remain in Albany and will be fully dedicated to Blizzard games. We invite you to follow Blizzard_Ent.
The last line of the tweet, namely “We invite you to follow Blizzard_Ent.” indicates at the same time that the Vicarious Visions Twitter page will be abandoned in favor of the official Blizzard studios page. However, despite this merger, note that the 200 employees of (formerly) Vicarious Visions will keep their premises located in Albany, New York.
After collaborating with Vicarious Visions for a while and developing a great relationship, Blizzard realized there was an opportunity for Vicarious Visions to provide long-term support. Blizzard Spokesperson
We imagine then that these 200 employees will now help on the many productions that are under development within Blizzard, starting with Diablo IV or Overwatch 2.
What future for the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater license?
With this news, the future of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater license is uncertain. However, note that many studios from Activision have already worked on this saga born in 1999; in addition to Neversoft, the creators of the franchise, there was notably Toys for Bob or Robomodo. This means that it is highly likely that the license will fall into new hands, although nothing has been announced regarding it yet.
By JeromeJoffardWriting jeuxvideo.com
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