Blizzard Absorbs Activision Studio After Dismantling Classic Games Team

The studio, Vicarious Visions, had been an Activision subsidiary since 2005 and worked on franchises such as Skylanders, Crash Bandicoot, and Tony Hawk. It will now focus entirely on Blizzard franchises, including Diablo, rather than creating its own games. Former Vicarious Visions studio director Jennifer Oneal will sit on Blizzard’s leadership team and report directly to the president.

News, reported by GamesIndustry.biz, came just weeks after Blizzard quietly dismantled one of its internal development teams, according to people familiar with the company.

Blizzard, the creator of games like World of Warcraft and Overwatch, has traditionally developed most of its games in-house. But in recent years, Activision’s editorial arm has taken a stronger hand in Blizzard’s operations. Albany, New York-based Vicarious Visions has been working with Blizzard since last year on the Diablo franchise, including a planned remake of Diablo II, people familiar with the plans said. They asked not to be identified discussing private information.

A Blizzard spokesperson declined to comment on current Vicarious Visions projects, only confirming that the studio “has been working with Blizzard for some time.”

Until last year, the Diablo II remake was slated to be developed by Blizzard Team 1, part of the company’s Irvine, California campus, which had become known for reworking classic games. Its most recent release, in January 2020, was a remake called Warcraft III: Reforged. The title was poorly received due to glitches and missing features, scoring 59 out of 100 on the Metacritic review aggregator, the lowest score ever for a Blizzard game.

The members of Team 1 met to discuss what had gone wrong. Internal Blizzard documents reviewed by Bloomberg pointed to glitches in the game due to poor planning, miscommunication, and a rushed launch due to financial pressure from management, among other factors. For example, Blizzard announced the game in November 2018 and began pre-ordering for 2019 without informing most of the development team beforehand, according to several people who worked on Warcraft III: Reforged.

Team 1 wanted to avoid repeating the mistakes of Warcraft III: Reforged in their next project, the Diablo II remake. However, shortly after the autopsy, Blizzard withdrew that project from the team and put the division behind Diablo IV in charge. A group of Vicarious Visions is also working on the remake, known as Diablo II: Resurrected.

On October 15, 2020, Blizzard informed members of Team 1 that it was reorganizing the entire division, according to the people who worked on Warcraft III: Reforged. In the following weeks, team members had the opportunity to interview for jobs at other Blizzard locations. Those who did not find positions in the company were gradually cut. Others went on to independent studios recently started by veterans of high-profile companies like Frost Giant and DreamHaven, started by co-founder and former Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime, whose departure largely marked the beginning of the Activision acquisition.

Team 1 was also responsible for the Heroes of the Storm and StarCraft II games. Blizzard slowed down support for Heroes of the Storm development in 2018. On the same day that Blizzard said it was reorganizing the division, it publicly announced that StarCraft II would end all ongoing development.

Blizzard has promised to continue to fix and update Warcraft III: Reforged, although it will likely do so with different external gear. A spokesperson did not confirm who is in charge of the ongoing development of Warcraft III: Reforged, but said that “we remain committed to updates in support of the community.”