Vicarious Visions becomes part of Blizzard Entertainment

Vicarious Visions has become part of Blizzard Entertainment sixteen years after Activision acquired it.

The game developer told GamesIndustry.biz today that “it is merging Vicarious Visions into Blizzard Entertainment.”

“After collaborating with Vicarious Visions for some time and developing a great relationship, Blizzard realized there was an opportunity for [Vicarious Visions] to provide long-term support,” a representative said.

Vicarious Visions refused to say what the team of 200+ people are working on currently.

The merge comes with changes. Studio head Jennifer Oneal has become an executive VP of development at Blizzard. Also, Simon Ebejer will replace Oneal as the new studio head at VV.

The studio has worked on franchises such as Skylanders, Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk games.

Thought the studio refused to say what it is working on, a Bloomberg post says VV is “working with Blizzard since last year on the Diablo franchise, including a planned remake of Diablo II.” Team 1 is working on Diablo IV.

Warcraft III: Reforged, developed by Blizzard’s Team 1, received bad reviews, along with a 59/100 on Metacritic. Blizzard later stop Team 1 from working on the Diablo II remake. “A group at Vicarious Visions is also working on the remake, which was known as Diablo II: Resurrected,” said Bloomberg.

[Sources]: GamesIndustry.biz: Vicarious Visions merged into Blizzard. Bloomberg: Blizzard Absorbs Activision Studio After Dismantling Classic Games Team.