Here is a move no one saw coming. Vicarious Visions — owned by Activision since 2005 — has now merged with Blizzard Entertainment to exclusively focus on the Legacy division.

Vicarious Visions came under the microscope of public view after Actugaming leaked they were developing Diablo II: Resurrected. The plot thickens with this sudden merger, and it doesn’t end there.

Vicarious Visions has remastered and/or ported games like:

  • Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2
  • Skylanders Superchargers
  • Guitar Hero: Warriros of Rock
  • Crash Bandicoot N-Sane Trilogy
  • Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
  • Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
  • Spiderman 3

It is super relevant that Vicarious Visions is now exclusive to Blizzard games because we already heard in a recent Activision Blizzard investors call about Blizzard’s focus on developing multiple mobile games based in the Warcraft, StarCraft, Overwatch IPs.

Vicarious Visions has its own engine to port games into Nintendo Switch, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, iOS, Android, PS4, and Kindle Fire. They use the heavily-modified Alchemy Engine — formerly by Intrinsic.

Former Vicarious Visions studio head Jennifer Oneal will now take the role of Blizzard executive vice president of development, and report directly to Blizzard president J. Allen Brack.

In addition, according to Jason Schreier, the Classic Team was silently dismantled in Fall 2020. Classic Team developers were moved to work on Diablo 4; leaving Vicarious Visions to take full operation of the Blizzard classic games division.

Jason Schreier also says that Team 1 (as we knew it) is no more. Vicarious Visions will take over support of classic games.

Thanks for the tips, @Flamb744 & Avalon

Source: GameIndustry.biz and Bloomberg

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

There is a lot to process and a lot of potential. Moving an entire company to take the operation of Blizzard’s Classic Games means there are many plans in motion.

We already have a StarCraft: Remastered and a not so welcomed Warcraft III: Reforged. The next step is Diablo II.

But what happens after Diablo II: Resurrected is shipped?

Well, Vicarious Visions has brought Guitar Hero to iOS; as well as Skylanders: Cloud Patrol, Skylanders: Lost Islands, and Skylanders: Trap Team to Android and iOS.

Before the Nintendo Switch, they had also brought Tony Hawk’s Proving Grounds and Transformers to Nintendo DS and other games to Wii and Game Boy Advance.

Most recently, they ported Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy to the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

So the natural thought here is that past Blizzard games might be ported to Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X, Android and iOS in some form or fashion; or even brand-new games based on the Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo and Overwatch IPs.

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