Alternative visionAccording to reports, the studio responsible for the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane trilogy and Diablo 2: Resurrection may be renamed.
As the studio merges with Blizzard, Vicarious Visions will be named another name, possibly Blizzard Albany, and many current employees believe this.
During a conversation with Polygon, the studio staff told the website that the change was mentioned at the company’s town hall meeting yesterday. Although it still hopes to continue to operate as its own studio after the merger, the staff said that a new name has not been announced yet, but it is speculated that the studio will be called Blizzard Albany. This is because Vicarious Visions is located in Albany, New York, and Blizzard usually names its off-site offices by location.
Most people who talked to Polygon said that the news was not surprising and was “written on the wall,” but one employee regretted the lack of transparency in Activision Blizzard’s plan.
An employee told Polygon: “Although all the leaders are talking about being more transparent in dealing with litigation and the resulting fiasco, the fact that they decided to blind us all makes it feel as opaque as possible. “
Established in 1991, the co-owner of the studio sold it to Activision in 2005. When it became part of a larger company, it began to develop the Guitar Hero series on platforms such as Ultimate Spider-Man, Star Wars Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Exile, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, and on the Nintendo DS and Wii platforms.
In 2017, it committed to porting Destiny 2 ti PC, bringing Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy to various platforms, and developed Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 in 2020, and recently developed Diablo 2 in cooperation with Blizzard: resurrection.
Today, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick (Bobby Kotick) published an open letter with the company’s boss, saying that he asked the board of directors to reduce his salary to the minimum wage allowed by California law, which is $62,500 this year. He also demanded that any bonuses be forfeited before the board of directors determines that the company has achieved its “gender-related transformation goals” and other promises.
According to Kotick, this will allow the use of more available resources to help invest $250 million in the next 10 years to promote “expanding gaming and technology opportunities for underrepresented communities.”
Kotick’s request for a pay cut was released after the current legal process between Activision Blizzard and California regulators.
