Blizzard has absorbed the studio “Vicarious Visions”: They previously worked on Destiny 2 and on the “Tony Hawk” series. The team is now supposed to develop Diablo 2 Resurrected and Diablo 4 . The head of Blizzard, J. Allen Brack, explains during BlizzCon 2021 how this came about.
This is the pure news: The news itself was already known a month ago. In a statement to the press, it was said that the studio “Vicarious Visions” is being merged into Blizzard Entertainment:
- The 200 people on the team will become employees of Blizzard and will no longer develop independent games.
- The head of Vicarious Visions, Jen Oneal, is moving to a senior position at Blizzard, she will be “Vice President of Development”
- The studio will remain in Albany, New York, thus on the East Coast. Blizzard’s headquarters is in Irvine, California, on the West Coast of the USA.
At the end of January, the parties did not officially reveal what Vicarious Visions is working on at Blizzard. But the insider Jason Schreier already exclaimed in the background: “They are making a Diablo 2 Remastered!”
And he turned out to be right.
It would be a shame if we separated again after D2
How long has this been going on? As it became known in an interview with Venture Beat, Vicarious Visions has actually been working with Blizzard for 2 years (via Venture Beat).
During this time, according to Blizzard head Brack, it was realized how well Blizzard and Vicarious Visions fit together:
Blizzard has no long history of collaborating with other studios. We are pretty much an island.
One idea we had right from the beginning: It would be a shame if we worked together on a game and solved a lot of integration and technical difficulties. And then at the end of Diablo 2, we simply say: That was great, thank you very much, and good luck with your next projects.
J. Allen Brack
The poor other support studio that was supposed to save Destiny 2 is now tapping in the content mines of Call of Duty:
Studio worked on Destiny 2 since 2015 – Now they are helping with the next big title
Therefore, Blizzard thought early on: It would be great to continue working together.
What is Vicarious Visions working on: On the Diablo franchise. Brack says:
- part of the team is working on Diablo 2 Remastered
- part of the team is working on Diablo 4
- Blizzard wants them to continue working on Diablo in the future
Are they only making Blizzard games now? Vicarious Visions worked on the PC port of Destiny 2 before their time at Blizzard, they were already a support studio then. But they also led their own games like Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 and 2.
Brack was asked if Vicarious Visions would also make more games for Activision:
I don’t want to say never, but it’s not the plan [that they work on their own games]. The plan is: For the foreseeable future, they should be bound to Blizzard franchises in some form.
J. Allen Brack
Activision sends firefighters first to Bungie, then to Blizzard
What’s behind it: The Blizzard head implies that the merger would be a super coincidence that came out of nowhere. In fact, several factors came together, and the decision for Vicarious Visions to assist Blizzard resulted from the situation.
From Destiny’s perspective:
- Vicarious Visions was one of two support studios that were supposed to help Bungie supply their Destiny games with content starting in 2016, after it became clear that Bungie couldn’t manage the huge plan from Activision alone
- In 2016, there was the legendary statement from then-Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg, that they planned a “more robust pipeline of content” for Destiny – this should be secured by having studios like Vicarious Visions help with Destiny
- Vicarious Visions apparently took over the PC port of Destiny 2 and also delivered content. The “Forsaken” campaign and other content in the game came from Vicarious Visions – and it was good work
- In fact, it seemed towards the end of 2018 that Bungie could now satisfy the insatiable content hunger of fans
- But Bungie and Activision separated at the beginning of 2019, thus 2 years ago – then Vicarious Visions was free and needed new projects
Bungie later stated in 2020: They can no longer do something as big as Forsaken. Because back then with Forsaken they had many more employees and money.
The employees that they had more of in 2018 were apparently meant to be Vicarious Visions.
From Blizzard’s perspective:
- Blizzard has had a content crisis for a while: They have valuable brands but are releasing too few games for these brands. When they do, as with WoW Classic, those are huge hits that dominate the market
- This apparently drives Activision crazy – they desperately want more games for Blizzard’s major brands. So more for Warcraft, more for Diablo, more for Overwatch.
- Therefore, Vicarious Visions came at the right time, being free after 2019 and the separation from Bungie: They should now support Blizzard
- At Blizzard, supposedly team 1 was supposed to work on “Diablo 2 Remastered”: Team 1 had previously developed content for Starcraft 2 and Heroes of the Storm. After these titles ended, team 1 was supposedly to take over the remastered games for Blizzard. However, it had so many issues with Warcraft 3 Reforged that Blizzard supposedly disbanded the team. The information comes from an insider report by Jason Schreier.
- Vicarious Visions is now apparently supposed to take over the “Diablo” franchise together with Blizzard’s team 3
Crisis management of Activision Blizzard
What appears to be a natural growth in Blizzard’s portrayal and a coincidence due to their good understanding, if you believe insider reports, is actually a crisis management of Activision Blizzard.
They sent the firefighters Vicarious Visions from one fire to another: First to Bungie to extinguish the flames at Destiny 2, and now to Blizzard. There they will probably stay and work on Diablo 2 and Diablo 4.
Blizzard is certainly happy about the “new friends on the East Coast.”
The poor other support studio that was supposed to save Destiny 2 is now tapping in the content mines of Call of Duty:
Studio worked on Destiny 2 since 2015 – Now they are helping with the next big title
