Search results
Blizzard Albany (formerly Vicarious Visions, Inc.) is an American video game developer based in Albany, New York.The studio was acquired by Activision in January 2005. After releasing its last game as part of that company, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2, Vicarious Visions became part of Activision's sister company Blizzard Entertainment in January 2021 and was merged into it in April 2022 ...
- Vicarious Visions, Inc. (1991–2022)
- Video games
- 1991; 32 years ago
- Subsidiary
- Overview
- Partnership With Bungie
- Helsom Memorial
- References
(VV), now known as Blizzard Albany, is an American video game developer based in Albany, New York. The company ported Destiny 2 to PC and helped create the following Destiny 2 releases: Curse of Osiris, Warmind, Season of the Forge, and Season of Opulence.
On December 8, 2016, Vicarious Visions announced that they were partnering with Bungie through Activision to work on the Destiny franchise.
In May 2017, it was confirmed that VV was working on Destiny 2's PC port. A month later, it was announced that the PC port was being delayed and would launch 46 days after the console version.
Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg said in a June 2017 interview about Destiny 2 and other games. In it, he explained that Activision wasn't satisfied with Destiny's content droughts, which is why they were bringing Vicarious Visions and High Moon Studios in to help Bungie create Destiny 2 content.
In addition to working on Destiny 2's PC port, VV also helped Bungie develop the Curse of Osiris expansion. Bungie announced in April 2018 that Vicarious Visions had helped Bungie create Destiny 2's newest expansion, Warmind, and in the creation of the Rasputin ARG.
In September 2020, Bungie announced that they had created a tribute in Destiny 2 to honor a Vicarious Visions employe who had passed away in 2019, Matt Holsom:
On September 22, Destiny 2 players logged in to find a new message from Ana Bray, asking them to investigate a signal on Mars at a Golden Age Research Station that just came online. Players made their way to the Mindlab area, and about halfway there, discovered an open office door. Inside was a work station with a glass of water, a sticky note that said “Hot Dog!,” a sticker that indicated "no snakes," a red keyboard, and a datapad that had "MH" displayed on it. Upon investigating the datapad, players were asked to visit Ana, who shared information about Helsom through in-game lore:
"I can't believe you found this," Ana says. "It's Helsom's journal."
"Helsom was a xenoarchaeologist during the Golden Age. He believed there were instances of contact between extrasolar species and humanity, long before the Traveler."
"By all accounts, Helsom was a cigar smoking, whiskey-drinking explorer who hated flying. He'd refused to use jumpships for planetary exploration. Would just hop in a rover and drive halfway across Mars to do his research."
"In spite of all that, every log entry I've ever heard made it sound like he was the happiest guy in the room. His laugh was just…"
Apr 12, 2022 · Vicarious Visions, the makers of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2, has been fully merged into Blizzard Entertainment, the studio said on Tuesday. The development team remains located in Albany ...
Apr 12, 2022 · The Albany, New York-based studio, best known for its work on the Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero franchises, is now officially a part of Blizzard Entertainment. This merger was announced in 2021, and ...
The Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, a collection of remasters of the first three games in the series, was developed by Vicarious Visions and released for the PlayStation 4 on June 30, 2017. Vicarious Visions had also expressed interest in making a new Crash Bandicoot game following the N. Sane Trilogy ' s release.
