Activision

Activision, Inc.

Company type	Public (NASDAQ: ATVI)
Industry	Computer and video games
Founded	1979
Defunct	mid-2008 successor = Activision Blizzard
Headquarters	Santa Monica, CA
Products	Call of Duty series Spider-Man series Quake series Tony Hawk's series Soldier of Fortune series Doom series Guitar Hero series
Revenue	USD$1.48 billion (2008)
Website	http://www.activision.com/

Activision, Inc. Nasdaq: ATVI is an American video game developer and publisher. It was the first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles, founded on October 1 1979. Its first products were cartridges for the Atari 2600 video console system, and it is now one of the largest third party video game publishers in the world, so far being the top publisher of 2007 in the U.S. On January 18 2008, Activision announced they were the top US publisher in 2007, according to the NPD Group.

On December 2, 2007, it was announced that Activision would merge with Vivendi Games. The new company will be called Activision Blizzard.

History

Before the formation of Activision, software for video game consoles was published exclusively by the makers of the systems for which the games were designed. For example, Atari was the only publisher of games for the Atari 2600. This was particularly galling to the developers of the games, as they received no financial rewards for games that sold well, and did not receive credit in the manuals. After watching a number of games turn into multi-million-dollar best sellers, a number of programmers decided they had had enough and left. Activision became the first third-party game publisher for game consoles.

The company was founded by former music industry executive Jim Levy and former Atari programmers David Crane, Larry Kaplan, Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead. Atari's company policy at the time was not to credit game creators for their individual contributions; Levy took the approach of crediting and promoting game creators along with the games themselves. Steps included devoting a page to the developer in their instruction manuals and challenging players to send in a high score (usually as a photograph, but sometimes as a letter) in order to receive a patch. These were important draws that helped the newly formed company attract experienced talent. Crane, Kaplan, Levy, Miller, and Whitehead received the Game Developers Choice "First Penguin" award in 2003 in recognition of this step.

The departure of the four programmers, whose titles made up more than half of Atari's cartridge sales at the time, caused legal action between the two companies which was not ultimately settled until 1982. As the market for game consoles started to decline, Activision branched out, producing game titles for home computers as well, and acquiring smaller publishers.

In 1982, Activision released Pitfall!, which is considered by many to be the first platform game as well as the best selling title on the 2600. Although the team's technical prowess had already been proven, it was Pitfall! that turned them into a huge success. This not only resulted in a legion of clones, including stand-up arcade games, but can be said to have launched the entire platform genre which became a major part of video games through the 1980s.

In 1985, Activision merged with struggling text adventure pioneer Infocom. Jim Levy was a big fan of Infocom's titles and wanted Infocom to remain solvent. However, about six months after the "InfoWedding", Bruce Davis took over as CEO of Activision. Davis was against the merger from the start and was heavy-handed in management of them. He also forced marketing changes on Infocom which caused sales of their games to plummet. Eventually, in 1989, after several years of losses, Activision closed down the Infocom studios in Cambridge, Massachusetts extending to only 11 of the 26 employees an offer to relocate to Activision's headquarters in Silicon Valley; five did.

In 1988 Activision started to get involved in other types of software besides video games, such as business applications. As a result, Activision changed its corporate name to Mediagenic in order to have a name that would globally represent all its fields of activities. (Mediagenic is often mistaken to be a company that purchased Activision but in reality it was only Activision with a different name). Despite this change, Mediagenic continued to largely use the Activision brand on its video games of the various platforms it was publishing for, notably the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Sega Master System, the Atari 7800, Commodore 64 and Amiga. The decision of the company to get involved in various fields at the expense of video gaming proved to be a move so bad that in 1992 Mediagenic filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

New Activision

The failure of Mediagenic resulted in a reorganization and merger with The Disc Company with Mediagenic again being the acquirer. After emerging from bankruptcy, Mediagenic officially changed its entity name back to Activision in the state of Delaware on December 1992. At that point Activision moved its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Southern California. While emerging from bankruptcy, it continued to develop games for PCs and video game consoles and resumed making strategic acquisitions. Activision chose from then on to only concentrate itself in video gaming and nothing else.

In 1991 Activision packaged 20 of Infocom's past games into a CD-ROM collection called The Lost Treasures of Infocom sans most of the “feelies” Infocom was famous for. The success of this compilation led to the 1992 release of 11 more Infocom titles in The Lost Treasures of Infocom II.

Activision Value

Main article: Activision Value

Activision Value is a subsidiary brand of Activision, a merger of Expert Software and Head Games Publishing, with offices located in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis.

As its name implies, Value is the publisher of budget titles for Activision. Its most prominent titles are the Cabela's line of hunting and fishing-related games, and the World Series of Poker.

Acquisitions and partnerships

Year	Acquisition
1997	Raven Software made an exclusive publishing deal with Activision and was subsequentally acquired by them. This partnership resulted in HeXen II, Heretic II, Soldier of Fortune, its sequel and Quake 4. That same year, Activision acquired CentreSoft Ltd., (an independent distributor in the United Kingdom) and NBG Distribution (a German distributor).
1998	Pandemic Studios was founded with an equity investment by Activision. Pandemic's first two games, Battlezone II and Dark Reign 2, were both sequels to Activision games. That same year, Activision also inked deals with Marvel Entertainment, Head Game Publishing, Disney Interactive, LucasArts Entertainment and CD Contact Data.
1999	Activision acquired Neversoft Entertainment, best recognized for their line of Tony Hawk skateboarding games. That same year, Activision acquired Expert Software (maker of Home Design 3D).
2000	Activision made an equity investment in Gray Matter Interactive, to develop the follow-up to id Software's Wolfenstein 3D.
2001	Activision acquired rights to Columbia Pictures' feature film Spider-Man. That same year, Activision also acquired Treyarch Invention LLC.
2002	Activision made an equity investment in Infinity Ward, a newly formed studio comprised of 22 of the individuals who developed Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. That same year, Activision acquired Z-Axis Ltd. (the studio behind Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX) and Luxoflux Corporation.
2003	Activision and DreamWorks SKG inked a multi-year, multi-property publishing agreement. That same year, Activision also formed a partnership with Valve and acquired both Infinity Ward (developers of the Call of Duty franchise) and software developer Shaba Games LLC. Activision and Sega Corporation made a deal to publish the US releases of P.C. versions of some titles, especially Sonic Adventure DX, Director's Cut. Activision, along with several other game software publishers, was investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for its accounting practices, namely the use of the "return reserve" to allegedly smooth quarterly results.
2004	The company marked its 25th anniversary, and stated that it had posted record earnings and the twelfth consecutive year of revenue growth.
2005	Activision acquired game developers Vicarious Visions, Toys for Bob and Beenox, Inc..
2006	Activision secured the video game license to make games based on the world of James Bond from MGM Interactive. An exclusive agreement between the two begins in September 2007 with Activision's first game set to be released in May 2008 being developed by Treyarch, Beenox and Vicarious Visions. Also in 2006, Activision acquired publisher RedOctane, Inc. (the publisher of the Guitar Hero franchise).
2007	Activision acquired the control of games developer Bizarre Creations.

Merger with Vivendi

In December 2007, it was announced that Activision would merge with Vivendi Games which owns fellow games developer and publisher Blizzard. The new company will be called Activision Blizzard and will be headed by Activision's current CEO, Bobby Kotick. Vivendi will be the biggest shareholder in the new group.

Notable published titles

See also: List of Activision games

• Fishing Derby (1980)
• Skiing (1980)
• Freeway (1981)
• Ice Hockey (1981)
• Kaboom! (1981)
• Stampede (1981)
• Barnstorming (1982)
• Pitfall! (1982)
• River Raid (1982)
• Robot Tank (1983)
• MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat (1995)
• The Quake series (with the exception of the first version of Quake)
• Interstate '76 (1997)
• Battlezone (1998)
• Civilization: Call to Power (1999)
• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (1999)
• Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (2002)
• Spider-Man movie series (2002–)
• Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (2003)
• True Crime: Streets of L.A. (2003)
• Call of Duty series (2003–)
• Doom 3 (2004)
• Guitar Hero series (2006–) (with the exception of the first version of Guitar Hero)

Studios

• Beenox in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
• Bizarre Creations in Liverpool, United Kingdom
• Infinity Ward in Los Angeles, California, United States of America
• Luxoflux in Santa Monica, California, USA
• Neversoft in Los Angeles, California, USA
• Raven Software in Madison, Wisconsin, USA
• RedOctane in Mountain View, California, USA
• Shaba Games in San Francisco, California, USA
• Toys For Bob in Novato, California, USA
• Treyarch in Santa Monica, California, USA
• Vicarious Visions in Mountain View, California, USA and Albany, New York, USA
• Z-Axis in Foster City, California, USA

See also

• Actiplaque

External links

• Official Activision website
• Activision Publishing, Inc. at MobyGames
• 1982 Corporate Ad
• Template:WoS pub

Development studios

• Activision's current list of developers
• Beenox Studios
• Infinity Ward
• Luxoflux Corp.
• Neversoft Entertainment
• Raven Software
• Shaba Games
• Toys for Bob
• Treyarch
• Vicarious Visions
• Z-Axis Ltd.