Blizzard Albany
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2007) |
| File:Vicarious Visions.png Vicarious Visions logo | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer and video games |
| Founded | 1990 |
| Founder | Karthik Bala Guha Bala |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Jennifer O’Neal |
| Products | List of Vicarious Visions video games |
Number of employees | 200+ developers, additional QA and temporary |
| Parent | Independent (1990–2005) Activision (2005–present) |
| Website | www |
Vicarious Visions is an American video game developer. Vicarious Visions' games accounted for over $2.5 billion in retail sales and over 40 million units of its software have been sold worldwide. The headquarters of Vicarious Visions is located in Menands, New York.
Studio history
The studio was founded by brothers Karthik and Guha Bala in 1990 while both were in high school.
In the late 1990s, Vicarious Visions appointed Michael Marvin, an Albany based investor and entrepreneur and founder and former CEO of MapInfo Corporation; and Charles S. Jones, investor, who sat on the boards of various software and industrial companies including Geac and PSDI, to its board of directors. Under their leadership, a sale of the company was negotiated to Activision, earning the original investors over 20x their initial investment.
In January 2005, Vicarious Visions was acquired by publisher Activision. In April 2016, the Bala brothers announced that they had left the company.[1]
Game history
Terminus, an online multiplayer space trading and combat simulation game, won two Independent Games Festival Awards in 1999. They became known as a leading developer of handheld games breaking ground by the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series, developing every Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS title in the franchise's main series as well as one spin off. They developed the first three Crash Bandicoot GBA games. They are also well known for many games including Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Ultimate Spider-Man, Crash Nitro Kart, Jedi Knight II, Jedi Academy, and Doom 3 for the Xbox. Vicarious Visions developed for the Guitar Hero series on the Nintendo DS and Wii platforms. For Guitar Hero: On Tour, Vicarious Visions created the "Guitar Grip" peripheral for the Nintendo DS, which emulates the guitar controller for the portable system.
It was revealed on June 10, 2011, that Vicarious Visions was working on the 3DS version of Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure.[2]
Games developed
Cancelled games
| Year | Game | Platform(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | AMF Xtreme Bowling | Game Boy Color |
| 2000 | Carnivale | Game Boy Color |
| 2001 | Sea-Doo Hydrocross | Game Boy Color |
| 2008 | Call of Duty: Roman Wars | Microsoft Windows, PS3, Xbox 360 |
| 2010 | DJ Hero 3D | Nintendo 3DS |
| 2011 | Guitar Hero 7 | PS3, Xbox 360, Wii |
| 2012 | Untitled Crash Bandicoot game | PS3, Xbox 360, Wii |
Awards received
References
- ^ Futter, Mike (April 5, 2016). "Vicarious Visions Co-Founder Brothers Depart After 25 Years". Game Informer. Retrieved April 5, 2016.
- ^ "Report: Job Losses At Vicarious Visions". Nintendo World Report.
- ^ East, Thomas (July 2, 2013). "Skylanders Swap Force Wii will be very close to the HD versions". Official Nintendo Magazine. Retrieved October 3, 2013.
External links
| Main series | |
|---|---|
| Expansions | |
| Spinoffs | |
| Related articles | |
A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard | |||||
| Franchises | |||||
| Games | |||||
| Subsidiaries |
| ||||
| Related | |||||