Vicarious Visions CA shop shuttered

By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpotPosted Jun 7, 2007 12:30 pm PT

Activision confirms closure of New York developer's West Coast offshoot, says majority of employees will stay with company.

Activision is focusing its Vicarious Visions. As reported by Gamasutra, the publisher has shuttered the New York studio's Mountain View, California, branch.

Speaking with GameSpot, Activision vice president of corporate communications Maryanne Lataif confirmed the news, explaining that the decision was made to refocus the operation's efforts on the East Coast. Lataif said there were "less than 25" people at the studio. She added that contrary to the Gamasutra report, the majority of the employees will be moved to Vicarious Visions' New York offices, or other Activision studios.

Vicarious Visions' West Coast operation was primarily a support house that worked on the studio's Alchemy middleware and tools technology, although it also contributed to some game-specific development.

Vicarious Visions has specialized in portable games, although it also has experience with high-profile console games, having developed the Xbox versions of Doom 3 and Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. Most recently it developed the Wii, PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS editions of Spider-Man 3, as well as the GBA and DS editions of Shrek the Third.

24 Comments

  • Agreb91

    Posted Jun 8, 2007 6:01 pm PT

    Well it is good to hear that the employees get to keep their job.

  • _AbBaNdOn

    Posted Jun 8, 2007 5:44 am PT

    Relocated??? Yo those guys deserve to be shot for the way they butchered Spiderman 3. Bow down and kiss Treyarch's @$$ vicarious visions!!!!

  • chrisdojo

    Posted Jun 8, 2007 5:29 am PT

    at least most of the employees get to keep a job.

  • anamnawshad

    Posted Jun 8, 2007 2:35 am PT

    I haven't played any Spider-Man games. I've seen other people playing some of them and I think they are not great games....

  • smoothn00dle

    Posted Jun 7, 2007 11:20 pm PT

    that is a sign that Sony will take the Spiderman franchise back and make it exclusive 4 PS3. U bet on *v*

  • ObiKKa

    Posted Jun 7, 2007 10:02 pm PT

    "Activision is focusing its Vicarious Visions."

    LOL! That actually gave me a long, repeated hearty chuckle! Thank you very much, Brendan!

  • rickshao

    Posted Jun 7, 2007 9:40 pm PT

    With the kind of "quality" games they pump out, they deserve to be closed!

  • DoctorFu

    Posted Jun 7, 2007 5:44 pm PT

    I haven't played too much of the Spider Man 3 but we all know that movies turned video games don't do well. But given the chance, Vicarious Visions could make a new, creative, and fun portable game.

  • blupa248

    Posted Jun 7, 2007 5:44 pm PT

    Thats a bummer

  • Pete5506

    Posted Jun 7, 2007 5:41 pm PT

    Dang that sucks

  • ScreamDream

    Posted Jun 7, 2007 5:13 pm PT

    Bummer, Maybe there is still hope for a Crash Bandicoot for next gen consoles.

  • Kaizen4

    Posted Jun 7, 2007 4:15 pm PT

    Yeah, so Spiderman 3 may have hit a bum note. But the DS & GBA versions of the Tony Hawks games have been really impressive ports.

  • marvster21

    Posted Jun 7, 2007 3:30 pm PT

    the wii version of spiderman 3 was so crap i hope they dont make it for psp cuz it'll be crap as well

  • rokkuman09

    Posted Jun 7, 2007 3:18 pm PT

    I really can tell your right now, I don't care. Vicarious Visions hasn't made any good games that I can think of. I mean Spider Man 3 and portable versions of Shrek the Third... That's not such a good track record, seeing the reviews those games got.

  • RaiKageRyu

    Posted Jun 7, 2007 2:51 pm PT

    Bad games sell, it happens.

  • waza000

    Posted Jun 7, 2007 2:19 pm PT

    Crappy

  • zinkeboy

    Posted Jun 7, 2007 2:03 pm PT

    Spidy 3 was not a big succes monco

    It did moderately well and got pretty mediocre reviews.

    Moderately well is lackluster considering the advertising money they put into that game and the hype surrounding the movie (which had the highest opening weekend gross ever).

    Yeah, it did okay. But the producers probably wanted this game to do phenominal.

    The way spiderman 2 did on consoles.

  • comthitnuong

    Posted Jun 7, 2007 1:46 pm PT

    They didn't do too well with Spiderman 3. At least for the consoles.

  • digitalreaction

    Posted Jun 7, 2007 1:46 pm PT

    I thought they did a good job on the Doom 3 port?

  • CidStormwind

    Posted Jun 7, 2007 1:20 pm PT

    stuttering gameplay, crappy graphics, you name it.

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