Vicarious Visions CA shop shuttered

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.