Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American
video game publisher
A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that have been developed either internally by the publisher or externally by a video game developer.
They often finance the development, sometimes by paying a video game developer ( ...
based in
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...
. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company,
Activision Blizzard
Activision Blizzard, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in Santa Monica, California. It was founded in July 2008 through the merger of Activision, Inc. (the publicly traded parent company of Activision Publishing) and Vivendi ...
, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one of the largest third-party video game publishers in the world and was the top United States publisher in 2016.
The company was founded as Activision, Inc. on October 1, 1979 in
Sunnyvale, California
Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwest Santa Clara County in the U.S. state of California.
Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real and Highway 101 and is bordered by portions of San Jose to the nort ...
, by former
Atari
Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc. (1972–1992), Atari, Inc., ...
game developers upset at their treatment by Atari in order to develop their own games for the popular
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600, initially branded as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) from its release until November 1982, is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977, it popularized microprocessor- ...
home video game console. Activision was the first independent, third-party, console video game developer. The
video game crash of 1983
The video game crash of 1983 (known as the Atari shock in Japan) was a large-scale recession in the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985, primarily in the United States. The crash was attributed to several factors, including ma ...
, in part created by too many new companies trying to follow in Activision's footsteps without the expertise of Activision's founders, hurt Activision's position in console games and forced the company to diversify into games for home computers, including the acquisition of
Infocom
Infocom was an American software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that produced numerous works of interactive fiction. They also produced a business application, a relational database called ''Cornerstone (software), Cornerstone''.
...
. After a management shift, with CEO
Jim Levy
Jim Levy was a music industry executive before he became the founding chief executive officer for Activision
Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing busin ...
replaced by
Bruce Davis, the company renamed itself to Mediagenic and branched out into business software applications. Mediagenic quickly fell into debt, and the company was bought for around by
Bobby Kotick
Robert A. Kotick (born 1963) is an American businessman who serves as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Activision Blizzard. He became CEO of Activision in 1991 after purchasing a company stake the previous year. Kotick engineered a merger ...
and a small group of investors around 1991.
Kotick drastically revamped and restructured the company to get it out of debt: dismissing most of its staff, moving the company to Los Angeles, and reverting to the Activision name. Building on existing assets, the Kotick-led Activision pursued more publishing opportunities and, after recovering from its former financial troubles, started acquiring numerous studios and various types of
intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...
over the 1990s and 2000s, among these being the ''
Call of Duty
''Call of Duty'' is a first-person shooter video game Media franchise, franchise published by Activision. Starting out in 2003, it first focused on games set in World War II. Over time, the series has seen games set in the midst of the Cold W ...
'' and ''
Guitar Hero
''Guitar Hero'' is a series of music rhythm game video games first released in November 2005, in which players use a guitar-shaped game controller to simulate playing primarily lead, bass guitar, and rhythm guitar across numerous songs. Player ...
'' series. A
holding company
A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...
was formed as Activision's parent company to manage both its internal and acquired studios. In 2008, this holding company merged with
Vivendi Games
Vivendi Games was an American video game publisher and holding company based in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1996 as CUC Software, the publishing subsidiary of CUC International, after the latter acquired video game companies Davidson & Associ ...
(the parent company of
Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded on February 8, 1991, under the name Silicon & Synapse, Inc. by three graduat ...
) and formed Activision Blizzard, with Kotick as its CEO. Within this structure, Activision manages numerous third-party studios and publishes all games besides those created by Blizzard.
History
Founding (1979)
![David Crane (10453626776)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/David_Crane_%2810453626776%29.jpg)
In 1976,
Warner Communications
Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States.
It was originally established in 1972 by ...
bought
Atari, Inc.
Atari, Inc. was an American video game developer and home computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Atari was a key player in the formation of the video arcade and video game industry.
Based primarily around the Sunny ...
from
Nolan Bushnell
Nolan Kay Bushnell (born February 5, 1943) is an American businessman and electrical engineer. He established Atari, Inc. and the Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre chain. He has been inducted into the Video Game Hall of Fame and the Consume ...
to help accelerate the
Atari Video Computer System
The Atari 2600, initially branded as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) from its release until November 1982, is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977, it popularized microprocessor- ...
(Atari VCS or later the Atari 2600) to market by 1977. That same year, Atari began hiring programmers to create games for the system. Prior to Warner's acquisition, the company did not award bonus pay to programmers who worked on profitable games, nor credit the programmers publicly, to prevent them from being recruited by rival game companies. Warner Communication's management style was also different from Bushnell's. According to developer
John Dunn, Warner management treated developers as engineers rather than creative staff, creating conflicts with staff. Atari's CEO
Ray Kassar
Raymond Edward Kassar (January 2, 1928 – December 10, 2017) was president, and later CEO, of Atari Inc. from 1978 to 1983. He had previously been executive vice-president of Burlington Industries, the world's largest textile company at the tim ...
, named to that position following Warner's acquisition in 1978, was committed to keeping production costs minimal for Warner, according to
David Crane, one of Atari's
programmers
A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software.
A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...
.
In early 1979, Atari's marketing department circulated a memo listing the best-selling cartridges from the previous year to help guide game ideas.
Crane noted that the games he was fully responsible for had brought in over for the company but he was still only receiving a salary.
Out of a development staff of thirty-five, four programmers (Crane,
Larry Kaplan
Larry Kaplan is an American game designer who was the co-founder of Activision.
Kaplan studied at the University of California, Berkeley from 1968 through 1974 and graduated with a degree in Computer Science.
He started at Atari, Inc. in Augus ...
,
Alan Miller and
Bob Whitehead
Robert A. Whitehead (born November 1, 1953) is an American video game designer and programmer. While working for Atari, Inc. he wrote two of the nine Atari Video Computer System launch titles: ''Blackjack'' and '' Star Ship''. After leaving Atari, ...
), had produced games that had accounted for 60% of Atari's sales.
Crane, Kaplan, Miller, and Whitehead became vocal about the lack of recognition within the company and became known as the "Gang of Four".
The group met with Kassar in May 1979 to demand that the company treat developers as
record label
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...
s treated musicians, with royalties and their names on game boxes. Kaplan, who called the others "the best designers for the
600
__NOTOC__
600 (Roman numerals, DC) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 600 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar ...
in the world", recalled that Kassar called the four men "towel designers" and claimed that "anybody can do a cartridge".
The four made the decision to soon leave Atari and start their own business, but were not sure how to go about it.
In 1979, the concept of
third-party developer
A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...
s did not exist, as software for
video game console
A video game console is an electronic device that Input/output, outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home video game console, home consoles, which are generally placed i ...
s were published exclusively by makers of the systems for which the games were designed; thus the common thinking was that to make console games, one needed to make a console first.
The four decided to create their own independent game development company. They were directed by their attorney to
Jim Levy
Jim Levy was a music industry executive before he became the founding chief executive officer for Activision
Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing busin ...
, who was at the time raising
venture capital
Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...
to get into the software business for early home computers. Levy listened to their plans, agreed with its direction, and helped the four to secure about in capital from
Sutter Hill Ventures
Sutter Hill Ventures is an American private equity firm focused on venture capital investments in technology-based start-up companies. Founded in 1964, Sutter Hill is one of the oldest venture capital firms still in operation. Based in Palo Alto ...
.
They also checked with legal counsel on their plans to develop games for the Atari VCS, and included litigation fees in their capital investment.
By August, Crane and Miller had left Atari, with Whitehead joining them shortly after.
Kaplan had also quit Atari in August, but initially decided not to join as he did not like the starting business plan; he came back later to join Activision that December. Activision was formally founded on October 1, 1979, with Levy serving as CEO. The company was initially named "Computer Arts, Inc." while they considered a better title. The founders had thought of the name VSync, Inc., but feared that the public would not understand or know how to say it. Levy suggested combining "active" and "television" to come up with Activision.
Early years (1980–1982)
Activision began working out of Crane's garage in the latter half of 1979, each programmer developing their own game that was planned for release in mid-1980, ''
Dragster'', ''
Fishing Derby
''Fishing Derby'' is a fishing video game written by David Crane for the Atari Video Computer System (renamed to the Atari 2600 in 1982) and published by Activision in 1980. It's one of the first video games developed by Activision.
Gameplay
...
'', ''Checkers'', and ''
Boxing
Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...
''.
The four's knowledge of the Atari 2600, as well as software tricks for the system, helped them make their own games visually distinct from Atari-produced games.
To further distinguish themselves, Activision's boxes were brightly colored and featured an in-game screenshot on the back cover.
Instruction manuals for games devoted at least one page to credit the developer. Additionally, for nearly all of Activision's games through 1983, the instruction manuals included instructions for sending the company a photograph of a player's high scores to receive a patch in return.
Ahead of the release of the first four games, Activision obtained space at the mid-year 1980
Consumer Electronics Show
CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typi ...
to showcase their titles, and quickly obtained favorable press.
The attention afforded to Activision worried Atari, as the four's departure had already created a major dent in their development staff.
Atari initially tried to tarnish Activision's reputation by using industry press at CES to label those that took trade secrets as "evil, terrible people", according to Crane, and then later threatened to refuse to sell Atari games to retailers that also carried these Activision titles.
By the end of 1980, Atari filed a formal lawsuit against Activision to try to stop the company, claiming the four had stolen trade secrets and violated
non-disclosure agreement
A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is a legal contract or part of a contract between at least two parties that outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties wish to share with one another for certain purposes, but wish ...
s.
The lawsuit was settled by 1982, with Activision agreeing to pay royalties to Atari but otherwise legitimizing the third-party development model.
In 2003, Activision's founders were given the
Game Developers Choice "First Penguin" award, reflecting their being the first successful third-party developer in the video game industry.
Following the first round of releases, each of the founders developed their own titles, about once a year, over the first few years of the company.
While their 1980 games were modest hits, one of the company's first successful games was ''
Kaboom!'', released in 1981, which was Activision's first game to sell over a million units.
Activision's breakout title was 1982's ''
Pitfall!
''Pitfall!'' is a platform video game designed by David Crane for the Atari 2600 and released by Activision in 1982. The player controls Pitfall Harry and is tasked with collecting all the treasures in a jungle within 20 minutes. The world con ...
'', created by Crane. More than four million copies of the game were sold. Near the end of 1982, Kaplan left Activision to work on the development of the
Amiga
Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...
personal computer as he wanted to be more involved in hardware development.
Total sales for Activision were estimated at and revenues at ahead of its June 1983
initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
; at this point Activision had around 60 employees.
Danny Goodman
Danny Goodman is a computer programmer, technology consultant, and an author of over three dozen books and hundreds of magazine articles on computer-related topics. He is best known as the author of ''The Complete HyperCard Handbook'' (1987, Ban ...
stated in ''
Creative Computing
''Creative Computing'' was one of the earliest magazines covering the microcomputer revolution. Published from October 1974 until December 1985, the magazine covered the spectrum of hobbyist/home/personal computing in a more accessible format th ...
Video & Arcade Games'' in 1983, "I doubt that there is an active
tari 2600owner who doesn't have at least one Activision cartridge in his library". The company completed its public offering in June 1983 on NASDAQ under the stock ticker AVSN.
The video game market crash (1983–1988)
The success of Activision, alongside the popularity of the Atari 2600, led to many more home consoles third-party developers as well as other home consoles. Activision produced some of its Atari games for the
Intellivision
The Intellivision is a home video game console released by Mattel, Mattel Electronics in 1979. The name is a portmanteau of "intelligent television". Development began in 1977, the same year as the launch of its main competitor, the Atari 2600. I ...
and
ColecoVision
ColecoVision is a second-generation home video-game console developed by Coleco and launched in North America in August 1982. It was released a year later in Europe by CBS Electronics as the CBS ColecoVision.
The console offered a closer expe ...
consoles, among other platforms. However, several new third-party developers also arose, attempting to follow the approach Activision had used but without the experience they had; according to Crane, several of these companies were founded with venture capital and hired programmers with little game design experience off the street, mass-publishing whatever product the developers had made. This was a contributing factor to the
video game crash of 1983
The video game crash of 1983 (known as the Atari shock in Japan) was a large-scale recession in the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985, primarily in the United States. The crash was attributed to several factors, including ma ...
.
For Activision, while they survived the crash, they felt its effects in the following years. These third-party developers folded, leaving warehouses full of unsold games, which savvy retailers purchased and sold at a mass discount ( compared to Activision's
manufacturer's suggested retail price
The list price, also known as the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP), or the recommended retail price (RRP), or the suggested retail price (SRP) of a product is the price at which its manufacturer notionally recommends that a retailer ...
). While there was still a demand for Activision games, uneducated consumers were more drawn to the heavily discounted titles instead, reducing their income.
Their quarterly revenue dropped from in mid-1983 to about by the end of 1984, according to Levy, and were forced to lay off staff, going from about 400 employees to 95 in that period.
Because of this, Activision decided that they needed to diversify their games onto home computers such as the
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...
,
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
, and
Atari 8-bit family
The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...
to avoid completely going out of business like other third-party developers.
There still was a drain of talent through 1985 from the crash. Miller and Whitehead left in 1984 due to the large devaluation of their stock and went to form
Accolade
The accolade (also known as dubbing or adoubement) ( la, benedictio militis) was the central act in the rite of passage ceremonies conferring knighthood in the Middle Ages. From about 1852, the term ''accolade'' was used much more generally to ...
.
With the video game crash making console game development a risky proposition, the company focused on developing for home computers with games like ''
Little Computer People
''Little Computer People'', also called ''House-on-a-Disk'', is a social simulation game released in 1985 by Activision for the
Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC (short for ''Colour Personal Computer'') is a series of ...
'' and ''
Hacker
A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...
'', while Levy tried to keep expenditures in check as they recovered.
Looking to expand further, Activision acquired, through a corporate merger, the struggling
text adventure
''
Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, is software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives, either in the ...
pioneer
Infocom
Infocom was an American software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that produced numerous works of interactive fiction. They also produced a business application, a relational database called ''Cornerstone (software), Cornerstone''.
...
in June 1986. This acquisition was spearheaded by Levy, who was a big fan of Infocom's titles and felt the company was in a similar position as Activision.
About six months after the "Infocom Wedding", Activision's board decided to replace Levy with
Bruce Davis. Davis was against the purchase of Infocom from the start and was heavy-handed in its management,
and even attempted to seek a lawsuit to recover their purchase from Infocom's shareholders.
Crane also found Davis difficult to work with and was concerned with how Davis managed the closure of
Imagic
Imagic ( ) was an American video game developer and publisher that created games initially for the Atari 2600. Founded in 1981 by corporate alumni of Atari, Inc. and Mattel, its best-selling titles were ''Atlantis'', ''Cosmic Ark'', and ''Demon ...
, one of the third-party development studios formed in Activision's success in 1981.
Crane left Activision in 1986 and helped
Garry Kitchen
Garry Kitchen (born August 18, 1955, in Washington, D.C., United States) is a video game designer, programmer, and executive best known for developing games for the Atari 2600, Commodore 64, Nintendo Entertainment System, and Super Nintendo Ente ...
found
Absolute Entertainment
Absolute Entertainment was an American Video game publisher, video game publishing company. Through its video game developer, development house, Imagineering (company), Imagineering, Absolute Entertainment produced titles for the Amiga, Atari 260 ...
.
Mediagenic (1988–1991)
![3885 Bohannon Drive](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/3885_Bohannon_Drive.jpg)
In 1988, Activision began involvement in software besides video games, such as business applications. As a result, Activision changed its corporate name to Mediagenic to better represent all of its activities.
Mediagenic consisted of four groups:
* Activision: video game publisher for various platforms, notably the
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in America ...
, the
Sega Master System
The is an 8-bit
third-generation home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was originally a remodeled export version of the Sega Mark III, the third iteration of the SG-1000 series of consoles, which was released in Japan in 1985 and ...
, the
Atari 7800
The Atari 7800 ProSystem, or simply the Atari 7800, is a home video game console officially released by Atari Corporation in 1986 as the successor to both the Atari 2600 and Atari 5200. It can run almost all Atari 2600 cartridges, making it one o ...
,
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the Atari 8-bit family. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985 and was widely available in July. It was the first pers ...
,
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...
and
Amiga
Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...
*
Infocom
Infocom was an American software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that produced numerous works of interactive fiction. They also produced a business application, a relational database called ''Cornerstone (software), Cornerstone''.
...
: developer of interactive fiction games
*
Gamestar
''GameStar'' is a monthly-released PC gaming magazine in Germany. It is the best-selling German-language magazine focused on PC gaming and it also hosts the largest video gaming-related portal in the German-speaking internet.
Content
The pri ...
: initially an independent company but purchased by Activision in 1986. Specialized in sports video games
* Ten Point O: business application software
In 1989, after several years of losses, Activision closed down the Infocom studios, extending to only 11 of the 26 employees an offer to relocate to Activision's
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...
headquarters. Five of them accepted this offer.
Notably during this time, Mediagenic was known to have worked on the early version of a football game that would be the basis for ''
Joe Montana Football
''Joe Montana Football'' is an American football video game developed by Electronic Arts, and published by Sega for the Genesis in 1991. Although the game does feature Joe Montana (as the title respectively says) as a playable character, since Seg ...
''. Sega of America's Michael Katz had been able to get Sega to pay Mediagenic around early 1990 to develop this into the branded version after securing the rights to
Joe Montana
Joseph Clifford Montana Jr. (born June 11, 1956) is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons, primarily with the San Francisco 49ers. Nicknamed "Joe Cool" and "the Comeback Kid", ...
's name, but was unaware of internal troubles that had been going on within the company, which had left the state of the game mostly unfinished. Katz and Sega were forced to take the incomplete game to
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...
, which had been developing its own ''
John Madden Football
''Madden NFL'' (known as ''John Madden Football'' until 1993) is an American football video game series developed by EA Tiburon for EA Sports. It is named after Pro Football Hall of Fame coach and commentator John Madden and sold more than 130 m ...
'' series for personal computers, to complete the game.
During this period Mediagenic, via Activision, secured the rights to distribute games from
Cyan Worlds
Cyan, Inc., also known as Cyan Worlds, Inc., is an American video game developer. Founded as Cyan Productions by brothers Rand and Robyn Miller in 1987, the company is best known as the creator of the ''Myst'' series. The company is located in ...
. The first game published by Activision from Cyan was ''
The Manhole
''The Manhole'' is an adventure video game in which the player opens a manhole and reveals a gigantic beanstalk, leading to fantastic worlds.
Summary
The game was first released on floppy disks in 1988 by Cyan, Inc. (now ''Cyan Worlds'') and d ...
'', on
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...
for personal computers, the first major game distributed in this format.
Purchase by Bobby Kotick (1991–1997)
Davis' management of Mediagenic failed to produce a profitable company; in 1991, Mediagenic reported a loss of on only of revenue and had over in debt.
Cyan severed their contract with Activision, and turned to
Broderbund
Broderbund Software, Inc. (stylized as Brøderbund) was an American maker of video games, educational software, and productivity tools. Broderbund is best known for the 8-bit video game hits ''Choplifter'', ''Lode Runner'', ''Karateka'', and '' ...
for publishing, including what would become one of the most significant computer games of the 1990s, ''
Myst
''Myst'' is a graphic adventure/puzzle video game designed by the Miller brothers, Robyn and Rand. It was developed by Cyan, Inc., published by Broderbund, and initially released for the Macintosh in 1993. In the game, the player's character t ...
''.
Bobby Kotick
Robert A. Kotick (born 1963) is an American businessman who serves as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Activision Blizzard. He became CEO of Activision in 1991 after purchasing a company stake the previous year. Kotick engineered a merger ...
had become interested in the value of the video game industry following the crash, and he and three other investors worked to buy
Commodore International
Commodore International (other names include Commodore International Limited) was an American home computer and electronics manufacturer founded by Jack Tramiel. Commodore International (CI), along with its subsidiary Commodore Business Mach ...
in an effort to gain access to the
Commodore Amiga
Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...
line of personal computers. After failing to complete purchase, the group bought a company that licensed
Nintendo
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles.
Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...
characters, and through Nintendo was directed to the failing Mediagenic.
Kotick was drawn to buy out Mediagenic not for its current offerings but for the Activision name, given its past successes with ''Pitfall!'', with hopes to restore Activision to its former glory. Crane said that Kotick has recognized the Activision brand name could be valued around and rather than start a new company and spend that amount to obtain the same reputation, he saw the opportunity to buy the failing Mediagenic at a bargain price and gain Activision's reputation with minimal cost.
Kotick and additional investors bought Mediagenic for approximately in 1991. This group of investors included real estate businessman
Steve Wynn
Stephen Alan Wynn (''né'' Weinberg; born January 27, 1942) is an American real estate developer and art collector. He is known for his involvement in the American luxury casino and hotel industry. Early in his career he oversaw the construction ...
and
Philips Electronics
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters is ...
.
Kotick became CEO of Mediagenic on its purchase and made several immediate changes: He let go of all but 8 of the companies' 150 employees, performed a full restructuring of the company, developed a bankruptcy restructuring plan, and reincorporated the company in Los Angeles, California.
In the bankruptcy plan, Kotick recognized that Mediagenic still had valuable assets, which included the Infocom library as well as its authoring tools to make games, Activision's distribution network, and licenses to develop on Nintendo and Sega home consoles.
Kotick offset some debt by giving stock in the company to its distributors as to keep them vested in the company's success.
Kotick also had the company reissue several of its past console and Infocom titles as compilations for personal computers. Kotick had also recognized the value of the ''
Zork
''Zork'' is a text-based adventure game first released in 1977 by developers Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. The original developers and others, as the company Infocom, expanded and ...
'' property from Infocom, and had the company develop a sequel, ''
Return to Zork
''Return to Zork'' is a 1993 graphic adventure game in the ''Zork'' series. It was developed by Activision and was the final ''Zork'' game to be published under the Infocom label.
Gameplay
Unlike the previous games in the ''Zork'' franchise, whi ...
''. Combined, these steps allowed Mediagenic to fulfill on the bankruptcy plan, and by the end of 1992, Kotick renamed Mediagenic to the original Activision name.
The new Activision went public in October 1993, raising about ,
and was listed on NASDAQ under its new ticker symbol ATVI.
By 1995, Kotick's approach had met one promise he made to investors: that he would give them four years of 50% growth in revenues while remaining break-even. Reaching this goal, Kotick then set Activision on his second promise to investors, to develop high-demand games and make the company profitable by 1997.
Activision published the first-person perspective ''
MechWarrior'' in 1989, based on
FASA
Fasa ( fa, فسا, Fasā, also Romanized as Fassa) is a city and capital of Fasa County, Fars Province, Iran. At the 2016 census, its population was 110,825, in 33,379 families. Fasa is the fourth most populous city of the province. The city date ...
's pen-and-paper game ''
BattleTech
''BattleTech'' is a wargaming and military science fiction franchise launched by FASA Corporation in 1984, acquired by WizKids in 2001, which was in turn acquired by Topps in 2003; and published since 2007 by Catalyst Game Labs. The trademark ...
''. A sequel, ''
MechWarrior 2
''MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat'' is a vehicle simulation game developed and published by Activision, released in 1995 as part of the '' MechWarrior'' series of video games in the ''BattleTech'' franchise. The game is set in 3057, and is pla ...
'', was released in 1995 after two years of delays and internal struggles, prompting FASA not to renew their licensing deal with Activision. To counter, Activision released several more games bearing the ''MechWarrior 2'' name, which did not violate their licensing agreement. These included ''NetMech'', ''
MechWarrior 2: Ghost Bear's Legacy'', and ''
MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries''. The entire ''MechWarrior 2'' game series accounted for more than in sales.
Activision procured the license to another pen-and-paper-based
war game
A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a realistic simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to s ...
, ''
Heavy Gear
''Heavy Gear'' is a mecha science fiction game universe published since 1994 by Canadian publisher Dream Pod 9. It includes a tabletop tactical wargame, a role-playing game, and a combat card game ('' Heavy Gear Fighter''). The setting is also k ...
'', in 1997.
The video game version was well received by critics, with an 81.46% average rating on
GameRankings
GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...
and being considered the best game of the genre at the time by
GameSpot
''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
. The ''Mechwarrior 2'' engine was also used in other Activision games, including 1997's ''
Interstate '76
''Interstate '76'' is a vehicular combat video game for Microsoft Windows. It was developed and published by Activision and released on March 28, 1997.
Plot
The game opens in the Southwestern United States in an alternate history of the year 19 ...
'' and 1998's ''
Battlezone''.
Growth and acquisitions (1997–2008)
With several of its own successfully developed games helping to turn a profit, Kotick led Activision to start seeking acquisitions of video game development studios, guided by market surveys to determine what areas of content to focus on.
It is estimated that between 1997 and 2008, Activision made 25 acquisitions, several for undisclosed amounts. Several of these came prior to 2001, in the midst of the
Dot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet.
Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...
, enabling the company to acquire studios at a lower valuation.
On June 16, 2000, Activision reorganized as a
holding company
A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...
, Activision Holdings, to manage Activision and its subsidiaries more effectively.
Activision changed its corporate name from "Activision, Inc." to "Activision Publishing, Inc.", while Activision Holdings took Activision's former "Activision, Inc." name.
Activision Publishing became a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision, which in turn became the publicly traded company, with all outstanding shares of capital stock converted.
Some of the key acquisitions and investments made by Activision in this period include:
*
Raven Software
Raven Software Corporation is an American video game developer based in Wisconsin and founded in 1990. In 1997, Raven made an exclusive publishing deal with Activision and was subsequently acquired by them. After the acquisition, many of the st ...
: Raven was founded in 1990; because of their close proximity, Raven frequently collaborated with
id Software
id Software LLC () is an American video game developer based in Richardson, Texas. It was founded on February 1, 1991, by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and ar ...
, and one of the studio's early successes was the ''
Heretic
Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...
'' series using id's
Doom engine
id Tech 1, also known as the ''Doom'' engine, is the game engine that powers the id Software games ''Doom'' and '' Doom II: Hell on Earth''. It is also used in ''Heretic'', '' Hexen: Beyond Heretic'', '' Strife: Quest for the Sigil'', '' Hacx: T ...
. Around 1997, Raven's founders Brian and Steve Raffel felt the need to seek a parent company. They arranged a publishing deal with Activision in 1997, which not only served to provide Raven additional financial support, but also gave Activision the opportunity to work closely with id Software and gain business relationships with them. By the end of 1997, Activision acquired Raven as one of its first subsidiaries under Kotick. The acquisition price was $12 million.
*
Neversoft
Neversoft Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Woodland Hills, California. The studio was founded by Joel Jewett, Mick West and Chris Ward in July 1994 and was acquired by Activision in October 1999. Initially, the st ...
: Prior to its acquisition in 2000, Activision had arranged a development deal with Neversoft to re-develop ''
Apocalypse
Apocalypse () is a literary genre in which a supernatural being reveals cosmic mysteries or the future to a human intermediary. The means of mediation include dreams, visions and heavenly journeys, and they typically feature symbolic imager ...
'', a title that failed to be completed within Activision. Subsequently, Activision had Neversoft work on a prototype for a
skateboard
A skateboard is a type of sports equipment used for skateboarding. They are usually made of a specially designed 7-8 ply maple plywood deck and polyurethane wheels attached to the underside by a pair of skateboarding trucks.
The skateboarde ...
ing game, which would end up becoming the first in the ''
Tony Hawk's'' series of skateboarding video games. ''
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater'', released as ''Tony Hawk's Skateboarding'' in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and parts of Europe, is a skateboarding video game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It was released for the PlayStation (c ...
'' was a critical success, leading Activision to acquire Neversoft in April 2000. After eight games, the series has brought in .
*
Infinity Ward
Infinity Ward, Inc. is an American video game developer. They developed the video game ''Call of Duty'', along with seven other installments in the ''Call of Duty'' series. Vince Zampella, Grant Collier, and Jason West established Infinity Ward ...
: After
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...
released ''
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault'' in 2002, several of the developers from
2015, Inc.
2015 Games, LLC (formerly 2015, Inc.), also known as 2015, is an American video game development company, best known for developing '' Medal of Honor: Allied Assault''.
History
2015, Inc. was founded by Tom Kudirka in 1997. He assembled a ...
, disenchanted with their current contracts, left to form a new studio, Infinity Ward. Kotick himself provided the group with startup funding, as they were seeking to develop a similar title to ''Medal of Honor''. Activision acquired the studio for in January 2003, and later publish their first title, ''
Call of Duty
''Call of Duty'' is a first-person shooter video game Media franchise, franchise published by Activision. Starting out in 2003, it first focused on games set in World War II. Over time, the series has seen games set in the midst of the Cold W ...
'', directly competing with Electronic Arts.
The ''
Call of Duty
''Call of Duty'' is a first-person shooter video game Media franchise, franchise published by Activision. Starting out in 2003, it first focused on games set in World War II. Over time, the series has seen games set in the midst of the Cold W ...
'' series has since seen nearly yearly releases and as of 2016 had sold more than 250 million units and brought in more than in revenue.
*
Treyarch
Treyarch Corporation ( ; formerly Treyarch Invention LLC) is an American video game developer based in Santa Monica, California. Founded in 1996 by Peter Akemann and Doğan Köslü, it was acquired by Activision in 2001. The studio is known for ...
: The Santa Monica, California studio was founded in 1996. With the success of the first ''Tony Hawk'' game from Neversoft, Activision used Treyarch to assist in further ''Tony Hawk'' games as well as to develop titles using Activision's license of
Marvel
Marvel may refer to:
Business
* Marvel Entertainment, an American entertainment company
** Marvel Comics, the primary imprint of Marvel Entertainment
** Marvel Universe, a fictional shared universe
** Marvel Music, an imprint of Marvel Comics
...
's
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book '' Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in the ...
. Activision acquired the studio in 2001 for about . Following the success of ''Call of Duty'' from Infinity Ward, Activision moved Treyarch to assist in the series' development, trading off each year' major release between the two studios.
*
Gray Matter Studios
Gray Matter Interactive Studios, Inc. (Gray Matter Studios; formerly Xatrix Entertainment, Inc.) was an American video game developer based in Los Angeles.
History
Drew Markham and his business partner Barry Dempsey founded Xatrix Entertain ...
: While Gray Matter was originally founded in 1993 as Xatrix Entertainment, it was rebranded to Gray Matter in 1999 as they began work on ''
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
''Return to Castle Wolfenstein'' is a first-person shooter video game published by Activision, released on November 19, 2001, for Microsoft Windows and subsequently for PlayStation 2, Xbox, Linux and Macintosh. The game serves as a reboot of the ...
'', in conjunction with
Nerve Software
Nerve Software, LLC is an American video game developer that was co-founded by ex-id Software employee Brandon James. Many of the original employees at Nerve were previously employed by Rogue Entertainment, another U.S.
The United State ...
and oversight by id Software who owned the ''Castle Wolfenstein'' IP. Activision, the game's publisher, acquired a portion of Gray Matter's stock during this time. ''Return to Castle Wolfenstein'' was a critical and financial success, and led Activision to acquire the remaining shares of Gray Matter in 2002 for about , with the intent to help Infinity Ward expand out the ''Call of Duty'' franchise. In 2005, Activision made the decision to merge the smaller Gray Matter into the larger Treyarch to put their combined talents towards ''Call of Duty 3''.
*
RedOctane
RedOctane, Inc. was an American electronic entertainment company best known for producing the ''Guitar Hero'' series, beginning in November 2005. RedOctane became a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision in 2006. In February 2010, Activision clos ...
: Around 2005, Red Octane was co-developing ''
Guitar Hero
''Guitar Hero'' is a series of music rhythm game video games first released in November 2005, in which players use a guitar-shaped game controller to simulate playing primarily lead, bass guitar, and rhythm guitar across numerous songs. Player ...
'', a console game based on the arcade game ''
GuitarFreaks
is a music video game series produced by Konami. It is a rhythm game where the player uses a controller to simulate the playing of an electric guitar. The game consists of music predominantly from the rock music, rock and roll and J-pop genres. ...
'', with
Harmonix
Harmonix Music Systems, Inc., doing business as Harmonix, is an American video game developer company based in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was established in May 1995 by Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy. Harmonix is perhaps best known as bei ...
; Harmonix was developing the software while RedOctane developed the instrument controllers. ''Guitar Hero'' was a major success. Activision purchased RedOctane for nearly in June 2006. The series has since earned more than in revenues.
*
Toys for Bob
Toys for Bob, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Novato, California. As the creators of the award-winning ''Star Control'' and ''Skylanders'' series, the studio originated as a partnership between Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford (p ...
: Toys for Bob was founded by
Paul Reiche III
Paul Reiche III ( ) is an American game designer, particularly known for his work on video games. Reiche is best known for being the co-creator, together with Fred Ford, of the '' Star Control'' universe.
Career
Pen and paper RPGs
Reiche was ...
,
Fred Ford, and Terry Falls in 1989 and gained success in developing the first two ''
Star Control'' games, and later made film-to-video game adaptions. Activision purchased the studio in 2005, and had given them work on some of the ''Tony Hawk's'' games as well as other licensed properties. Following Activision's merger with Vivendi, Activision gained the ''
Spyro
''Spyro'' is a series of platform games which features the main protagonist Spyro, a dragon. Since the series' introduction in 1998 with the PlayStation game ''Spyro the Dragon'', there have been numerous sequels and a reboot trilogy. Originall ...
'' intellectual property and assigned Toys for Bob to develop the series in a new direction, leading to the
toys-to-life
Toys-to-life is a video game feature using physical figurines or action figures to interact within the game. These toys use a near field communication (NFC), radio frequency identification (RFID), or image recognition
Computer vision is an int ...
''
Skylanders
''Skylanders'' is a toys-to-life action-adventure video game series published by Activision. ''Skylanders'' games are played by placing character figures called the Skylanders on the "Portal of Power", a device that reads the figures' tags throu ...
'' series.
Merger with Vivendi Games (2008)
While Activision was highly successful with its range of developers and successful series, Kotick was concerned that they did not have a title for the growing
massively multiplayer online
A massively multiplayer online game (MMOG or more commonly MMO) is an online video game with a large number of players, often hundreds or thousands, on the same server. MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent open world, although there are ...
market, which presented the opportunity for continued revenues from subscription models and microtransactions instead of the revenue from a single sale. Around 2006, Kotick contacted
Jean-Bernard Lévy
Jean-Bernard Lévy (born 18 March 1955) is a French businessman, and the CEO and chairman of EDF.
Early life
Born on 18 March 1955, the son of a doctor, Lévy attended the Lycée Pasteur in Neuilly-sur-Seine. His parents sent him to England for ...
, the new CEO of
Vivendi
Vivendi SE is a French mass media holding company headquartered in Paris. Widely known as the owner of Gameloft, Groupe Canal+, Havas, Editis, Prisma Media, Vivendi Village and Dailymotion, the company has activities in television, film, video ...
, a French media conglomerate. Vivendi had a games division,
Vivendi Games
Vivendi Games was an American video game publisher and holding company based in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1996 as CUC Software, the publishing subsidiary of CUC International, after the latter acquired video game companies Davidson & Associ ...
, that was struggling to be viable at the time, but its principal feature was that it owned
Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded on February 8, 1991, under the name Silicon & Synapse, Inc. by three graduat ...
and its highly successful ''
World of Warcraft
''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. Set in the ''Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of Warcraft'' takes place within the world of Azeroth ...
'' game, which was drawing in a year in subscription fees. Vivendi Games also owned
Sierra Entertainment
Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (formerly On-Line Systems and Sierra On-Line, Inc.) was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is known for pioneering the graphic adventure game genre, ...
.
Lévy recognized Kotick wanted control of ''World of Warcraft'', and offered to allow the companies to merge, but only if Lévy held the majority shares in the merged group, forcing Kotick to cede control. Kotick fretted about this decision for a while, according to friends and investors. During this time in 2006–2007, some of Activision's former successful properties began to wane, such as ''Tony Hawk's'', so Activision bought
RedOctane
RedOctane, Inc. was an American electronic entertainment company best known for producing the ''Guitar Hero'' series, beginning in November 2005. RedOctane became a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision in 2006. In February 2010, Activision clos ...
, the publisher of the ''Guitar Hero'' franchise.
Kotick met with Blizzard's president
Mike Morhaime
Michael "Mike" Morhaime (born November 3, 1967) is an American video game developer and entrepreneur. He is the chief executive officer (CEO) and founder of Dreamhaven, located in Irvine, California. Morhaime is best known as the co-founder and t ...
, and learned that Blizzard also had a successful inroad into getting their games into China, a potentially lucrative market. Given this potential opportunity, Kotick agreed to the merger.
Activision's board signed on to the merger by December 2007. The merger was completed in July 2008. The new company was called
Activision Blizzard
Activision Blizzard, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in Santa Monica, California. It was founded in July 2008 through the merger of Activision, Inc. (the publicly traded parent company of Activision Publishing) and Vivendi ...
and was headed by Kotick, while Vivendi maintained a 52% share in the company.
The new company was estimated to be worth , ahead of
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...
, which was valued at .
Post-merger developments (2009–present)
Activision Publishing remains a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard following the merger, and is responsible for developing, producing, and distributing games from its internal and subsidiary studios. Eric Hirshberg was announced as Activision Publishing's CEO in 2010.
Activision Publishing established
Sledgehammer Games
Sledgehammer Games, Inc. is an American video game developer company formed in 2009 by Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey. The pair formerly worked at Visceral Games and are responsible for the creation of ''Dead Space''. The company is based in ...
in November 2009. Formed earlier in 2009 by
Glen Schofield
use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) -->
, death_place =
, death_cause =
, body_discovered =
, resting_place =
, resting_place_coordinates = ...
and
Michael Condrey
Michael Condrey is the co-founder and former studio head of Sledgehammer Games, which he founded with Glen Schofield after their collaboration on the popular video game franchise ''Dead Space''. He is now the president of 31st Union, a 2K stud ...
, former
Visceral Games
Visceral Games (formerly EA Redwood Shores) was an American video game developer studio owned by Electronic Arts. The studio is known for the ''Dead Space'' series.
History EA Redwood Shores (1998–2009)
In 1998, Electronic Arts (EA) moved fr ...
leads that had worked on ''
Dead Space
''Dead Space'' is a science fiction/horror fiction, horror media franchise created by Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey, developed by Visceral Games, and published and owned by Electronic Arts. The franchise's chronology is not presented in a lin ...
'', Sledgehammer intended to develop a ''Call of Duty'' spin-off title fashioned after the gameplay in ''Dead Space''. However, in early 2010,
legal issues between Infinity Ward and Activision Blizzard led to several members of Infinity Ward leaving, and Activision assigned Sledgehammer to assist Infinity Ward in the next major ''Call of Duty'' title, ''
Modern Warfare 3
''Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3'' is a 2011 first-person shooter video game, jointly developed by Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games and published by Activision. The game was released worldwide in November 2011 for Microsoft Windows, the Xb ...
''. Since then, Sledgehammer, Infinity Ward, and Treyarch share development duties for the flagship series, with support from Raven and other studios as necessary.
In February 2010, Activision Blizzard reported significant losses in revenue stemming from a slow down in ''Guitar Hero'' sales and from its more casual games. Subsequently, Activision Publishing shuttered Red Octane,
Luxoflux
Luxoflux Corp. was an American video game developer founded by Peter Morawiec and Adrian Stephens in January 1997, and based in Santa Monica, California.
History
Luxoflux had a relatively small team size for its first few titles. The two founde ...
and
Underground Development
Underground Development, Ltd. (formerly Z-Axis, Ltd.) was an American video game developer based in Foster City, California. The company was founded in 1994 by David Luntz and sold to Activision in May 2002. Following a rebranding to Undergroun ...
as well as laid off about 25% of the staff at Neversoft.
Within the same year, Activision shuttered
Budcat Creations
Budcat Creations, LLC was an American video game developer based in Iowa City, Iowa, United States and was a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision, though they formerly had partnerships with Electronic Arts and Majesco Entertainment. They were la ...
in November 2010, and
Bizarre Creations
Bizarre Creations Limited was a British video game development studio based in Liverpool, best known for their racing video game, racing titles ''Metropolis Street Racer'' (Dreamcast) and the follow-up Project Gotham Racing, ''Project Gotham Rac ...
in February 2011.
Hirshberg left the CEO position in March 2018.
Into the 2020s, Activision put more focus on the ''Call of Duty'' franchise, including the release of the free-to-play ''
Call of Duty: Warzone'' in 2020. By April 2021, the company had assigned all of its internal studios to work on some part of the ''Call of Duty'' franchise. This includes a new studio, Activision Mobile, devoted to the ''
Call of Duty Mobile
''Call of Duty: Mobile'' is a free-to-play shooter game developed by TiMi Studio Group and published by Activision for Android and iOS. It was released on October 1, 2019, where it was one of the largest mobile game launches in history, genera ...
'' title as reported in August 2021.
Studios
* Activision Shanghai Studio in
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, founded in 2009.
*
Beenox
Beenox Inc. is a Canadian video game developer established in 2000 in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The studio became a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision on May 25, 2005.
History
Between 2003 and 2006, the developer was essentially a porting ...
in
Québec City
Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the metropolitan area had a population of 839,311. It is the ...
,
Québec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...
, Canada, founded in May 2000, acquired on May 25, 2005.
*
Demonware
Demonware, Inc. is an Irish software development company and a subsidiary of Activision, a video game division of Activision Blizzard. Demonware's products enable games publishers to outsource their networking requirements, allowing them to con ...
in both
Dublin, Republic of Ireland
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 cen ...
and
Vancouver, British Columbia
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
, Canada, founded in 2003, acquired in May 2007.
* Digital Legends Entertainment in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
,
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
, founded in May 2001, acquired on October 28, 2021.
*
High Moon Studios
High Moon Studios, Inc. (formerly Sammy Entertainment Inc. and Sammy Studios, Inc.) is an American video game developer initially formed in 2001. After nearly a year as an independent studio, the developer was acquired by Vivendi Games in Janua ...
in
Carlsbad, California
Carlsbad is a coastal city in the North County region of San Diego County, California, United States. The city is south of downtown Los Angeles and north of downtown San Diego. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 114,746. ...
, founded as
Sammy Corporation
is a Japanese developer and retailer of pachinko and pachislot machines, headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its South Korean office, Sammy Amusement Service, is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. Sammy is a subsidiary of the entertainment cong ...
in April 2001, acquired by
Vivendi Games
Vivendi Games was an American video game publisher and holding company based in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1996 as CUC Software, the publishing subsidiary of CUC International, after the latter acquired video game companies Davidson & Associ ...
in January 2006.
*
Infinity Ward
Infinity Ward, Inc. is an American video game developer. They developed the video game ''Call of Duty'', along with seven other installments in the ''Call of Duty'' series. Vince Zampella, Grant Collier, and Jason West established Infinity Ward ...
in
Woodland Hills, California
Woodland Hills is a neighborhood bordering the Santa Monica Mountains in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California.
Geography
Woodland Hills is in the southwestern region of the San Fernando Valley, which is located east of Ca ...
, founded in 2002, acquired in October 2003.
*
Radical Entertainment
Radical Entertainment Inc. is a Canadian video game developer based in Vancouver. The studio is best known for developing '' The Simpsons: Hit & Run'', '' Prototype'' and '' Prototype 2'', as well as entries in the ''Crash Bandicoot'' franchise ...
in
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
, British Columbia, Canada, founded in 1991, acquired by
Vivendi Games
Vivendi Games was an American video game publisher and holding company based in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1996 as CUC Software, the publishing subsidiary of CUC International, after the latter acquired video game companies Davidson & Associ ...
in 2005, laid off most staff in 2012.
*
Raven Software
Raven Software Corporation is an American video game developer based in Wisconsin and founded in 1990. In 1997, Raven made an exclusive publishing deal with Activision and was subsequently acquired by them. After the acquisition, many of the st ...
in
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...
, founded in 1990, acquired in 1997.
*
Sledgehammer Games
Sledgehammer Games, Inc. is an American video game developer company formed in 2009 by Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey. The pair formerly worked at Visceral Games and are responsible for the creation of ''Dead Space''. The company is based in ...
in
Foster City, California
Foster City is a city located in San Mateo County, California. The 2020 census put the population at 33,805, an increase of more than 10% over the 2010 census figure of 30,567. Foster City is sometimes considered to be part of Silicon Valley ...
, founded on July 21, 2009.
* Solid State Studios in
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...
, founded in 2021.
*
Toys for Bob
Toys for Bob, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Novato, California. As the creators of the award-winning ''Star Control'' and ''Skylanders'' series, the studio originated as a partnership between Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford (p ...
in
Novato, California
Novato (Spanish for "Novatus") is a city in Marin County, California, in the North Bay region of the Bay Area. At the 2020 census, Novato had a population of 53,225.
History
What is now Novato was originally the site of several Coast Miwok ...
, founded in 1989, acquired on May 3, 2005.
*
Treyarch
Treyarch Corporation ( ; formerly Treyarch Invention LLC) is an American video game developer based in Santa Monica, California. Founded in 1996 by Peter Akemann and Doğan Köslü, it was acquired by Activision in 2001. The studio is known for ...
in
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...
, founded in 1996, acquired in 2001.
Former studios
* 7 Studios in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, founded in 1999, acquired in April 2009, closed in February 2011.
* Beachhead Studio in
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...
, founded in February 2011.
*
Bizarre Creations
Bizarre Creations Limited was a British video game development studio based in Liverpool, best known for their racing video game, racing titles ''Metropolis Street Racer'' (Dreamcast) and the follow-up Project Gotham Racing, ''Project Gotham Rac ...
in
Liverpool, England
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
, founded as Raising Hell Productions in 1987 and changed name in 1994, acquired on September 26, 2007, closed on February 18, 2011.
*
Budcat Creations
Budcat Creations, LLC was an American video game developer based in Iowa City, Iowa, United States and was a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision, though they formerly had partnerships with Electronic Arts and Majesco Entertainment. They were la ...
in
Iowa City, Iowa
Iowa City, offically the City of Iowa City is a city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States. It is the home of the University of Iowa and county seat of Johnson County, at the center of the Iowa City Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the time ...
, founded in September 2000, acquired on November 10, 2008, closed in November 2010.
*
FreeStyleGames
Ubisoft Leamington (formerly FreeStyleGames Limited) is a British video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Leamington Spa. Founded in November 2002 by six industry veterans formerly of Codemasters and Rare (company), Rare, the stud ...
in
Leamington Spa
Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply Leamington (), is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Priors, it grew into a spa town in the 18th century following ...
,
Warwickshire
Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...
, United Kingdom, founded in 2002, acquired on September 12, 2008, sold to
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Assassin's Creed'', ''Far Cry'', '' ...
on January 18, 2017, subsequently renamed Ubisoft Leamington.
*
Gray Matter Studios
Gray Matter Interactive Studios, Inc. (Gray Matter Studios; formerly Xatrix Entertainment, Inc.) was an American video game developer based in Los Angeles.
History
Drew Markham and his business partner Barry Dempsey founded Xatrix Entertain ...
in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, founded in the 1990s as Xatrix Entertainment, acquired in January 2002, merged into Treyarch in 2005.
*
Infocom
Infocom was an American software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that produced numerous works of interactive fiction. They also produced a business application, a relational database called ''Cornerstone (software), Cornerstone''.
...
in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
, founded on June 22, 1979, acquired in 1986, closed in 1989.
*
Luxoflux
Luxoflux Corp. was an American video game developer founded by Peter Morawiec and Adrian Stephens in January 1997, and based in Santa Monica, California.
History
Luxoflux had a relatively small team size for its first few titles. The two founde ...
in
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...
, founded in January 1997, acquired in October 2002, closed on February 11, 2010.
*
Massive Entertainment
Massive Entertainment AB is a Swedish video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Malmö. The company has been fully owned by Ubisoft since 2008. The studio is known for ''Tom Clancy's The Division'', '' The Division 2'', '' Ground Co ...
in
Malmö, Sweden, founded in 1997, acquired by
Vivendi Universal Games
Vivendi Games was an American video game publisher and holding company based in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1996 as CUC Software, the publishing subsidiary of CUC International, after the latter acquired video game companies Davidson & Associ ...
in 2002, sold to
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Assassin's Creed'', ''Far Cry'', '' ...
on November 10, 2008.
*
Neversoft
Neversoft Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Woodland Hills, California. The studio was founded by Joel Jewett, Mick West and Chris Ward in July 1994 and was acquired by Activision in October 1999. Initially, the st ...
in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, founded in July 1994, acquired in October 1999, merged into Infinity Ward on May 3, 2014 and was officially made defunct on July 10, 2014.
*
RedOctane
RedOctane, Inc. was an American electronic entertainment company best known for producing the ''Guitar Hero'' series, beginning in November 2005. RedOctane became a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision in 2006. In February 2010, Activision clos ...
in
Mountain View, California
Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. Named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, it has a population of 82,376.
Mountain View was integral to the early history and growth of Silicon Valley, and is the ...
, founded in November 2005, acquired in 2006, closed on February 11, 2010.
*
Shaba Games
Shaba Games LLC was an American video game developer founded in September 1997. It was located in San Francisco, California. Initially it was a nine-person development team, with the founders having split off from Crystal Dynamics, more specifica ...
in
San Francisco, California
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
, founded in September 1997, acquired in 2002, and closed on October 8, 2009.
*
Swordfish Studios
Swordfish Studios Limited was a British video game developer based in Birmingham founded by Trevor Williams and Joan Finnegan (wife of Paul Finnegan, former managing director of Rage Software Limited) in September 2002.
Games developed by the co ...
in
Birmingham, England
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
, founded in September 2002, acquired by
Vivendi Universal Games
Vivendi Games was an American video game publisher and holding company based in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1996 as CUC Software, the publishing subsidiary of CUC International, after the latter acquired video game companies Davidson & Associ ...
in June 2005, sold to
Codemasters
The Codemasters Software Company Limited (trade name: Codemasters) is a British video game developer based in Southam, England, which is a subsidiary of American corporation Electronic Arts. Founded by brothers Richard and David Darling in Octo ...
on November 14, 2008.
* The Blast Furnace in
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
, United Kingdom, founded in November 2011 as Activision Leeds, changed rename in August 2012, closed in March 2014.
*
Underground Development
Underground Development, Ltd. (formerly Z-Axis, Ltd.) was an American video game developer based in Foster City, California. The company was founded in 1994 by David Luntz and sold to Activision in May 2002. Following a rebranding to Undergroun ...
in
Redwood Shores, California
Redwood Shores is a waterfront community in Redwood City, California, along the western shore of San Francisco Bay on the San Francisco Peninsula in San Mateo County. Redwood Shores is the home of several major technology companies, including Ora ...
, founded as Z-Axis in 1994, acquired in May 2002, closed on February 11, 2010.
*
Vicarious Visions
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 Ska ...
in
Menands, New York
Menands is a village in Albany County, New York, United States. The population was 3,990 at the 2010 census. The village is named after Louis Menand. The village lies inside the town of Colonie and borders the northern city line of Albany.
H ...
, founded in 1990, acquired in January 2005, moved to
Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded on February 8, 1991, under the name Silicon & Synapse, Inc. by three graduat ...
in January 2021.
It was renamed to Blizzard Albany on April 12, 2022.
*
Wanako Games
Behaviour Interactive Chile Ltda. (Behaviour Santiago; formerly Wanako Games Chile Ltda.) was a Chilean video game developer based in Santiago. The company was founded as Wanako Games in 2002, by Esteban Sosnik, Tiburcio de la Cárcova, Santia ...
in
Santiago, Chile
Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital (political), capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated Regions of Chile, region, t ...
, founded in 2005, acquired by
Vivendi Games
Vivendi Games was an American video game publisher and holding company based in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1996 as CUC Software, the publishing subsidiary of CUC International, after the latter acquired video game companies Davidson & Associ ...
on February 20, 2007, sold to
Artificial Mind and Movement
Behaviour Interactive Inc. is a Canadian video game development studio specializing in the production of 2D and 3D Action-adventure game, action/adventure games for home video game consoles, handheld game consoles, PC game, PCs and Mobile game, mo ...
on November 20, 2008.
Notable games published
1980s
* ''
Fishing Derby
''Fishing Derby'' is a fishing video game written by David Crane for the Atari Video Computer System (renamed to the Atari 2600 in 1982) and published by Activision in 1980. It's one of the first video games developed by Activision.
Gameplay
...
'' (1980)
* ''
Boxing
Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...
'' (1980)
* ''
Skiing
Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow. Variations of purpose include basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IO ...
'' (1980)
* ''
Freeway
A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...
'' (1981)
* ''
Ice Hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...
'' (1981)
* ''
Kaboom!'' (1981)
* ''
Stampede
A stampede () is a situation in which a group of large animals suddenly start running in the same direction, especially because they are excited or frightened. Non-human species associated with stampede behavior include zebras, cattle, elephants ...
'' (1981)
* ''
Laser Blast
''Laser Blast'' is a single-player video game developed and published by Activision in March 1981 for the Atari VCS console (renamed to Atari 2600 in 1982). Designed by David Crane, one of Activision's co-founders, ''Laser Blast'' places player ...
'' (1981)
* ''
Tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
'' (1981)
* ''
Megamania
''Megamania'' is an Atari 2600 game by Steve Cartwright and published by Activision in 1982. Versions were released for the Atari 5200 and Atari 8-bit family in 1983. ''Megamania'' is similar to Sega's 1981 arcade title ''Astro Blaster''. Both ...
'' (1982)
* ''
Barnstorming
Barnstorming was a form of entertainment in which stunt pilots performed tricks individually or in groups that were called flying circuses. Devised to "impress people with the skill of pilots and the sturdiness of planes," it became popular in t ...
'' (1982)
* ''
Enduro
Enduro is a form of motorcycle sport run on extended cross-country, off-road courses. Enduro consists of many different obstacles and challenges. The main type of enduro event, and the format to which the World Enduro Championship is run, is a ...
'' (1982)
* ''
Chopper Command
''Chopper Command'' is a horizontally scrolling shooter released by Activision for the Atari 2600 in June 1982. It was written by Bob Whitehead.
Gameplay
In ''Chopper Command'', the player controls a military helicopter in a desert scenario pr ...
'' (1982)
* ''
Starmaster
''Starmaster'' is a video game written for the Atari 2600 by Alan Miller (game designer), Alan Miller and published in June 1982 by Activision. The game is similar to Atari 8-bit family game ''Star Raiders''. ''Starmaster'' was not ported to ...
'' (1982)
* ''
Pitfall!
''Pitfall!'' is a platform video game designed by David Crane for the Atari 2600 and released by Activision in 1982. The player controls Pitfall Harry and is tasked with collecting all the treasures in a jungle within 20 minutes. The world con ...
'' series (1982–2004)
* ''
River Raid
''River Raid'' is a vertically scrolling shooter designed and programmed by Carol Shaw and published by Activision in 1982 for the Atari 2600 video game console. Over a million game cartridges were sold. Activision later ported the title to th ...
'' series (1982–1988)
* ''
Oink!'' (1983)
* ''
Beamrider
''Beamrider'' is a fixed shooter written for the Intellivision by David Rolfe and published by Activision in 1983. The game was ported to the Atari 2600 (with a slightly reduced feature set), Atari 5200, Atari 8-bit family, ColecoVision, Commodor ...
'' (1983)
* ''
Robot Tank
''Robot Tank'' is a 1983 video game for the Atari 2600 similar in design to Atari's '' Battlezone'' arcade game, and more so to its 2600 port. It was written by Alan Miller and published by Activision.
Gameplay
The player remotely controls a ...
'' (1983)
* ''
H.E.R.O.'' (1984)
* ''
Little Computer People
''Little Computer People'', also called ''House-on-a-Disk'', is a social simulation game released in 1985 by Activision for the
Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC (short for ''Colour Personal Computer'') is a series of ...
'' (1985)
* ''
Portal
Portal often refers to:
* Portal (architecture), an opening in a wall of a building, gate or fortification, or the extremities (ends) of a tunnel
Portal may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Gaming
* ''Portal'' (series), two video games ...
'' (1986)
* ''
Hacker
A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...
'' series (1985–1986)
* ''
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
'' series (1986–1990)
* ''
Transformers
''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the Autobots and the Decepticons, two alien robot factions at war that can transform into other forms, suc ...
'' series (1986, 2007–2017)
* ''
The Last Ninja
''The Last Ninja'' is an action-adventure game originally developed and published by System 3 in 1987 for the Commodore 64. It was converted to the Apple IIGS, MS-DOS, BBC Micro, and Acorn Electron in 1988, the Apple II in 1989, the Amiga, and ...
'' series (1987–1988)
* ''
Deathtrack
''DeathTrack'' is a first-person, futuristic racing game developed for MS-DOS by Dynamix and published by Activision in 1989.
Gameplay
There are two ways to win a race: be the first to finish the race, or be the only one to finish the race. Bas ...
'' (1989)
* ''
MechWarrior'' series (1989–1996)
1990s
* ''
Hunter
Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...
'' (1991)
* ''
Zork
''Zork'' is a text-based adventure game first released in 1977 by developers Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. The original developers and others, as the company Infocom, expanded and ...
'' series (1993–1997)
* ''
Dark Reign'' series (1997–2000)
* ''
Heavy Gear
''Heavy Gear'' is a mecha science fiction game universe published since 1994 by Canadian publisher Dream Pod 9. It includes a tabletop tactical wargame, a role-playing game, and a combat card game ('' Heavy Gear Fighter''). The setting is also k ...
'' series (1997–1999)
* ''
Quake'' series (1997–2007)
* ''
Interstate
The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. Th ...
'' series (1997–1999)
* ''
Battlezone'' series (1998–1999)
* ''
SiN
In a religious context, sin is a transgression against divine law. Each culture has its own interpretation of what it means to commit a sin. While sins are generally considered actions, any thought, word, or act considered immoral, selfish, s ...
'' (1998)
* ''
Heretic II
''Heretic II'' is a dark fantasy action-adventure game developed by Raven Software and published by Activision in 1998 continuing the story of Corvus, the main character from its predecessor, '' Heretic''. It is the fourth game in the '' Hexen: ...
'' (1998)
* ''
Vigilante 8
''Vigilante 8'' is a vehicular combat video game developed by Luxoflux and published by Activision for PlayStation, Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color. Although officially it has no connection to the ''Interstate '76'' series, it features several o ...
'' series (1998–2008)
* ''
Tenchu
is an action-adventure stealth video game series, originally developed by Japanese developer Acquire, where the player assumes the role of a ninja in 16th-century Japan. The title in Japanese literally translates in English as "Divine Retribut ...
'' series (1998–2004)
* ''
Call to Power'' series (1999–2000)
* ''
Star Trek
''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...
'' series (1999–2003)
* ''
Tony Hawk's'' series (1999–2015, 2020)
2000s
* ''
Soldier of Fortune'' series (2000–2007)
*
''X-Men'' series (2000–2011)
* ''
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book '' Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in the ...
'' series (2000–2014)
* ''
Lost Kingdoms
''Lost Kingdoms'' is a 2002 action role-playing game developed by FromSoftware and published by Activision. The game was released in Japan in April; in North America in May; and in Europe in August. ''Lost Kingdoms'' is a card-based action rol ...
'' series (2002–2003)
* ''
Total War
Total war is a type of warfare that includes any and all civilian-associated resources and infrastructure as legitimate military targets, mobilizes all of the resources of society to fight the war, and gives priority to warfare over non-combata ...
'' series (2002–2004)
* ''
Call of Duty
''Call of Duty'' is a first-person shooter video game Media franchise, franchise published by Activision. Starting out in 2003, it first focused on games set in World War II. Over time, the series has seen games set in the midst of the Cold W ...
'' series (2003–present)
* ''
True Crime
True crime is a nonfiction literary, podcast, and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people associated with and affected by criminal events.
The crimes most commonly include murder; about 40 per ...
'' series (2003–2005)
* ''
Wolfenstein
''Wolfenstein'' is a series of World War II video games originally developed by Muse Software. The majority of the games follow William "B.J." Blazkowicz, an American Army captain and his fight against the Axis powers. Earlier titles are center ...
'' series (2003–2009)
* ''
Shrek
''Shrek'' is a 2001 American computer-animated comedy film loosely based on the 1990 book of the same name by William Steig. It is the first installment in the ''Shrek'' franchise. The film was directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenso ...
'' series (2004-2011)
* ''
Doom 3
''Doom 3'' is a 2004 survival horror first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Activision. ''Doom 3'' was originally released for Microsoft Windows on August 3, 2004, adapted for Linux later that year, and ported ...
'' (2004)
* ''
Madagascar
Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...
'' series (2005-2011)
* ''
The Movies
''The Movies'' is a business simulation game created by Lionhead Studios for Microsoft Windows and ported to Mac OS X by Feral Interactive. Players run a Hollywood film studio, creating films that can be exported from the game. ''The Movies'' wa ...
'' (2005)
* ''
Gun
A gun is a ranged weapon designed to use a shooting tube (gun barrel) to launch projectiles. The projectiles are typically solid, but can also be pressurized liquid (e.g. in water guns/cannons, spray guns for painting or pressure washing, pr ...
'' (2005)
* ''
Guitar Hero
''Guitar Hero'' is a series of music rhythm game video games first released in November 2005, in which players use a guitar-shaped game controller to simulate playing primarily lead, bass guitar, and rhythm guitar across numerous songs. Player ...
'' series (2006–2015)
* ''
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance'' series (2006–2009)
* ''
James Bond
The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...
'' series (2008–2012)
* ''
Crash Bandicoot
''Crash Bandicoot'' is a video game franchise originally developed by Naughty Dog as an exclusive for Sony's PlayStation console. It has seen numerous installments created by various developers and published on multiple platforms. The series co ...
series'' (2008–present)
* ''
Spyro the Dragon
''Spyro the Dragon'' is a platform game developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation on September 9, 1998. The first game in the ''Spyro'' series, it stars the title character, a young purple dr ...
series'' (2008–2018)
* ''
Prototype
A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...
'' series (2009–2015)
2010s
* ''
Blur'' (2010)
* ''
Singularity'' (2010)
* ''
NASCAR The Game
''NASCAR The Game'', occasionally abbreviated as ''NTG'', is a discontinued series of NASCAR video games developed by Eutechnyx, which held the NASCAR license from 2011 to the end of 2014. The first installment, '' NASCAR The Game: 2011'', is the ...
'' series (2011–2013)
* ''
Skylanders
''Skylanders'' is a toys-to-life action-adventure video game series published by Activision. ''Skylanders'' games are played by placing character figures called the Skylanders on the "Portal of Power", a device that reads the figures' tags throu ...
'' series (2011–2018)
* ''
SpongeBob SquarePants
''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American animated comedy television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It chronicles the adventures of the title character a ...
'' series (2013–2015)
* ''
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' is an American media franchise created by the comic book artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It follows Leonardo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Leonardo, Michelangelo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Miche ...
'' series (2013–2016)
* ''
Destiny
Destiny, sometimes referred to as fate (from Latin ''fatum'' "decree, prediction, destiny, fate"), is a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual.
Fate
Although often ...
'' series (2014–2018)
* ''
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice'' (2019)
See also
*
List of video game companies
The following lists of video game companies are available:
* List of video game developers
* List of video game publishers
* List of indie game developers
{{list of lists, video game , listcat=Video game companies
Lists of companies by industry, ...
References
External links
*
{{Star Trek video games
1979 establishments in California
American brands
American companies established in 1979
Companies based in Santa Monica, California
Former Vivendi subsidiaries
Video game companies based in California
Video game companies established in 1979
Video game companies of the United States
Video game development companies
Video game publishers