fbpx
Wikipedia

Activision

January 13, 2023

Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, 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.[5]

Activision Publishing, Inc.
Headquarters in Santa Monica in 2008
Formerly
  • Computer Arts, Inc.
  • (1979)
  • Activision, Inc.
  • (1979–1988; 1992–2000)
  • Mediagenic
  • (1988–1992)
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryVideo games
FoundedOctober 1, 1979; 43 years ago (1979-10-01)
Founders
Headquarters
Santa Monica, California
,
US
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
ProductsList of Activision video games
Revenue8,803,000,000 United States dollar (2021) 
Number of employees
9,200 (2019) 
Parent
SubsidiariesSee § Studios
Websitewww.activision.com
Footnotes / references
[3][4]

The company was founded as Activision, Inc. on October 1, 1979 in Sunnyvale, California, by former Atari game developers upset at their treatment by Atari in order to develop their own games for the popular Atari 2600 home video game console. Activision was the first independent, third-party, console video game developer. The video game crash of 1983, 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. After a management shift, with CEO Jim Levy 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 US$500,000 by Bobby Kotick 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 over the 1990s and 2000s, among these being the Call of Duty and Guitar Hero series. A holding company was formed as Activision's parent company to manage both its internal and acquired studios. In 2008, this holding company merged with Vivendi Games (the parent company of Blizzard Entertainment) 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)

 
Co-founder David Crane in 2013

In 1976, Warner Communications bought Atari, Inc. from Nolan Bushnell to help accelerate the Atari Video Computer System (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,[6][7] nor credit the programmers publicly, to prevent them from being recruited by rival game companies.[8] 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.[9] Atari's CEO Ray Kassar, 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.[10]

In early 1979, Atari's marketing department circulated a memo listing the best-selling cartridges from the previous year to help guide game ideas.[10] Crane noted that the games he was fully responsible for had brought in over $20 million for the company but he was still only receiving a $20,000 salary.[11] Out of a development staff of thirty-five, four programmers (Crane, Larry Kaplan, Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead), had produced games that had accounted for 60% of Atari's sales.[10]

Crane, Kaplan, Miller, and Whitehead became vocal about the lack of recognition within the company and became known as the "Gang of Four".[11] The group met with Kassar in May 1979 to demand that the company treat developers as record labels treated musicians, with royalties and their names on game boxes. Kaplan, who called the others "the best designers for the [2600] in the world", recalled that Kassar called the four men "towel designers" and claimed that "anybody can do a cartridge".[12]

The four made the decision to soon leave Atari and start their own business, but were not sure how to go about it.[11] In 1979, the concept of third-party developers did not exist,[13] as software for video game consoles were published exclusively by makers of the systems for which the games were designed;[14] thus the common thinking was that to make console games, one needed to make a console first.[10] The four decided to create their own independent game development company. They were directed by their attorney to Jim Levy, who was at the time raising venture capital 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 $1 million in capital from Sutter Hill Ventures.[11] They also checked with legal counsel on their plans to develop games for the Atari VCS, and included litigation fees in their capital investment.[10]

By August, Crane and Miller had left Atari, with Whitehead joining them shortly after.[12] 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.[15] 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.[16][17]

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, Checkers, and Boxing.[10] 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.[11] To further distinguish themselves, Activision's boxes were brightly colored and featured an in-game screenshot on the back cover.[11] 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.[18]

Ahead of the release of the first four games, Activision obtained space at the mid-year 1980 Consumer Electronics Show to showcase their titles, and quickly obtained favorable press.[10] The attention afforded to Activision worried Atari, as the four's departure had already created a major dent in their development staff.[11] 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.[10] 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 agreements.[10] The lawsuit was settled by 1982, with Activision agreeing to pay royalties to Atari but otherwise legitimizing the third-party development model.[11][19] 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.[20]

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.[11] 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.[10] Activision's breakout title was 1982's Pitfall!, created by Crane. More than four million copies of the game were sold.[21] Near the end of 1982, Kaplan left Activision to work on the development of the Amiga personal computer as he wanted to be more involved in hardware development.[22][10]

Total sales for Activision were estimated at $157 million and revenues at $60 million ahead of its June 1983 initial public offering; at this point Activision had around 60 employees.[11][10] Danny Goodman stated in Creative Computing Video & Arcade Games in 1983, "I doubt that there is an active [Atari 2600] owner who doesn't have at least one Activision cartridge in his library".[23] The company completed its public offering in June 1983 on NASDAQ under the stock ticker AVSN.[11][24]

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 and ColecoVision consoles, among other platforms.[25] 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.[11]

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 ($5 compared to Activision's $40 manufacturer's suggested retail price). While there was still a demand for Activision games, uneducated consumers were more drawn to the heavily discounted titles instead, reducing their income.[11] Their quarterly revenue dropped from $50 million in mid-1983 to about $6–7 million 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.[26] Because of this, Activision decided that they needed to diversify their games onto home computers such as the Commodore 64, Apple, and Atari 8-bit family to avoid completely going out of business like other third-party developers.[11] 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.[11][22]

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 and Hacker, while Levy tried to keep expenditures in check as they recovered.[11] Looking to expand further, Activision acquired, through a corporate merger, the struggling text adventure pioneer Infocom 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.[22] 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,[27] and even attempted to seek a lawsuit to recover their purchase from Infocom's shareholders.[11] Crane also found Davis difficult to work with and was concerned with how Davis managed the closure of Imagic, one of the third-party development studios formed in Activision's success in 1981.[11] Crane left Activision in 1986 and helped Garry Kitchen found Absolute Entertainment.[11]

Mediagenic (1988–1991)

 
Mediagenic's former headquarters in Menlo Park, circa 2021[28]

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.[29][11]

Mediagenic consisted of four groups:

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 headquarters. Five of them accepted this offer.[27]

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. 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'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, which had been developing its own John Madden Football series for personal computers, to complete the game.[30]

During this period Mediagenic, via Activision, secured the rights to distribute games from Cyan Worlds. The first game published by Activision from Cyan was The Manhole, on CD-ROM for personal computers, the first major game distributed in this format.[31][32][10]

Purchase by Bobby Kotick (1991–1997)

Davis' management of Mediagenic failed to produce a profitable company; in 1991, Mediagenic reported a loss of $26.8 million on only $28.8 million of revenue and had over $60 million in debt.[11][33] Cyan severed their contract with Activision, and turned to Broderbund for publishing, including what would become one of the most significant computer games of the 1990s, Myst.[33]

 
Bobby Kotick

Bobby Kotick 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 in an effort to gain access to the Commodore Amiga line of personal computers. After failing to complete purchase, the group bought a company that licensed Nintendo characters, and through Nintendo was directed to the failing Mediagenic.[34] 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.[35] Crane said that Kotick has recognized the Activision brand name could be valued around $50 million 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.[10] Kotick and additional investors bought Mediagenic for approximately $500,000 in 1991. This group of investors included real estate businessman Steve Wynn and Philips Electronics.[36][34]

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.[19] 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.[33] Kotick offset some debt by giving stock in the company to its distributors as to keep them vested in the company's success.[33] 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 property from Infocom, and had the company develop a sequel, Return to Zork. 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.[33] The new Activision went public in October 1993, raising about $40 million,[19] and was listed on NASDAQ under its new ticker symbol ATVI.[36]

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.[33]

Activision published the first-person perspective MechWarrior in 1989, based on FASA's pen-and-paper game BattleTech. A sequel, MechWarrior 2, 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 US$70 million in sales.

Activision procured the license to another pen-and-paper-based war game, Heavy Gear, in 1997. The video game version was well received by critics, with an 81.46% average rating on GameRankings and being considered the best game of the genre at the time by GameSpot. The Mechwarrior 2 engine was also used in other Activision games, including 1997's Interstate '76 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.[34] 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, enabling the company to acquire studios at a lower valuation.[34] On June 16, 2000, Activision reorganized as a holding company, Activision Holdings, to manage Activision and its subsidiaries more effectively.[37] Activision changed its corporate name from "Activision, Inc." to "Activision Publishing, Inc.", while Activision Holdings took Activision's former "Activision, Inc." name.[37] 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.[37][38]

Some of the key acquisitions and investments made by Activision in this period include:

  • Raven Software: Raven was founded in 1990; because of their close proximity, Raven frequently collaborated with id Software, and one of the studio's early successes was the Heretic series using id's Doom engine. 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.[39] By the end of 1997, Activision acquired Raven as one of its first subsidiaries under Kotick.[40] The acquisition price was $12 million.[41]
  • Neversoft: Prior to its acquisition in 2000, Activision had arranged a development deal with Neversoft to re-develop Apocalypse, a title that failed to be completed within Activision. Subsequently, Activision had Neversoft work on a prototype for a skateboarding game, which would end up becoming the first in the Tony Hawk's series of skateboarding video games. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater was a critical success, leading Activision to acquire Neversoft in April 2000.[42] After eight games, the series has brought in $1.6 billion.[19]
  • Infinity Ward: After Electronic Arts released Medal of Honor: Allied Assault in 2002, several of the developers from 2015, Inc., 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 $5 million in January 2003, and later publish their first title, Call of Duty, directly competing with Electronic Arts.[19] The Call of Duty series has since seen nearly yearly releases and as of 2016 had sold more than 250 million units and brought in more than $12 billion in revenue.[43]
  • Treyarch: 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's Spider-Man. Activision acquired the studio in 2001 for about $20 million.[44] 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: 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, in conjunction with Nerve Software 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 $3.2 million,[45] 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.[46]
  • RedOctane: Around 2005, Red Octane was co-developing Guitar Hero, a console game based on the arcade game GuitarFreaks, with Harmonix; Harmonix was developing the software while RedOctane developed the instrument controllers. Guitar Hero was a major success. Activision purchased RedOctane for nearly $100 million in June 2006. The series has since earned more than $2 billion in revenues.[19]
  • Toys for Bob: Toys for Bob was founded by Paul Reiche III, 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.[47] Following Activision's merger with Vivendi, Activision gained the Spyro intellectual property and assigned Toys for Bob to develop the series in a new direction, leading to the toys-to-life Skylanders series.[48]

Merger with Vivendi Games (2008)

Main article: Activision Blizzard

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 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, the new CEO of Vivendi, a French media conglomerate. Vivendi had a games division, Vivendi Games, that was struggling to be viable at the time, but its principal feature was that it owned Blizzard Entertainment and its highly successful World of Warcraft game, which was drawing in $1.1 billion a year in subscription fees. Vivendi Games also owned Sierra Entertainment.[19]

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, the publisher of the Guitar Hero franchise.[19] Kotick met with Blizzard's president Mike Morhaime, 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.[19]

Activision's board signed on to the merger by December 2007.[49] The merger was completed in July 2008. The new company was called Activision Blizzard and was headed by Kotick, while Vivendi maintained a 52% share in the company.[19][50] The new company was estimated to be worth US$18.9 billion, ahead of Electronic Arts, which was valued at US$14.1 billion.[51]

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.[38]

Activision Publishing established Sledgehammer Games in November 2009. Formed earlier in 2009 by Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey, former Visceral Games leads that had worked on Dead Space, 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.[52] 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 and Underground Development as well as laid off about 25% of the staff at Neversoft.[53][54] Within the same year, Activision shuttered Budcat Creations in November 2010, and Bizarre Creations in February 2011.[55][56]

Hirshberg left the CEO position in March 2018.[57]

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.[58] This includes a new studio, Activision Mobile, devoted to the Call of Duty Mobile title as reported in August 2021.[59][60]

Studios

Former studios

Notable games published

Main article: List of Activision video games

See also

References

  1. ^ Crecente, Brian (January 9, 2019). "Activision Blizzard Exec Shuffle Appoints New Heads of Activision, King, Emerging Business". variety.com. from the original on January 9, 2019. Retrieved January 9, 2019.
  2. ^ "About Us". Activision. 2022. Retrieved August 4, 2022.
  3. ^ "About Activision Publishing". www.activision.com. Activision Publishing. from the original on September 20, 2014. Retrieved August 17, 2014.
  4. ^ "Activision Blizzard, Inc. 2013 Annual Report Form (10-K)" (XBRL). United States Securities and Exchange Commission. March 3, 2014. from the original on April 7, 2014.
  5. ^ "Top 25 Companies by Game Revenues". newzoo.com. from the original on March 6, 2017. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  6. ^ . Classic Gaming Expo. CGE Services, Corp. 1999–2010. Archived from the original on February 8, 2012. Retrieved August 22, 2012.
  7. ^ DeMaria, Rusel; Wilson, Johnny L. (2003). High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games (2 ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill/Osborne. p. 56. ISBN 0-07-223172-6.
  8. ^ Yarwood, Jack (March 27, 2016). "Easter Eggs: The Hidden Secrets of Videogames". Paste. from the original on March 30, 2016. Retrieved March 27, 2016.
  9. ^ Fulton, Steve (August 21, 2008). "Atari: The Golden Years -- A History, 1978-1981". Gamasutra. Retrieved April 2, 2021.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Reeves, Ben (February 26, 2013). "Activisionaries: How Four Programmers Changed The Game Industry". Game Informer. Retrieved April 2, 2021.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Flemming, Jeffrey. "The History Of Activision". Gamasutra. from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved December 30, 2016.
  12. ^ a b Hubner, John; Kistner, William F. Jr. (November 28, 1983). "What went wrong at Atari?". InfoWorld. Originally published in the San Jose Mercury News. p. 151. from the original on January 24, 2021. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
  13. ^ "Stream of video games is endless". Milwaukee Journal. December 26, 1982. pp. Business 1. from the original on March 12, 2016. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  14. ^ Kunkel, Bill; Worley, Joyce; Katz, Arnie (November 1988). "Video Gaming World". Computer Gaming World. p. 54.
  15. ^ Stilphen, Scott (2006). "Larry Kaplan interview". Atari Compendium. Retrieved April 2, 2021.
  16. ^ "DAVID CRANE INTERVIEW (1994)". Video Game Ephemera. from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved December 10, 2014.
  17. ^ Wired Staff (June 15, 2007). "Console Portraits: A 40-Year Pictorial History of Gaming". Wired. from the original on July 12, 2018. Retrieved January 15, 2019.
  18. ^ Hillard, Kyle (October 23, 2016). "Activision Badges – The Original Gaming Achievement". Game Informer. from the original on February 13, 2019. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
  19. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Beller, Peter (January 15, 2009). "Activision's Unlikely Hero". Forbes. from the original on August 6, 2017. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
  20. ^ "First Penguin Archive". Game Developers Conference. from the original on November 30, 2018. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
  21. ^ Levi Buchanan (August 26, 2008). "Top 10 Best-Selling Atari 2600 Games". IGN. from the original on July 26, 2011. Retrieved September 24, 2008.
  22. ^ a b c . Edge. August 24, 2006. Archived from the original on April 4, 2013. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
  23. ^ Goodman, Danny (Spring 1983). "Home Video Games: Video Games Update". Creative Computing Video & Arcade Games. p. 32. from the original on November 7, 2017. Retrieved November 6, 2017.
  24. ^ "Small Company Initial Public Offerings: June 1983". Inc. June 1983. from the original on January 24, 2021. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
  25. ^ Orland, Kyle (August 13, 2014). "The rise and fall (and rise and fall) of gaming's third-party exclusives". Ars Technica. from the original on July 8, 2015. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
  26. ^ DeMaria, Rusel; Wilson, Johnny L. (2003). High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games (2 ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill/Osborne. pp. 103–105. ISBN 0-07-223172-6.
  27. ^ a b "Down From the Top of Its Game: The Story of Infocom, Inc" (PDF). MIT. December 15, 2000. (PDF) from the original on November 5, 2015. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
  28. ^ "News Briefs: Company Releases Free Upgrade of Reports 1.2". InfoWorld. 10 (23): 35. June 6, 1988. Retrieved November 11, 2021. This source indicates that as of 1988, Mediagenic was based at 3885 Bohannon Drive in Menlo Park.
  29. ^ Parker, Rachel (October 3, 1988). "Mediagenic Rises from the Ashes, Will Publish Range of Products". InfoWorld. Vol. 10, no. 40. InfoWorld Media Group, Inc. p. 34. from the original on December 30, 2016. Retrieved December 30, 2016 – via Google Books.
  30. ^ King, Steven L. (2010). "Chapter 22: The Year of the Hardware". The Ultimate History of Video Games, Volume 1: From Pong to Pokemon and Beyond ... the Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. Crown. ISBN 978-0307560872.
  31. ^ "Sept. 24, 1993: Beautiful 'Myst' Ushers In Era of CD-ROM Gaming" November 4, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Wired Magazine
  32. ^ Sipe, Russell (November 1992). "3900 Games Later..." Computer Gaming World. p. 8. from the original on July 2, 2014. Retrieved July 4, 2014.
  33. ^ a b c d e f Sengstack, Jeff (June 24, 1996). . NewMedia. Archived from the original on January 28, 1998. Retrieved May 6, 2019.
  34. ^ a b c d Gallagher, Dan (December 4, 2008). "Kotick changes the game at Activision Blizzard". Market Watch. from the original on March 8, 2019. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
  35. ^ Casamassina, Matt (February 18, 2010). "Activision Passed on The Sims". IGN. from the original on March 6, 2019. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
  36. ^ a b Lohr, Steve (December 28, 1993). "Market Place; Home Software's Treasure Hunt". The New York Times. from the original on February 14, 2019. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
  37. ^ a b c Lataif, Maryanne; Mulvihill, Kristin (June 16, 2000). . Activision. Archived from the original on January 7, 2001.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  38. ^ a b Chalk, Andy (January 18, 2018). "Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg is leaving the company". PC Gamer. from the original on January 19, 2018. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  39. ^ "From Dungeon & Dragons to Call of Duty: The Story of Raven Software". USgamer.net. October 28, 2014. from the original on August 27, 2017. Retrieved February 15, 2016.
  40. ^ Karon, Paul (August 8, 1997). "Activision set to acquire Raven". Variety. from the original on February 14, 2019. Retrieved February 14, 2019.
  41. ^ Kaplan, Karen (August 7, 1997). "Activision to Expand Game Lineup with Raven Purchase". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 17, 2021.
  42. ^ Kennedy, Sam (April 27, 2000). "Activision Acquires Neversoft". GameSpot. from the original on February 14, 2019. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
  43. ^ "Activision Blizzard Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2015 Financial Results". Business Wire. February 11, 2016. from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved December 7, 2016.
  44. ^ "Activision to Acquire Treyarch Invention". Reuters. October 4, 2001. from the original on March 1, 2016. Retrieved February 14, 2019 – via Los Angeles Times.
  45. ^ "Activision Acquires Rest Of Gray Matter Interactive". The Wall Street Journal. January 14, 2002. from the original on June 13, 2018. Retrieved February 14, 2019.
  46. ^ Hall, Charlie (May 8, 2018). "Meet the studio behind Call of Duty: Black Ops and Zombies mode". Polygon. from the original on June 30, 2018. Retrieved February 14, 2019.
  47. ^ Adams, David (May 3, 2005). "Activision Buys Toys for Bob". IGN. from the original on March 6, 2019. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
  48. ^ Takahashi, Dean (October 5, 2012). "How Toys for Bob turned Activision into a giant toy company with Skylanders". Venture Beat. from the original on March 6, 2019. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
  49. ^ Rosmarin, Rachel (December 2, 2007). "Vivendi To Merge With Activision". Forbes. from the original on June 20, 2013. Retrieved August 22, 2012.
  50. ^ (Press release). Activision, Vivendi. December 2, 2007. Archived from the original on April 9, 2008. Retrieved December 2, 2007.
  51. ^ Szalai, Georg (July 8, 2008). "Activision-Vivendi to Shake Up Games Biz". AdWeek. from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
  52. ^ Flemming, Ryan (February 16, 2013). "Inside Sledgehammer Games and the Biggest Gamble You Never Knew About". Digital Trends. from the original on February 21, 2013. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
  53. ^ a b Fritz, Ben (February 11, 2010). "Activision lays off about 200 employees, shuts down Santa Monica studio Luxoflux". Los Angeles Times. from the original on February 15, 2019. Retrieved February 14, 2019.
  54. ^ a b c Plunkett, Luke (February 12, 2010). "Activision Shutters Guitar Hero Creators, GH: Van Halen Developers (Update)". Kotaku. from the original on February 13, 2010.
  55. ^ "Updated: Activision shutting down Bizarre and Budcat studios?". PC Gamer. November 16, 2010. from the original on February 14, 2019. Retrieved February 15, 2019.
  56. ^ a b Wesley Yin-Poole (February 18, 2011). "Bizarre says goodbye with farewell video". Eurogamer.net. from the original on March 4, 2018. Retrieved May 15, 2011.
  57. ^ "Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg is leaving in March". venturebeat.com. January 18, 2018. from the original on September 8, 2018. Retrieved September 7, 2018.
  58. ^ Zweizan, Zack (April 30, 2021). "Now Every Single Activision Studio Works On Call Of Duty". Kotaku. Retrieved April 30, 2021.
  59. ^ Takahashi, Dean (August 3, 2021). "Activision Blizzard creates new mobile studio for Call of Duty". Venture Beat. Retrieved August 3, 2021.
  60. ^ a b Ivan, Tom (August 3, 2021). "A new Call of Duty game is in development at Activision Mobile". Video Games Chronicle. Retrieved August 3, 2021.
  61. ^ "Activision Acquires Mobile Game Developer Digital Legends" (Press release). October 28, 2021. Retrieved October 28, 2021.
  62. ^ Schreier, Jason (June 28, 2012). "Prototype Creators Shutting Down". Kotaku. from the original on March 27, 2019. Retrieved March 6, 2019.
  63. ^ Takahashi, Dean (August 3, 2021). "Activision Blizzard creates new mobile studio for Call of Duty". Venturebeat. Retrieved October 28, 2021.
  64. ^ Brice, Kath (October 7, 2009). "Activision lays off 30 from recently purchased 7 Studios". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
  65. ^ Dutton, Fred (February 10, 2011). "Activision closes 7 Studios". Eurogamer. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
  66. ^ Activision Acquires U.K. Game Developer Bizarre Creations December 6, 2008, at the Wayback Machine from Activision's website
  67. ^ Fahey, Mike (May 3, 2014). "Report: Neversoft Merging With Call Of Duty Developer Infinity Ward". kotaku.com. from the original on June 14, 2014. Retrieved June 16, 2014.
  68. ^ Phillips, Tom (July 10, 2014). "Tony Hawk studio Neversoft bids farewell, burns eyeball effigy". Eurogamer. from the original on July 13, 2014. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
  69. ^ McWhertor, Michael (October 8, 2009). "Activision Lays Off Shaba's Ranks, Closes Studio (Update)". Kotaku. from the original on October 10, 2009.
  70. ^ Martin, Matt (October 9, 2009). "Activision confirms Shaba Studios closure". GamesIndustry.biz. from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
  71. ^ Sinclair, Brendan (January 22, 2021). "Vicarious Visions merged into Blizzard". GamesIndustry.biz. from the original on January 22, 2021. Retrieved January 22, 2021.

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Activision.
  • Official website  

January 13, 2023
activision, publishing, american, video, game, publisher, based, santa, monica, california, serves, publishing, business, parent, company, blizzard, consists, several, subsidiary, studios, largest, third, party, video, game, publishers, world, united, states, . Activision Publishing Inc is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica California It serves as the publishing business for its parent company Activision Blizzard 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 5 Activision Publishing Inc Headquarters in Santa Monica in 2008FormerlyComputer Arts Inc 1979 Activision Inc 1979 1988 1992 2000 Mediagenic 1988 1992 TypeSubsidiaryIndustryVideo gamesFoundedOctober 1 1979 43 years ago 1979 10 01 FoundersDavid CraneAlan MillerBob WhiteheadJim LevyHeadquartersSanta Monica California USArea servedWorldwideKey peopleRob Kostich president 1 Josh Taub COO 2 ProductsList of Activision video gamesRevenue8 803 000 000 United States dollar 2021 Number of employees9 200 2019 ParentActivision Inc 2000 2008 Activision Blizzard 2008 present SubsidiariesSee StudiosWebsitewww wbr activision wbr comFootnotes references 3 4 The company was founded as Activision Inc on October 1 1979 in Sunnyvale California by former Atari game developers upset at their treatment by Atari in order to develop their own games for the popular Atari 2600 home video game console Activision was the first independent third party console video game developer The video game crash of 1983 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 After a management shift with CEO Jim Levy 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 US 500 000 by Bobby Kotick 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 over the 1990s and 2000s among these being the Call of Duty and Guitar Hero series A holding company was formed as Activision s parent company to manage both its internal and acquired studios In 2008 this holding company merged with Vivendi Games the parent company of Blizzard Entertainment 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 Contents 1 History 1 1 Founding 1979 1 2 Early years 1980 1982 1 3 The video game market crash 1983 1988 1 4 Mediagenic 1988 1991 1 5 Purchase by Bobby Kotick 1991 1997 1 6 Growth and acquisitions 1997 2008 1 7 Merger with Vivendi Games 2008 1 8 Post merger developments 2009 present 2 Studios 2 1 Former studios 3 Notable games published 3 1 1980s 3 2 1990s 3 3 2000s 3 4 2010s 4 See also 5 References 6 External linksHistory EditFounding 1979 Edit Co founder David Crane in 2013 In 1976 Warner Communications bought Atari Inc from Nolan Bushnell to help accelerate the Atari Video Computer System 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 6 7 nor credit the programmers publicly to prevent them from being recruited by rival game companies 8 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 9 Atari s CEO Ray Kassar 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 10 In early 1979 Atari s marketing department circulated a memo listing the best selling cartridges from the previous year to help guide game ideas 10 Crane noted that the games he was fully responsible for had brought in over 20 million for the company but he was still only receiving a 20 000 salary 11 Out of a development staff of thirty five four programmers Crane Larry Kaplan Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead had produced games that had accounted for 60 of Atari s sales 10 Crane Kaplan Miller and Whitehead became vocal about the lack of recognition within the company and became known as the Gang of Four 11 The group met with Kassar in May 1979 to demand that the company treat developers as record labels treated musicians with royalties and their names on game boxes Kaplan who called the others the best designers for the 2600 in the world recalled that Kassar called the four men towel designers and claimed that anybody can do a cartridge 12 The four made the decision to soon leave Atari and start their own business but were not sure how to go about it 11 In 1979 the concept of third party developers did not exist 13 as software for video game consoles were published exclusively by makers of the systems for which the games were designed 14 thus the common thinking was that to make console games one needed to make a console first 10 The four decided to create their own independent game development company They were directed by their attorney to Jim Levy who was at the time raising venture capital 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 1 million in capital from Sutter Hill Ventures 11 They also checked with legal counsel on their plans to develop games for the Atari VCS and included litigation fees in their capital investment 10 By August Crane and Miller had left Atari with Whitehead joining them shortly after 12 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 15 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 16 17 Early years 1980 1982 Edit 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 Checkers and Boxing 10 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 11 To further distinguish themselves Activision s boxes were brightly colored and featured an in game screenshot on the back cover 11 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 18 Ahead of the release of the first four games Activision obtained space at the mid year 1980 Consumer Electronics Show to showcase their titles and quickly obtained favorable press 10 The attention afforded to Activision worried Atari as the four s departure had already created a major dent in their development staff 11 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 10 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 agreements 10 The lawsuit was settled by 1982 with Activision agreeing to pay royalties to Atari but otherwise legitimizing the third party development model 11 19 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 20 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 11 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 10 Activision s breakout title was 1982 s Pitfall created by Crane More than four million copies of the game were sold 21 Near the end of 1982 Kaplan left Activision to work on the development of the Amiga personal computer as he wanted to be more involved in hardware development 22 10 Total sales for Activision were estimated at 157 million and revenues at 60 million ahead of its June 1983 initial public offering at this point Activision had around 60 employees 11 10 Danny Goodman stated in Creative Computing Video amp Arcade Games in 1983 I doubt that there is an active Atari 2600 owner who doesn t have at least one Activision cartridge in his library 23 The company completed its public offering in June 1983 on NASDAQ under the stock ticker AVSN 11 24 The video game market crash 1983 1988 Edit 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 and ColecoVision consoles among other platforms 25 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 11 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 5 compared to Activision s 40 manufacturer s suggested retail price While there was still a demand for Activision games uneducated consumers were more drawn to the heavily discounted titles instead reducing their income 11 Their quarterly revenue dropped from 50 million in mid 1983 to about 6 7 million 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 26 Because of this Activision decided that they needed to diversify their games onto home computers such as the Commodore 64 Apple and Atari 8 bit family to avoid completely going out of business like other third party developers 11 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 11 22 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 and Hacker while Levy tried to keep expenditures in check as they recovered 11 Looking to expand further Activision acquired through a corporate merger the struggling text adventure pioneer Infocom 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 22 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 27 and even attempted to seek a lawsuit to recover their purchase from Infocom s shareholders 11 Crane also found Davis difficult to work with and was concerned with how Davis managed the closure of Imagic one of the third party development studios formed in Activision s success in 1981 11 Crane left Activision in 1986 and helped Garry Kitchen found Absolute Entertainment 11 Mediagenic 1988 1991 Edit Mediagenic s former headquarters in Menlo Park circa 2021 28 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 29 11 Mediagenic consisted of four groups Activision video game publisher for various platforms notably the Nintendo Entertainment System the Sega Master System the Atari 7800 Atari ST Commodore 64 and Amiga Infocom developer of interactive fiction games Gamestar initially an independent company but purchased by Activision in 1986 Specialized in sports video games Ten Point O business application softwareIn 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 headquarters Five of them accepted this offer 27 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 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 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 which had been developing its own John Madden Football series for personal computers to complete the game 30 During this period Mediagenic via Activision secured the rights to distribute games from Cyan Worlds The first game published by Activision from Cyan was The Manhole on CD ROM for personal computers the first major game distributed in this format 31 32 10 Purchase by Bobby Kotick 1991 1997 Edit Davis management of Mediagenic failed to produce a profitable company in 1991 Mediagenic reported a loss of 26 8 million on only 28 8 million of revenue and had over 60 million in debt 11 33 Cyan severed their contract with Activision and turned to Broderbund for publishing including what would become one of the most significant computer games of the 1990s Myst 33 Bobby Kotick Bobby Kotick 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 in an effort to gain access to the Commodore Amiga line of personal computers After failing to complete purchase the group bought a company that licensed Nintendo characters and through Nintendo was directed to the failing Mediagenic 34 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 35 Crane said that Kotick has recognized the Activision brand name could be valued around 50 million 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 10 Kotick and additional investors bought Mediagenic for approximately 500 000 in 1991 This group of investors included real estate businessman Steve Wynn and Philips Electronics 36 34 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 19 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 33 Kotick offset some debt by giving stock in the company to its distributors as to keep them vested in the company s success 33 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 property from Infocom and had the company develop a sequel Return to Zork 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 33 The new Activision went public in October 1993 raising about 40 million 19 and was listed on NASDAQ under its new ticker symbol ATVI 36 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 33 Activision published the first person perspective MechWarrior in 1989 based on FASA s pen and paper game BattleTech A sequel MechWarrior 2 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 US 70 million in sales Activision procured the license to another pen and paper based war game Heavy Gear in 1997 The video game version was well received by critics with an 81 46 average rating on GameRankings and being considered the best game of the genre at the time by GameSpot The Mechwarrior 2 engine was also used in other Activision games including 1997 s Interstate 76 and 1998 s Battlezone Growth and acquisitions 1997 2008 Edit 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 34 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 enabling the company to acquire studios at a lower valuation 34 On June 16 2000 Activision reorganized as a holding company Activision Holdings to manage Activision and its subsidiaries more effectively 37 Activision changed its corporate name from Activision Inc to Activision Publishing Inc while Activision Holdings took Activision s former Activision Inc name 37 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 37 38 Some of the key acquisitions and investments made by Activision in this period include Raven Software Raven was founded in 1990 because of their close proximity Raven frequently collaborated with id Software and one of the studio s early successes was the Heretic series using id s Doom engine 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 39 By the end of 1997 Activision acquired Raven as one of its first subsidiaries under Kotick 40 The acquisition price was 12 million 41 Neversoft Prior to its acquisition in 2000 Activision had arranged a development deal with Neversoft to re develop Apocalypse a title that failed to be completed within Activision Subsequently Activision had Neversoft work on a prototype for a skateboarding game which would end up becoming the first in the Tony Hawk s series of skateboarding video games Tony Hawk s Pro Skater was a critical success leading Activision to acquire Neversoft in April 2000 42 After eight games the series has brought in 1 6 billion 19 Infinity Ward After Electronic Arts released Medal of Honor Allied Assault in 2002 several of the developers from 2015 Inc 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 5 million in January 2003 and later publish their first title Call of Duty directly competing with Electronic Arts 19 The Call of Duty series has since seen nearly yearly releases and as of 2016 had sold more than 250 million units and brought in more than 12 billion in revenue 43 Treyarch 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 s Spider Man Activision acquired the studio in 2001 for about 20 million 44 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 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 in conjunction with Nerve Software 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 3 2 million 45 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 46 RedOctane Around 2005 Red Octane was co developing Guitar Hero a console game based on the arcade game GuitarFreaks with Harmonix Harmonix was developing the software while RedOctane developed the instrument controllers Guitar Hero was a major success Activision purchased RedOctane for nearly 100 million in June 2006 The series has since earned more than 2 billion in revenues 19 Toys for Bob Toys for Bob was founded by Paul Reiche III 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 47 Following Activision s merger with Vivendi Activision gained the Spyro intellectual property and assigned Toys for Bob to develop the series in a new direction leading to the toys to life Skylanders series 48 Merger with Vivendi Games 2008 Edit Main article Activision Blizzard 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 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 Levy the new CEO of Vivendi a French media conglomerate Vivendi had a games division Vivendi Games that was struggling to be viable at the time but its principal feature was that it owned Blizzard Entertainment and its highly successful World of Warcraft game which was drawing in 1 1 billion a year in subscription fees Vivendi Games also owned Sierra Entertainment 19 Levy recognized Kotick wanted control of World of Warcraft and offered to allow the companies to merge but only if Levy 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 the publisher of the Guitar Hero franchise 19 Kotick met with Blizzard s president Mike Morhaime 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 19 Activision s board signed on to the merger by December 2007 49 The merger was completed in July 2008 The new company was called Activision Blizzard and was headed by Kotick while Vivendi maintained a 52 share in the company 19 50 The new company was estimated to be worth US 18 9 billion ahead of Electronic Arts which was valued at US 14 1 billion 51 Post merger developments 2009 present Edit 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 38 Activision Publishing established Sledgehammer Games in November 2009 Formed earlier in 2009 by Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey former Visceral Games leads that had worked on Dead Space 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 52 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 and Underground Development as well as laid off about 25 of the staff at Neversoft 53 54 Within the same year Activision shuttered Budcat Creations in November 2010 and Bizarre Creations in February 2011 55 56 Hirshberg left the CEO position in March 2018 57 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 58 This includes a new studio Activision Mobile devoted to the Call of Duty Mobile title as reported in August 2021 59 60 Studios EditActivision Shanghai Studio in Shanghai China founded in 2009 Beenox in Quebec City Quebec Canada founded in May 2000 acquired on May 25 2005 Demonware in both Dublin Republic of Ireland and Vancouver British Columbia Canada founded in 2003 acquired in May 2007 Digital Legends Entertainment in Barcelona Spain founded in May 2001 acquired on October 28 2021 61 High Moon Studios in Carlsbad California founded as Sammy Corporation in April 2001 acquired by Vivendi Games in January 2006 Infinity Ward in Woodland Hills California founded in 2002 acquired in October 2003 Radical Entertainment in Vancouver British Columbia Canada founded in 1991 acquired by Vivendi Games in 2005 laid off most staff in 2012 62 Raven Software in Madison Wisconsin founded in 1990 acquired in 1997 Sledgehammer Games in Foster City California founded on July 21 2009 Solid State Studios in Santa Monica California founded in 2021 60 63 Toys for Bob in Novato California founded in 1989 acquired on May 3 2005 Treyarch in Santa Monica California founded in 1996 acquired in 2001 Former studios Edit 7 Studios in Los Angeles California founded in 1999 acquired in April 2009 closed in February 2011 64 65 Beachhead Studio in Santa Monica California founded in February 2011 Bizarre Creations in Liverpool England founded as Raising Hell Productions in 1987 and changed name in 1994 acquired on September 26 2007 66 closed on February 18 2011 56 Budcat Creations in Iowa City Iowa founded in September 2000 acquired on November 10 2008 closed in November 2010 FreeStyleGames in Leamington Spa Warwickshire United Kingdom founded in 2002 acquired on September 12 2008 sold to Ubisoft on January 18 2017 subsequently renamed Ubisoft Leamington Gray Matter Studios in Los Angeles California founded in the 1990s as Xatrix Entertainment acquired in January 2002 merged into Treyarch in 2005 Infocom in Cambridge Massachusetts founded on June 22 1979 acquired in 1986 closed in 1989 Luxoflux in Santa Monica California founded in January 1997 acquired in October 2002 closed on February 11 2010 53 Massive Entertainment in Malmo Sweden founded in 1997 acquired by Vivendi Universal Games in 2002 sold to Ubisoft on November 10 2008 Neversoft in Los Angeles California founded in July 1994 acquired in October 1999 merged into Infinity Ward on May 3 2014 67 and was officially made defunct on July 10 2014 68 RedOctane in Mountain View California founded in November 2005 acquired in 2006 closed on February 11 2010 54 Shaba Games in San Francisco California founded in September 1997 acquired in 2002 and closed on October 8 2009 69 70 Swordfish Studios in Birmingham England founded in September 2002 acquired by Vivendi Universal Games in June 2005 sold to Codemasters on November 14 2008 The Blast Furnace in Leeds United Kingdom founded in November 2011 as Activision Leeds changed rename in August 2012 closed in March 2014 Underground Development in Redwood Shores California founded as Z Axis in 1994 acquired in May 2002 closed on February 11 2010 54 Vicarious Visions in Menands New York founded in 1990 acquired in January 2005 moved to Blizzard Entertainment in January 2021 71 It was renamed to Blizzard Albany on April 12 2022 Wanako Games in Santiago Chile founded in 2005 acquired by Vivendi Games on February 20 2007 sold to Artificial Mind and Movement on November 20 2008 Notable games published EditMain article List of Activision video games 1980s Edit Fishing Derby 1980 Boxing 1980 Skiing 1980 Freeway 1981 Ice Hockey 1981 Kaboom 1981 Stampede 1981 Laser Blast 1981 Tennis 1981 Megamania 1982 Barnstorming 1982 Enduro 1982 Chopper Command 1982 Starmaster 1982 Pitfall series 1982 2004 River Raid series 1982 1988 Oink 1983 Beamrider 1983 Robot Tank 1983 H E R O 1984 Little Computer People 1985 Portal 1986 Hacker series 1985 1986 Shanghai series 1986 1990 Transformers series 1986 2007 2017 The Last Ninja series 1987 1988 Deathtrack 1989 MechWarrior series 1989 1996 1990s Edit Hunter 1991 Zork series 1993 1997 Dark Reign series 1997 2000 Heavy Gear series 1997 1999 Quake series 1997 2007 Interstate series 1997 1999 Battlezone series 1998 1999 SiN 1998 Heretic II 1998 Vigilante 8 series 1998 2008 Tenchu series 1998 2004 Call to Power series 1999 2000 Star Trek series 1999 2003 Tony Hawk s series 1999 2015 2020 2000s Edit Soldier of Fortune series 2000 2007 X Men series 2000 2011 Spider Man series 2000 2014 Lost Kingdoms series 2002 2003 Total War series 2002 2004 Call of Duty series 2003 present True Crime series 2003 2005 Wolfenstein series 2003 2009 Shrek series 2004 2011 Doom 3 2004 Madagascar series 2005 2011 The Movies 2005 Gun 2005 Guitar Hero series 2006 2015 Marvel Ultimate Alliance series 2006 2009 James Bond series 2008 2012 Crash Bandicoot series 2008 present Spyro the Dragon series 2008 2018 Prototype series 2009 2015 2010s Edit Blur 2010 Singularity 2010 NASCAR The Game series 2011 2013 Skylanders series 2011 2018 SpongeBob SquarePants series 2013 2015 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series 2013 2016 Destiny series 2014 2018 Sekiro Shadows Die Twice 2019 See also EditList of video game companiesReferences Edit Crecente Brian January 9 2019 Activision Blizzard Exec Shuffle Appoints New Heads of Activision King Emerging Business variety com Archived from the original on January 9 2019 Retrieved January 9 2019 About Us Activision 2022 Retrieved August 4 2022 About Activision Publishing www activision com Activision Publishing Archived from the original on September 20 2014 Retrieved August 17 2014 Activision Blizzard Inc 2013 Annual Report Form 10 K XBRL United States Securities and Exchange Commission March 3 2014 Archived from the original on April 7 2014 Top 25 Companies by Game Revenues newzoo com Archived from the original on March 6 2017 Retrieved January 12 2017 Classic Gaming Expo Distinguished Guest ALAN MILLER Classic Gaming Expo CGE Services Corp 1999 2010 Archived from the original on February 8 2012 Retrieved August 22 2012 DeMaria Rusel Wilson Johnny L 2003 High Score The Illustrated History of Electronic Games 2 ed New York McGraw Hill Osborne p 56 ISBN 0 07 223172 6 Yarwood Jack March 27 2016 Easter Eggs The Hidden Secrets of Videogames Paste Archived from the original on March 30 2016 Retrieved March 27 2016 Fulton Steve August 21 2008 Atari The Golden Years A History 1978 1981 Gamasutra Retrieved April 2 2021 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Reeves Ben February 26 2013 Activisionaries How Four Programmers Changed The Game Industry Game Informer Retrieved April 2 2021 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Flemming Jeffrey The History Of Activision Gamasutra Archived from the original on December 20 2016 Retrieved December 30 2016 a b Hubner John Kistner William F Jr November 28 1983 What went wrong at Atari InfoWorld Originally published in the San Jose Mercury News p 151 Archived from the original on January 24 2021 Retrieved March 5 2012 Stream of video games is endless Milwaukee Journal December 26 1982 pp Business 1 Archived from the original on March 12 2016 Retrieved January 10 2015 Kunkel Bill Worley Joyce Katz Arnie November 1988 Video Gaming World Computer Gaming World p 54 Stilphen Scott 2006 Larry Kaplan interview Atari Compendium Retrieved April 2 2021 DAVID CRANE INTERVIEW 1994 Video Game Ephemera Archived from the original on March 4 2016 Retrieved December 10 2014 Wired Staff June 15 2007 Console Portraits A 40 Year Pictorial History of Gaming Wired Archived from the original on July 12 2018 Retrieved January 15 2019 Hillard Kyle October 23 2016 Activision Badges The Original Gaming Achievement Game Informer Archived from the original on February 13 2019 Retrieved February 12 2019 a b c d e f g h i j Beller Peter January 15 2009 Activision s Unlikely Hero Forbes Archived from the original on August 6 2017 Retrieved February 12 2019 First Penguin Archive Game Developers Conference Archived from the original on November 30 2018 Retrieved February 12 2019 Levi Buchanan August 26 2008 Top 10 Best Selling Atari 2600 Games IGN Archived from the original on July 26 2011 Retrieved September 24 2008 a b c A Short History Of Activision Edge August 24 2006 Archived from the original on April 4 2013 Retrieved February 13 2019 Goodman Danny Spring 1983 Home Video Games Video Games Update Creative Computing Video amp Arcade Games p 32 Archived from the original on November 7 2017 Retrieved November 6 2017 Small Company Initial Public Offerings June 1983 Inc June 1983 Archived from the original on January 24 2021 Retrieved February 12 2019 Orland Kyle August 13 2014 The rise and fall and rise and fall of gaming s third party exclusives Ars Technica Archived from the original on July 8 2015 Retrieved February 12 2019 DeMaria Rusel Wilson Johnny L 2003 High Score The Illustrated History of Electronic Games 2 ed New York McGraw Hill Osborne pp 103 105 ISBN 0 07 223172 6 a b Down From the Top of Its Game The Story of Infocom Inc PDF MIT December 15 2000 Archived PDF from the original on November 5 2015 Retrieved February 12 2016 News Briefs Company Releases Free Upgrade of Reports 1 2 InfoWorld 10 23 35 June 6 1988 Retrieved November 11 2021 This source indicates that as of 1988 Mediagenic was based at 3885 Bohannon Drive in Menlo Park Parker Rachel October 3 1988 Mediagenic Rises from the Ashes Will Publish Range of Products InfoWorld Vol 10 no 40 InfoWorld Media Group Inc p 34 Archived from the original on December 30 2016 Retrieved December 30 2016 via Google Books King Steven L 2010 Chapter 22 The Year of the Hardware The Ultimate History of Video Games Volume 1 From Pong to Pokemon and Beyond the Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World Crown ISBN 978 0307560872 Sept 24 1993 Beautiful Myst Ushers In Era of CD ROM Gaming Archived November 4 2012 at the Wayback Machine Wired Magazine Sipe Russell November 1992 3900 Games Later Computer Gaming World p 8 Archived from the original on July 2 2014 Retrieved July 4 2014 a b c d e f Sengstack Jeff June 24 1996 Activision Reorganized Redefined and on the Rebound NewMedia Archived from the original on January 28 1998 Retrieved May 6 2019 a b c d Gallagher Dan December 4 2008 Kotick changes the game at Activision Blizzard Market Watch Archived from the original on March 8 2019 Retrieved February 12 2019 Casamassina Matt February 18 2010 Activision Passed on The Sims IGN Archived from the original on March 6 2019 Retrieved March 2 2019 a b Lohr Steve December 28 1993 Market Place Home Software s Treasure Hunt The New York Times Archived from the original on February 14 2019 Retrieved February 13 2019 a b c Lataif Maryanne Mulvihill Kristin June 16 2000 Activision Announces New Holding Company Reorganization Activision Archived from the original on January 7 2001 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint unfit URL link a b Chalk Andy January 18 2018 Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg is leaving the company PC Gamer Archived from the original on January 19 2018 Retrieved January 18 2018 From Dungeon amp Dragons to Call of Duty The Story of Raven Software USgamer net October 28 2014 Archived from the original on August 27 2017 Retrieved February 15 2016 Karon Paul August 8 1997 Activision set to acquire Raven Variety Archived from the original on February 14 2019 Retrieved February 14 2019 Kaplan Karen August 7 1997 Activision to Expand Game Lineup with Raven Purchase Los Angeles Times Retrieved August 17 2021 Kennedy Sam April 27 2000 Activision Acquires Neversoft GameSpot Archived from the original on February 14 2019 Retrieved February 13 2019 Activision Blizzard Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2015 Financial Results Business Wire February 11 2016 Archived from the original on December 20 2016 Retrieved December 7 2016 Activision to Acquire Treyarch Invention Reuters October 4 2001 Archived from the original on March 1 2016 Retrieved February 14 2019 via Los Angeles Times Activision Acquires Rest Of Gray Matter Interactive The Wall Street Journal January 14 2002 Archived from the original on June 13 2018 Retrieved February 14 2019 Hall Charlie May 8 2018 Meet the studio behind Call of Duty Black Ops and Zombies mode Polygon Archived from the original on June 30 2018 Retrieved February 14 2019 Adams David May 3 2005 Activision Buys Toys for Bob IGN Archived from the original on March 6 2019 Retrieved March 2 2019 Takahashi Dean October 5 2012 How Toys for Bob turned Activision into a giant toy company with Skylanders Venture Beat Archived from the original on March 6 2019 Retrieved March 2 2019 Rosmarin Rachel December 2 2007 Vivendi To Merge With Activision Forbes Archived from the original on June 20 2013 Retrieved August 22 2012 Vivendi and Activision to create Activision Blizzard World s Largest Most Profitable Pure Play Video Game Publisher Press release Activision Vivendi December 2 2007 Archived from the original on April 9 2008 Retrieved December 2 2007 Szalai Georg July 8 2008 Activision Vivendi to Shake Up Games Biz AdWeek Archived from the original on March 4 2016 Retrieved February 12 2016 Flemming Ryan February 16 2013 Inside Sledgehammer Games and the Biggest Gamble You Never Knew About Digital Trends Archived from the original on February 21 2013 Retrieved March 2 2013 a b Fritz Ben February 11 2010 Activision lays off about 200 employees shuts down Santa Monica studio Luxoflux Los Angeles Times Archived from the original on February 15 2019 Retrieved February 14 2019 a b c Plunkett Luke February 12 2010 Activision Shutters Guitar Hero Creators GH Van Halen Developers Update Kotaku Archived from the original on February 13 2010 Updated Activision shutting down Bizarre and Budcat studios PC Gamer November 16 2010 Archived from the original on February 14 2019 Retrieved February 15 2019 a b Wesley Yin Poole February 18 2011 Bizarre says goodbye with farewell video Eurogamer net Archived from the original on March 4 2018 Retrieved May 15 2011 Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg is leaving in March venturebeat com January 18 2018 Archived from the original on September 8 2018 Retrieved September 7 2018 Zweizan Zack April 30 2021 Now Every Single Activision Studio Works On Call Of Duty Kotaku Retrieved April 30 2021 Takahashi Dean August 3 2021 Activision Blizzard creates new mobile studio for Call of Duty Venture Beat Retrieved August 3 2021 a b Ivan Tom August 3 2021 A new Call of Duty game is in development at Activision Mobile Video Games Chronicle Retrieved August 3 2021 Activision Acquires Mobile Game Developer Digital Legends Press release October 28 2021 Retrieved October 28 2021 Schreier Jason June 28 2012 Prototype Creators Shutting Down Kotaku Archived from the original on March 27 2019 Retrieved March 6 2019 Takahashi Dean August 3 2021 Activision Blizzard creates new mobile studio for Call of Duty Venturebeat Retrieved October 28 2021 Brice Kath October 7 2009 Activision lays off 30 from recently purchased 7 Studios GamesIndustry biz Retrieved March 16 2022 Dutton Fred February 10 2011 Activision closes 7 Studios Eurogamer Retrieved March 16 2022 Activision Acquires U K Game Developer Bizarre Creations Archived December 6 2008 at the Wayback Machine from Activision s website Fahey Mike May 3 2014 Report Neversoft Merging With Call Of Duty Developer Infinity Ward kotaku com Archived from the original on June 14 2014 Retrieved June 16 2014 Phillips Tom July 10 2014 Tony Hawk studio Neversoft bids farewell burns eyeball effigy Eurogamer Archived from the original on July 13 2014 Retrieved July 11 2014 McWhertor Michael October 8 2009 Activision Lays Off Shaba s Ranks Closes Studio Update Kotaku Archived from the original on October 10 2009 Martin Matt October 9 2009 Activision confirms Shaba Studios closure GamesIndustry biz Archived from the original on March 3 2016 Retrieved February 12 2016 Sinclair Brendan January 22 2021 Vicarious Visions merged into Blizzard GamesIndustry biz Archived from the original on January 22 2021 Retrieved January 22 2021 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Activision Official website Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Activision amp oldid 1133290817, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.