Vicarious Visions merged with Blizzard Entertainment last year, becoming “fully dedicated to existing Blizzard games and initiatives.” However, it’s now confirmed the official merger on Twitter, noting that its development team would remain in Albany and remain dedicated to Blizzard titles.
A quick peek at Blizzard’s Careers page, notably in the Albany location, also confirms that the studio has been renamed to Blizzard Albany. It states, “For over 30 years, Blizzard Albany (formerly Vicarious Visions) has made over 100 exciting games spanning many genres, on multitude of game platforms, all within a welcoming and relaxed workplace that invites creativity and encourages individual voices.” This is in line with a report that emerged in October 2021 courtesy of Polygon.
As such, the change isn’t all that shocking, especially since the developer had been working with Blizzard for about two years before the initial merger announcement. It released Diablo 2: Resurrected in September 2021 with PTR testing for Ladder play ending this past February. Its previous works include Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 and much, much more.
While this does mean that the former Vicarious won’t be releasing any non-Blizzard titles, it should be interesting to see how its support helps in current projects. Some job openings for the studio include Quest Designer, Associate Game Producer, Senior Game Producer and much more for Diablo 4 (though applicants can also choose to apply for the Irvine, California office as well).