Activision's Vicarious Visions Merged into Blizzard

[Verdugo]

More Activision-ness into Blizzards once good name is not something they needed right now.

I love how people that know only Blizzard think its them getting worse, when its VV getting the raw deal here.

[Edward Wu]

Activision tightening the vice grip they already had on Blizzard's balls.

[StillMcfuu]

A rumor popped up a few days ago that this studio is working on a D2 remaster. This pretty much confirms the rumor.

Also not a bad thing, as the THPS 1+2 Remaster is absolutely brilliant.

[aceperson]

so an unknown company of 200+ people are suddenly part of blizz? i guess at this point, there is no denying the old blizzard is truly dead. you can't just shove a huge group of people into another project led by a different company and expect the same usual outcome.

[zhero]

https://www.shondaland.com/live/mone...n-video-games/

Just some information on her. I have no problems with what the article is discussing, but I can’t wait for all the misogynists to start showing up complaining about another female in a development position trying to make more female characters have a more prominent and diverse role.
Could lead for some interesting new characters or better development of existing ones as we go.

why do they have to be a misogynist to dislike someone forcing gender roles into a game for the sake of diversity?

[JansenGaming]

Not sure what this means, but more activision involvement in blizzard is only bad.

Blizzard only lives on in name. What we knew and loved is gone, it is all Bobby Kotic.

[Eapoe]

Why bring it up to begin with? You're literally the one starting something right here.

Why bring what up? Her background as a developer since she’s getting put into a very pivotal role for development? The fact that the article discusses her want to make more diverse and inclusive games for players is going to set off the “man’s man” players that lurk on these forums isn’t a hidden gem waiting to be discovered. Some people will read the article (possibly) and then use that as a reason to attack her while bringing up topics like “Mary Sue golden boy Anduin,” and Christie Golden issues.
So no, I’m not starting something, I’m beating it to the punch stating I can’t wait to see the very obvious posts that will be coming that I can laugh at.

[hulkgor]

https://gamerant.com/diablo-2-remast...rious-visions/

Rumor about them developing Diablo 2 remaster, after successful remakes of other titles.

This makes for super exciting news, and i can't wait to see if it actually comes true. A GOOD Diablo 2 remake would make me extremely happy.

[Eapoe]

why do they have to be a misogynist to dislike someone forcing gender roles into a game for the sake of diversity?

This right here is a great example of what I was mentioning. No one has mentioned anything about forcing anything. You immediately jumped to that conclusion because of factors I don’t know, but could assume based off the given information of the posts that (a) you don’t agree with it so it must be so, and/or (b) because it’s a woman so it must be forced in and has no actual place.

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so an unknown company of 200+ people are suddenly part of blizz? i guess at this point, there is no denying the old blizzard is truly dead. you can't just shove a huge group of people into another project led by a different company and expect the same usual outcome.

True. It could be a million times worse or a million times better.

[korijenkins]

https://www.shondaland.com/live/mone...n-video-games/

Just some information on her. I have no problems with what the article is discussing, but I can’t wait for all the misogynists to start showing up complaining about another female in a development position trying to make more female characters have a more prominent and diverse role.
Could lead for some interesting new characters or better development of existing ones as we go.

I haven't seen much opposition to female developers in games at all. The opposition to female developers who are bad at their jobs and appear to only be in those positions because of their gender? Different story, idk if you consider that misogyny.

Or like the last of us 2 being shit, is it misogynistic to say that?

[zhero]

This right here is a great example of what I was mentioning. No one has mentioned anything about forcing anything. You immediately jumped to that conclusion because of factors I don’t know, but could assume based off the given information of the posts that (a) you don’t agree with it so it must be so, and/or (b) because it’s a woman so it must be forced in and has no actual place.

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no, that is EXACTLY what you said

but I can’t wait for all the misogynists to start showing up complaining about another female in a development position trying to make more female characters have a more prominent and diverse role.

[Dracullus]

I hope they will still be making Tony Hawk remakes. I have huuuuuge nostalgia for THPS 4 and American Wasteland.

[Kuja]

I don't think D2 needs to be remastered. It's already so good. Should instead remaster D1. It looks so bad I have never even tried it.

[Sorshen]

so an unknown company of 200+ people are suddenly part of blizz? i guess at this point, there is no denying the old blizzard is truly dead. you can't just shove a huge group of people into another project led by a different company and expect the same usual outcome.

It's not unknown lol, they've been working for Activision and later Blizzard projects since 2005 or so.
Problem with this merge is... ATVI doesn't have great reputation among its employees atm (see Paris branch and other disasters).

[Relapses]

I can't wait for Khadgar's Pro Skating.

[sam86]

Odd thing to complain about given the high popularity and ratings for the series.

they seriously f8cked it later, it is almost like wc3 vs wc3 reforged

[Schmeebs]

This is probably the D2 Remaster, really not much else makes a ton of sense otehr than maybe utilizing them as a content farm. This doesnt mean blizzard is making new games, just means 'big publisher' saw an opportunity to use one of its little subsidiary companies to do work. Happens all the time in the corporate world.

[Kaedis]

They did the Crash and Tony Hawk 1+2 remasters, and before that the Skylanders games.

My initial guess is that they might have been folded into Blizzard to help work on Overwatch 2 or Diablo IV. Or maybe some other new project that will be announced next month during Blizzconline.

Other than the Tony Hawk games, their portfolio seems to be largely comprised of porting existing games to other consoles. They did the dev work for a lot of game ports to xbox. Skylanders wasn't their game, Toys for Bob did the primary development on it, and XPEC Entertainment did the work for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. Vicarious Visions was just tapped to do the 3DS port. It wasn't until the 5th version of Skylanders that VV did work on anything but handhelds or phones for the franchise.

Realistically, this says to me more than anything that Activision is probably wanting to pivot more into the console market for Blizzard franchises. Overwatch is an obvious option. Heroes of the Storm could almost certainly work on a console. Diablo 3 already exists on consoles, so Diablo 4 being released on them is probably already in the pipe. Starcraft is probably a hard no after the fiasco of Starcraft 64, but people have been arguing for years that one of the reasons behind the "dumbing down" of classes in WoW is to make it feasible to play with a controller, and Blizzard has now added first-party support for controllers in WoW. Consoles seem a rather obvious next step.

VV brings quite a bit of experience with porting games to other consoles. Seems like a fairly rational, and to be honest mostly harmless, addition to Blizzard.

[tru]

So warriors WW should be great..

[Eapoe]

I haven't seen much opposition to female developers in games at all. The opposition to female developers who are bad at their jobs and appear to only be in those positions because of their gender? Different story, idk if you consider that misogyny.

Or like the last of us 2 being shit, is it misogynistic to say that?

There are plenty of people who are on Christie Golden simply because of Anduin. Kathleen Kennedy gets all of the blame for everything wrong with Star Wars and being executive producer, while also being EP on The Mandalorian, as well as having played significant roles for the original trilogy. Some of the criticisms these women get simply come from them being women and how they shoe horn feminine men into their franchises, or Mary Sues. Keep in mind, I don’t really feel one way or the other about Golden, while I do think Kennedy has made bad decisions in the Star Wars franchise; however, she has also made good ones as well.
The Last of Us 2 being shit is a judgement call. Whether or not it’s misogynist is due to why you’re stating it’s shit. If it’s because you don’t like how it turned out and didn’t like the story, then no. If it’s because you didn’t like the story because it focused on 2 females, then there’s a pretty big possibility it’s for misogynistic reasons.

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no, that is EXACTLY what you said

In what part of what you quoted me did I mention forcing anything? You even reposted the quote and there is nothing in there about a forced issue. I stated “female characters having a more prominent and diverse role.” That’s not forcing if it’s done in a natural way involving good storytelling. You jumped into concluding that to do what I mentioned it would be forcing it, implying that it has no place in the game. This is a clear cut view of misogyny.