Vicarious Visions

Vicarious Visions, Inc.
Subsidiary
Industry Computer and video games
Founded 1990 (1990)
Founder Karthik Bala
Guha Bala
Headquarters Menands, New York, United States
Key people
 Jennifer O’Neal
Products List of Vicarious Visions video games
Number of employees
 200+ developers, additional QA and temporary
Parent Activision (2005–present)
Website Official website

Vicarious Visions, Inc. is an American video game developer. Vicarious Visions' games accounted for over $2.5 billion in retail sales and over 40 million units of its software have been sold worldwide. The headquarters of Vicarious Visions is located in Menands, New York.

Studio history

The studio was founded by brothers Karthik and Guha Bala in 1990 while both were in high school.

In the late 1990s, Vicarious Visions appointed Michael Marvin, an Albany-based investor and entrepreneur, and founder and former CEO of MapInfo Corporation; and Charles S. Jones, investor, who sat on the boards of various software and industrial companies including Geac and PSDI, to its board of directors. Under their leadership, a sale of the company was negotiated to Activision, earning the original investors over 20x their initial investment.

In January 2005, Vicarious Visions was acquired by publisher Activision. On April 5, 2016, the Bala brothers announced that they had left the company.[1]

Game history

Terminus, an online multiplayer space trading and combat simulation game, won two Independent Games Festival Awards in 1999. They became known as a leading developer of handheld games breaking ground by the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series, developing every Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS title in the franchise's main series as well as one spin off. They developed the first three Crash Bandicoot GBA games. They are also well known for many games including Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Ultimate Spider-Man, Crash Nitro Kart, Jedi Knight II, Jedi Academy, and Doom 3 for the Xbox. Vicarious Visions developed for the Guitar Hero series on the Nintendo DS and Wii platforms. For Guitar Hero: On Tour, Vicarious Visions created the "Guitar Grip" peripheral for the Nintendo DS, which emulates the guitar controller for the portable system.

It was revealed on June 10, 2011, that Vicarious Visions was working on the 3DS version of Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure.[2]

On December 8, 2016, Vicarious Visions announced that they are partnering with Bungie to work on the Destiny franchise.[3]

Games developed

Year Game Platform(s)
1996 Synnergist Microsoft DOS (PC CD-ROM)
1997 Dark Angael Microsoft Windows
1999 Zebco Fishing! Game Boy Color
1999 Vigilante 8 Game Boy Color
2000 Polaris SnoCross Game Boy Color, Nintendo 64, PlayStation
2000 Terminus Microsoft Windows, MacOS, Linux
2000 Spider-Man Game Boy Color
2000 The Wild Thornberrys: Rambler Game Boy Color
2000 Pro Darts Game Boy Color
2000 Barbie: Magic Genie Adventure Game Boy Color
2000 Jimmy White's Cue Ball Game Boy Color
2001 Wanadoo SnowCross Game Boy Color, Microsoft Windows
2001 Rescue Heroes: Fire Frenzy Game Boy Color
2001 Blue's Clues: Blue's Alphabet Book Game Boy Color
2001 SpongeBob SquarePants: Legend of the Lost Spatula Game Boy Color
2001 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 Game Boy Advance
2001 Sea-Doo Hydrocross PlayStation
2001 Power Rangers: Time Force Game Boy Advance
2001 Spider-Man: Mysterio's Menace Game Boy Advance
2001 Zoboomafoo: Playtime in Zobooland Game Boy Color
2001 Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro PlayStation
2001 Monsters, Inc. Game Boy Color
2001 Kelly Club: Clubhouse Fun Game Boy Color
2002 Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure Game Boy Advance
2002 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 Game Boy Advance
2002 Frogger Advance: The Great Quest Game Boy Advance
2002 SpongeBob SquarePants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman Game Boy Advance
2002 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 Game Boy Advance, PlayStation
2002 The Powerpuff Girls: Him and Seek Game Boy Advance
2002 Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast GameCube, Xbox
2002 Whiteout Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox
2003 Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced Game Boy Advance
2003 The Muppets: On With The Show! Game Boy Advance, Microsoft Windows
2003 Bruce Lee: Return of the Legend Game Boy Advance
2003 X2: Wolverine's Revenge Game Boy Advance
2003 Finding Nemo Game Boy Advance
2003 Jet Grind Radio Game Boy Advance
2003 Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure Game Boy Advance
2003 Disney's The Lion King 1½ Game Boy Advance
2003 Tony Hawk's Underground Game Boy Advance
2003 SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Game Boy Advance
2003 Disney's Brother Bear Game Boy Advance
2003 Crash Nitro Kart Game Boy Advance, GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, N-Gage
2003 Spy Muppets: License to Croak Game Boy Advance, Microsoft Windows
2003 Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy Xbox
2004 Rivet Mobile phone
2004 Shrek 2 Game Boy Advance
2004 Spider-Man vs. Doc Ock Mobile phone
2004 Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage and Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy Game Boy Advance
2004 Shark Tale Game Boy Advance
2004 Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Game Boy Advance
2004 That's So Raven Game Boy Advance
2004 Shrek 2: Beg For Mercy! Game Boy Advance
2004 Kids Next Door: Operation S.O.D.A. Game Boy Advance
2004 Spider-Man 2 Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable
2005 Doom 3 Xbox
2005 Madagascar Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS
2005 Batman Begins Game Boy Advance
2005 Ultimate Spider-Man Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS
2005 X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse PlayStation Portable
2005 Tony Hawk's American Sk8land Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS
2005 Madagascar: Operation Penguin Game Boy Advance
2006 Over the Hedge Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS
2006 Over the Hedge: Hammy Goes Nuts Game Boy Advance
2006 Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam Nintendo DS
2006 Marvel: Ultimate Alliance PlayStation Portable, Wii
2007 Shrek the Third Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS
2007 Spider-Man 3 Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Wii
2007 Transformers: Decepticons Nintendo DS
2007 Transformers: Autobots Nintendo DS
2007 Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Wii
2007 Tony Hawk's Proving Ground Nintendo DS
2007 Bee Movie Game Nintendo DS
2008 Kung Fu Panda Nintendo DS
2008 Guitar Hero: On Tour Nintendo DS
2008 Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Wii
2008 Guitar Hero World Tour Wii
2008 Quantum of Solace Nintendo DS
2008 Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades Nintendo DS
2009 Mixed Messages DSiWare
2009 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - Decepticons Nintendo DS
2009 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - Autobots Nintendo DS
2009 Guitar Hero 5 Wii
2009 Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
2009 Band Hero Nintendo DS, Wii
2009 Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits Nintendo DS
2010 Guitar Hero iOS
2010 Transformers War for Cybertron: Decepticons Nintendo DS
2010 Transformers War for Cybertron: Autobots Nintendo DS
2010 Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock Wii
2011 Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure Nintendo 3DS
2012 Skylanders: Cloud Patrol iOS, Android, Kindle Fire
2012 Skylanders: Lost Islands iOS, Android
2012 Skylanders: Battlegrounds iOS, Android
2012 Skylanders: Giants Wii U
2013 Skylanders: Swap Force PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U,[4] Xbox 360, Xbox One
2014 Skylanders: Trap Team iOS, Android, Kindle Fire
2015 Skylanders: SuperChargers PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U, iOS
2016 Skylanders: Imaginators - Crash Edition PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4
2017 Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy PlayStation 4
2017 Destiny 2 PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows

Cancelled games

Year Game Platform(s)
2000 AMF Xtreme Bowling Game Boy Color
2000 Carnivale Game Boy Color
2001 Sea-Doo Hydrocross Game Boy Color, Nintendo 64
2004 Untitled Crash Bandicoot game Unknown
2008 Call of Duty: Roman Wars Microsoft Windows, PS3, Xbox 360
2010 DJ Hero 3D Nintendo 3DS
2011 Guitar Hero 7 PS3, Xbox 360, Wii

References

  1. ↑ Futter, Mike (April 5, 2016). "Vicarious Visions Co-Founder Brothers Depart After 25 Years". Game Informer. Retrieved April 5, 2016.
  2. ↑ "Report: Job Losses At Vicarious Visions". Nintendo World Report.
  3. ↑ McWhertor, Michael (December 8, 2016). "Destiny Development Team Expands With Vicarious Visions". Polygon. Retrieved January 4, 2017.
  4. ↑ East, Thomas (July 2, 2013). "Skylanders Swap Force Wii will be very close to the HD versions". Official Nintendo Magazine. Retrieved October 3, 2013.
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