Activision

Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game

publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the
Activision Publishing, Inc.
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]

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 Former headquarters in Santa Monica in
experience of Activision's founders, hurt Activision's position 2008
in console games and forced the company to diversify into Formerly Computer Arts, Inc.
games for home computers, including the acquisition of
(1979)
Infocom. After a management shift, with CEO Jim Levy
replaced by Bruce Davis, the company renamed itself to Activision, Inc.
Mediagenic and branched out into business software (1979–1988; 1992–
applications. Mediagenic quickly fell into debt, and the 2000)
company was bought for around US$500,000 by Bobby Mediagenic
Kotick and a small group of investors around 1991. (1988–1992)

Kotick drastically revamped and restructured the company to Company Subsidiary

get it out of debt: dismissing most of its staff, moving the type
company to Los Angeles, and reverting to the Activision Industry Video games
name. Building on existing assets, the Kotick-led Activision
Founded October 1, 1979
pursued more publishing opportunities and, after recovering
from its former financial troubles, started acquiring numerous Founders David Crane
studios and various types of intellectual property over the Alan Miller
1990s and 2000s, among these being the Call of Duty and
Bob Whitehead
Guitar Hero series. A holding company was formed as
Activision's parent company to manage both its internal and Jim Levy
acquired studios. In 2008, this holding company merged with Headquarters 2701 Olympic Blvd,
Vivendi Games (the parent company of Blizzard Santa Monica, California,
Entertainment) and formed Activision Blizzard, with Kotick US
as its CEO. Within this structure, Activision manages Area served Worldwide
numerous third-party studios and publishes all games besides
those created by Blizzard. In October 2023, Microsoft Key people Rob Kostich (president)[1]
acquired parent company Activision Blizzard, maintaining Josh Taub (COO)[2]
that the company will continue to operate as a separate Products List of Activision video
games
business. While part of the larger Microsoft Gaming division, Revenue 8,803,000,000 United
Activision retains its function as the publisher of games States dollar (2021)
developed by their studios. Number of 9,200 (2019)
employees
History Parent Activision, Inc.
(2000–2008)
Activision Blizzard
Founding (1979)
(2008–present)
Subsidiaries See § Studios
Website www.activision.com (http
s://www.activision.com)
Footnotes / references
[3][4]

In 1976, Warner Communications bought Atari, Inc. from Nolan

Bushnell to help accelerate the Atari Video Computer System (Atari
Co-founder David Crane in 2013 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] In late
1986, Activision adopted the Electric Dreams brand, usually used for British software, for titles outside of
English for the American market.[28]

Mediagenic (1988–1991)

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.[30][11]

Mediagenic consisted of four groups:

Activision: video game publisher for various platforms,

notably the Nintendo Entertainment System, Master Mediagenic's former headquarters in
System, Atari 7800, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and Amiga Menlo Park, circa 2021[29]
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 software

In 1989, after several years of losses, Activision closed down the Infocom studios, extending to only 11 of
the 26 employees an offer to relocate to Activision's Silicon Valley 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.[31]

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.[32][33][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][34] 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.[34]

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 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.[35] 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.[36] 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 Bobby Kotick
investors bought Mediagenic for approximately $500,000 in 1991. This
group of investors included real estate businessman Steve Wynn and Philips
Electronics.[37][35]

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.[34] Kotick offset some debt by giving stock in the company
to its distributors as to keep them vested in the company's success.[34] 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.[34] The new Activision went public in October
1993, raising about $40 million,[19] and was listed on NASDAQ under its new ticker symbol ATVI.[37]
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.[34]

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.[35] 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.[35] On June 16, 2000, Activision reorganized
as a holding company, Activision Holdings, to manage Activision and its subsidiaries more effectively.[38]
Activision changed its corporate name from "Activision, Inc." to "Activision Publishing, Inc.", while
Activision Holdings took Activision's former "Activision, Inc." name.[38] 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.[38][39]

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.[40] By the end of 1997, Activision acquired Raven as one of its first
subsidiaries under Kotick.[41] The acquisition price was $12 million.[42]
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.[43] 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.[44]
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.[45] 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,[46] 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.[47]
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.[48] 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.[49]

Merger with Vivendi Games (2008)

While Activision was highly successful with its range of developers and successful series, Kotick was
concerned that they did not have a title for the growing massively multiplayer online 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.[50] 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][51] The new company was estimated to be worth US$18.9 billion, ahead of
Electronic Arts, which was valued at US$14.1 billion.[52]

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.[39]

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.[53] 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.[54][55] Within the same year, Activision shuttered Budcat Creations in November 2010, and
Bizarre Creations in February 2011.[56][57]

Hirshberg left the CEO position in March 2018.[58]

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.[59] This includes a new studio, Activision Mobile, devoted
to the Call of Duty Mobile title as reported in August 2021.[60][61]

In 2021, while all their employees were working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, Activision and
its parent Activision Blizzard vacated their longtime headquarters building in Santa Monica and ended their
lease with Boston Properties. In September 2021, they subleased a much smaller office space in Santa
Monica at the Pen Factory (a former Paper Mate factory) from Kite Pharma, which had leased the space
from Lincoln Property Company.[62]

With the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft in October 2023, Activision Blizzard as a whole,
including the Activision Publishing subdivision, became a separate division under the Microsoft Gaming
arm of Microsoft.[63]

Studios
Activision Shanghai Studio in Shanghai, China, founded in 2009.
Beenox in Québec City, Québec, 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.[64]
 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.
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.[61][65]
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
7 Studios in Los Angeles, California, founded in 1999, acquired in April 2009, closed in
February 2011.[66][67]
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,[68] closed on February 18,
2011.[57]

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.[54]
Massive Entertainment in Malmö, 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[69] and was officially made defunct on July 10,
2014.[70]
Radical Entertainment in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, founded in 1991, acquired
by Vivendi Games in 2005, laid off most staff in 2012.[71]
RedOctane in Mountain View, California, founded in November 2005, acquired in 2006,
closed on February 11, 2010.[55]
Shaba Games in San Francisco, California, founded in September 1997, acquired in 2002,
and closed on October 8, 2009.[72][73]
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, renamed 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.[55]
Vicarious Visions in Menands, New York, founded in 1990, acquired in January 2005,
moved to Blizzard Entertainment in January 2021.[74] 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

1980s 2000s
Fishing Derby (1980) Soldier of Fortune series (2000–2007)
Boxing (1980) X-Men series (2000–2011)
Skiing (1980) Spider-Man series (2000–2014)
Freeway (1981) Lost Kingdoms series (2002–2003)
Ice Hockey (1981) Total War series (2002–2004)
Kaboom! (1981) Call of Duty series (2003–present)
Stampede (1981) True Crime series (2003–2005)
Laser Blast (1981) Wolfenstein series (2003–2009)
Tennis (1981) Shrek series (2004-2011)
Megamania (1982) Doom 3 (2004)
Barnstorming (1982) Madagascar series (2005-2011)
Enduro (1982) The Movies (2005)
Chopper Command (1982) Gun (2005)
Starmaster (1982) Guitar Hero series (2006–2015)
Pitfall! series (1982–2004) Marvel: Ultimate Alliance series (2006–
River Raid series (1982–1988) 2009)
Oink! (1983) Barbie series (2006-2009)
Beamrider (1983) Little League World Series Baseball series
(2008-2010)
Robot Tank (1983)
James Bond series (2008–2012)
H.E.R.O. (1984)
Crash Bandicoot series (2008–present)
Little Computer People (1985)
Spyro the Dragon series (2008–2018)
Portal (1986)
Prototype series (2009–2015)
Hacker series (1985–1986)
Ice Age series (2009-2012)
Shanghai series (1986–1990)
Transformers series (1986, 2007–2017)
The Last Ninja series (1987–1988) 2010s
Deathtrack (1989)
Blur (2010)
Tongue of the Fatman (1989)
Singularity (2010)
MechWarrior series (1989–1996)
NASCAR The Game series (2011–2013)
Skylanders series (2011–2018)
1990s SpongeBob SquarePants series (2013–
2015)
Hunter (1991)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series (2013–
Zork series (1993–1997) 2016)
Dark Reign series (1997–2000) Destiny series (2014–2018)
Heavy Gear series (1997–1999) Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (2019)
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)

See also
List of video game companies

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External links
Official website (https://www.activision.com)

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