Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 and Skylanders developer Vicarious Visions has merged with Blizzard Entertainment.
The developer was previously tied to Activision but has moved across to the Blizzard side of the partnership after it most recently worked on Diablo II: Resurrected.
While the 200 or so employees will remain in their Albany-based studio they will now solely work on Blizzard games, meaning Vicarious will no longer be the lead developer on any project but instead a supporting studio. This is nothing new for staff at Vicarious - they were important support during the development of Destiny 2's PC version - but this official merge signals the end of lead development, such as that on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2.
We've officially merged with Blizzard Entertainment. Our development team will remain in Albany, NY and fully dedicated to Blizzard games. We invite you to follow us @Blizzard_Ent
— Vicarious Visions (@VvisionsStudio) April 12, 2022
A Blizzard spokesperson later told gamesindustry.biz that the studio would be "fully dedicated to existing Blizzard games and initiatives" going forward.
They added: "After collaborating with Vicarious Visions for some time and developing a great relationship, Blizzard realized there was an opportunity for [Vicarious Visions] to provide long-term support."
There's no word on which game Vicarious employees will be working on but Blizzard has a number of projects in the works including Diablo 4, a Diablo mobile game, Overwatch 2, and more.
Vicarious's history spans nearly 30 years as it first released Synnergist for PC in 1996 and has since worked on dozens of different titles for just about every console.
Its biggest franchise is arguably toys-to-life phenomenon Skylanders, which Vicarious worked on for most of the 2010s.
More recently it worked on the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2, and the Diablo 2 remaster that was released last year.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.