What Does Vicarious Visions Do?

Total employees200
HeadquartersMenands
Founded1991

Vicarious Visions was an American video game developer founded in 1991, celebrated for its significant contributions to major franchises like Skylanders, Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Crash Bandicoot, and Diablo. Known for technical prowess and creative game design, the studio developed numerous successful titles across various platforms. Activision acquired Vicarious Visions in 2005, making it a valuable asset within its portfolio. In January 2021, it was announced that Vicarious Visions would merge into Blizzard Entertainment to support Blizzard's ongoing and future projects. By April 2022, the studio was fully integrated and rebranded as Blizzard Albany, primarily focusing its efforts on the Diablo franchise.

Where Is Vicarious Visions's Headquarters?

Vicarious Visions officeVicarious Visions officeVicarious Visions officeVicarious Visions office
*Images sourced via web search. Rights belong to original owners

HQ Function

Primary game development center, encompassing design, art, engineering, quality assurance, and administrative operations for all studio projects.

Notable Features:

The studio occupied modern office facilities tailored for game development, likely featuring open-plan work areas to encourage collaboration, specialized project rooms, sound design studios, and recreational spaces for employees.

Work Culture:

Vicarious Visions was known for fostering a passionate, innovative, and collaborative work culture. There was a strong emphasis on creative freedom, technical excellence, and a shared dedication to producing high-quality video games. It was often described as a close-knit environment.

HQ Significance:

The Albany-area headquarters was the birthplace of many critically acclaimed and commercially successful games, including key titles in the Skylanders series, remasters of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and Crash Bandicoot, significantly bolstering the studio's reputation in the gaming industry.

Values Reflected in HQ: The headquarters' design and operational ethos aimed to reflect core values such as creativity, technical mastery, collaborative teamwork, and a profound passion for gaming and innovation.

Location:

As a prominent game development studio, Vicarious Visions' primary global function was the creation of video games for worldwide audiences. While development was centralized in New York, their products, published by Activision Blizzard, were distributed, marketed, and supported globally. Their work contributed to franchises with significant international fanbases, thereby having a global impact through their software.

Street Address:

200 Stony Point Rd, Suite 200

City:

Menands

State/Province:

New York

Country:

USA

Where Else Does Vicarious Visions Operate Around the World?

N/A

Address: N/A

N/A - All primary development and operational functions were centralized at their main New York studio.

Buying Intent Signals for Vicarious Visions

Highperformr Signals uncover buying intent and give you clear insights to target the right accounts at the right time — helping your sales, marketing, and GTM teams close more deals, faster.

Notable news
Hiring actively
Corporate Finance
Corporate Finance
Corporate Finance
Corporate Finance
Corporate Finance
*Example signal, not calculated in real time

Who's Leading Vicarious Visions? Meet the Executive Team

As of April 2025, Vicarious Visions' leadership includes:

Jennifer Oneal - Former Studio Head (until early 2021); subsequently EVP of Development at Blizzard, Co-Lead of Blizzard
Simon Ebejer - Former Chief Operating Officer; became Studio Head (2021-2022), currently Studio Head of Blizzard Albany
Karthik Bala - Co-Founder (departed 2016)
Guha Bala - Co-Founder (departed 2016)

Who's Investing in Vicarious Visions?

Vicarious Visions has been backed by several prominent investors over the years, including:

Activision (acquired Vicarious Visions in 2005)
Activision Blizzard (parent company after Activision's merger with Vivendi Games)

What Leadership Changes Has Vicarious Visions Seen Recently?

Hire0
Exits0

Vicarious Visions was fully integrated into Blizzard Entertainment and officially rebranded as Blizzard Albany in April 2022. As a result, there have been no executive hires or exits under the 'Vicarious Visions' name in the last 12 months (approx. May 2023 - May 2024). Any leadership changes concerning the studio now occur under the Blizzard Albany identity within Blizzard Entertainment.

What Technology (Tech Stack) Is Used byVicarious Visions?

Discover the tools Vicarious Visions uses. Highperformr reveals the technologies powering your target accounts — helping your sales, marketing, and GTM teams prioritize smarter and close faster.

Vicarious Visions Email Formats and Examples

Historically, Vicarious Visions likely used standard corporate email formats such as [firstinitial][lastname]@[companydomain].com. Following its full integration and rebranding as Blizzard Albany, employees transitioned to Blizzard Entertainment's email system.

firstinitiallastname@vvisions.com (historical)

Format

jdoe@vvisions.com (example of historical format)

Example

70%

Success rate

What's the Latest News About Vicarious Visions?

Bloomberg • January 22, 2021

Activision's Vicarious Visions to Merge Into Blizzard

Activision Blizzard Inc. announced that Vicarious Visions, the studio known for developing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2, would be merged into its Blizzard Entertainment division. The team of around 200 people was set to become Blizzard employees and focus on existing Blizzard games and initiatives....more

Polygon / Company Social Media • April 12, 2022

Vicarious Visions is officially Blizzard Albany

Vicarious Visions announced its official name change to Blizzard Albany. The studio confirmed via social media that after more than a year of working with Blizzard, they were merging with the company and would henceforth be known as Blizzard Albany, continuing their work on Blizzard titles....more

GamesIndustry.biz / Activision Blizzard • May 4, 2021

Jen Oneal (formerly Vicarious Visions Head) appointed Blizzard co-leader

Following the earlier announcement of Vicarious Visions' merger into Blizzard, Jennifer Oneal, the former head of Vicarious Visions, was appointed as executive vice president of development at Blizzard, later in the year becoming co-leader of Blizzard Entertainment alongside Mike Ybarra, showcasing a significant leadership transition stemming from the VV team....more

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