Blizzard Albany
Video game developerWikipedia
11
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10
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10
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Search complete. 11 mentions across 10 episodes found for "Blizzard Albany".
Oct 12, 2026
ChrisHOST
Mm-hmm.
RichieHOST
And Activision was seemingly just not that interested in, indeed, just taking things like Vicarious Visions, Toys for Bob, and turning them into support studios for Call of Duty.
RichieHOST
Because while they were all technically successes, they didn't do anywhere near the numbers that Call of Duty regularly brings in.
ChrisHOST
Yeah.
Owen RobarHOST
Released, of course, June 11th, 2001, with the release of the Game Boy Advance in North America.
Owen RobarHOST
Published by Activision and developed by Vicarious Visions, who later go on to become Blizzard Albany, who are responsible for a lot of the Guitar Hero titles, as well as assisting with Diablo II, IV, and Call of Duty's Black Ops.
Owen RobarHOST
They're also responsible for the wonderful Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 that's now available on PlayStation 4 and is just a really great way to play these games.
Owen RobarHOST
Now- The Game Boy Advanced one is wildly different from any of the other versions of this game.
Eric HirshbergGUEST
And it's an incredible game.
Eric HirshbergGUEST
You know, the guys at Toys for Bob and Vicarious Visions did such a beautiful job bringing it to life.
Eric HirshbergGUEST
And we were trying to make a Nintendo-quality game and a Hasbro or Mattel-quality toy line, and we managed to do both.
Jackson ReedHOST
Yeah, for sure.
Mike StaubHOST
So now they're not Musou, but they're not – so far removed from luso to where it doesn't make sense like the first two
Matt LevyHOST
were activision games and i believe the second was vicarious visions and it was it was junk but the first one was made by raven raven yes who made the x-men legends games you're correct it bounced around and i actually think i think i'm a big defender of mua3 i think it's a really good game that just kind of got lost on the switch one
Mike StaubHOST
It's awesome.
Mike StaubHOST
I think MUA3 is great.
Mike StaubHOST
And I think that appeal is there.
Mike StaubHOST
But what's crazy about Ultimate Alliance is that, yeah, you have Raven made the first one.
Mike StaubHOST
Vicarious Visions made the sequel.
Mike StaubHOST
And then I don't know what the heck was going on.
AdrianHOST
There was a few new businesses or new video game companies that came up in that year.
AdrianHOST
We haven't heard of many of these, really, but have you heard of Vicarious Visions? It's
DylanHOST
software.
DylanHOST
Bungie.
RadekPANELIST
No, no.
RadekPANELIST
So, Vicarious Visions did the PSP port.
RadekPANELIST
Oh, they're good, too, though.
RadekPANELIST
Yeah, shout out to Vicarious.
Kevin AinsworthHOST
A lot of their teams are support studios.
Kevin AinsworthHOST
I mean, they've made vicarious visions into Blizzard Albany, right? Like they're not opposed to just making teams and do help us out teams.
Kevin AinsworthHOST
So we'll wait and see what happens to World's Edge, but it doesn't sound very promising just based on what's coming out for their independence as a studio, I should say.
Sam HeaneyHOST
Which is kind of weird because the age games do very well.
Jeff GrubbHOST
Uh, uh, you know, they...
Jeff GrubbHOST
This is the, the company that, you know, closed Vicarious Visions and, and-
Jason FanelliGUEST
Of course
Jeff GrubbHOST
... all, all these other studios and took those people and were like, "Now you are making, uh, a Diablo," or, "Now you're making Call of Duty." And that's kind of your one...
Scott JohnsonHOST
Interesting note about the PSP version.
Scott JohnsonHOST
It was made by Vicarious Visions.
Scott JohnsonHOST
And you probably have heard that name before.
Scott JohnsonHOST
We've talked about it on the show before.
Kyle StevensonHOST
I remember years ago, Joe, you and I were on here and we were so sad when Toys for Bob was made a support studio at Activision.
Kyle StevensonHOST
And why am I blanking on the other studio? Vicarious Visions made a support studio for Activision.
Kyle StevensonHOST
And now Rare and World's Edge are now just another subsidiary of Activision.
Kyle StevensonHOST
Who knows what Activision is going to actually use them for.