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1[[quoteright:345:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/activision_white_logo.png]]
2[[caption-width-right:345:Cue the letter tornado.]]
3
4[[https://www.activision.com Activision]] is known in the United States as the first "third-party" developer, getting its nose in the video game industry with games for the Platform/{{Atari 2600}}, and co-founded by four former Creator/{{Atari}} designers (David Crane, Larry Kaplan, Bob Whitehead and Alan Miller) on October 1, 1979. Against Atari's publishing policies at the time, Activision was the first studio to allow programmers to take credit for the games they designed.
5
6Unlike many other companies developing games for second-generation consoles, Activision survived MediaNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983 intact, being quick to jump on the Platform/{{Commodore 64}} bandwagon, and even added to its catalog several games from defunct competitor Creator/{{Imagic}}, whose advertising {{Tagline}} for their games was "Designed By Experts For Experts". Activision acquired Creator/{{Infocom}} in 1986. In 1988, Activision renamed itself to Mediagenic but by 1991 it reverted to its original name after a buyout by a group led by Bobby Kotick.
7
8In 2007, Activision merged with [[Creator/VivendiUniversalGames Vivendi Games]] (who owned Creator/{{Sierra}} and Creator/BlizzardEntertainment at the time), to become Creator/ActivisionBlizzard, the single largest third-party game developer in the United States, surpassing Creator/ElectronicArts. Vivendi Games was previously Vivendi Universal Games, as Creator/{{Vivendi}} was the parent company of Creator/{{Universal}} from 2000 to 2003 and retained the "Universal" part well into 2006[[note]]Vivendi still held Creator/UniversalMusicGroup until its 2021 IPO, which is allowed to retain its name after its split from the film studio under a deal with Comcast, Universal's current parent company[[/note]].
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10Today, the company is best known for being the publisher of the ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' series, kicking off the late 2000s music game fad with the ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'' series[[note]]Although they only signed on to publish from the second game onwards[[/note]] and for its controversial business practices, especially concerning the contractual dispute with ''Call of Duty'' developer Infinity Ward following the release of ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare2'' in 2009, which saw more than half of the developer's staff leaving. In 2021, parent company Activision Blizzard became the subject of a huge scandal following a lawsuit filed by the DFEH (California Department of Fair Employment and Housing) that revealed a toxic culture across both Activision and Blizzard that had existed for many years, where many employees were paid minimum wages and female employees were subjected to regular sexual harassment by male employees, all with full knowledge of leadership who defended the perpetrators and retaliated against victims of harassment if they complained. The knowledge revealed by this lawsuit resulted in the company's reputation being irreparably damaged.
11
12In January 2022, Creator/{{Microsoft}} announced that it would acquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion in the wake of the DFEH's lawsuit, which will (ironically given their origins) make Activision a first-party developer for a console manufacturer. After a lengthy 20 months of getting legal approvals throughout the world, the deal was closed on October 13th, 2023 a few hours after Britain's Competition Markets Authority approved the deal.
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14Later on January 25th, 2024, Microsoft layed off 1,900 workers from their gaming divisions with many of Activision Blizzard's companies, specifically Blizzard Entertainment, being the most affected by it while Activision studio Toys For Bob closed it's office while it's workers transitioned to working from home. When the Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint against Microsoft for the layoffs running against what they had said regarding the acquisition, Microsoft stated that the layoffs had nothing to do with the acquisition and were already planned to happen before it was acquired. However, Toys for Bob split from Activision on February 29th of that year.
15----
16!!Pre-crash Activision games:[[index]]
17* ''VideoGame/{{Apocalypse}}''
18* ''Beamrider''
19* ''Boxing''
20* ''Checkers''
21* ''VideoGame/ChaseTheExpress''
22* ''VideoGame/ChopperCommand''
23* ''Crackpots''
24* ''Decathlon''
25* ''Dragster''
26* ''The Dreadnaught Factor''
27* ''Enduro''
28* ''VideoGame/{{Freeway}}''
29* ''Frostbite''
30* ''[[VideoGame/{{Ghostbusters 1984}} Ghostbusters]]''
31* ''Grand Prix''
32* ''Hacker''
33* ''Happy Trails''
34* ''H.E.R.O.''
35* ''Ice Hockey''
36* ''VideoGame/{{Kaboom}}''
37* ''VideoGame/KeystoneKapers''
38* ''VideoGame/LaserBlast''
39* ''VideoGame/{{Megamania}}''
40* ''{{VideoGame/Oink}}''
41* ''VideoGame/{{Pitfall}}''
42* ''VideoGame/PlaqueAttack''
43* ''Pressure Cooker''
44* ''VideoGame/RiverRaid''
45* ''Robot Tank''
46* ''Spider Fighter''
47* ''Stampede''
48* ''Starmaster''
49* ''Tennis''
50* ''Worm Whomper''
51* ''VideoGame/XKaliber2097''
52
53[[/index]]
54
55!!Pre-crash Imagic games:
56* [[Creator/{{Imagic}} Go here.]]
57
58!!Post-crash Activision games:
59[[index]]
60* ''VideoGame/AlterEgo1986''
61* ''Franchise/AngryBirds''
62** ''VideoGame/AngryBirdsStarWars''
63** [[VideoGame/AngryBirds Angry Birds Trilogy]]
64* ''VideoGame/{{Battlezone|1998}}'' (the 1998 FPS/RTS hybrid and its sequel)
65* ''VideoGame/BlueStinger''
66* ''VideoGame/Blur2010''
67* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty''
68** ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare''
69*** ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty4ModernWarfare''
70*** ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare2''
71*** ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare3''
72* ''VideoGame/CivilizationCallToPower''
73* ''VideoGame/DarkReign''
74* ''VideoGame/DragonBreed''
75* ''VideoGame/EmpiresDawnOfTheModernWorld''
76* ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'' (acquired original publisher [=RedOctane=])
77** ''VideoGame/DJHero''
78* ''VideoGame/{{Gun}}''
79* ''VideoGame/{{Interstate 76}}''
80* ''VideoGame/JurassicTheHunted''
81* ''VideoGame/KellySlatersProSurfer''
82* ''VideoGame/LittleComputerPeople''
83* ''VideoGame/LostKingdoms'' (developed by [=FromSoftware=])
84* ''VideoGame/MechWarrior'' (Just the first two games; they lost the ''{{TabletopGame/Battletech}}'' license after that.)
85* ''VideoGame/MoshiMonsters''
86* ''Moxie Girlz''
87* ''NASCAR The Game'' (''2011'' and ''Inside Line'' only; they lost the license for ''NASCAR '14'')
88* ''Pinkalicious''
89* ''VideoGame/RadicalRex''
90* ''[[VideoGame/SeaWorldTycoon Sea World Adventure Parks Tycoon]]''
91* * ''VideoGame/SecretService''
92* ''VideoGame/{{Shanghai}}''
93* ''VideoGame/SekiroShadowsDieTwice''
94* ''VideoGame/{{SiN}}''
95** ''[[VideoGame/SiN1998 SiN]]'' (1998)
96* ''VideoGame/SoldierOfFortune''
97* ''VideoGame/SpanishForEveryone''
98* ''VideoGame/SpycraftTheGreatGame''
99* ''VideoGame/SuperPitfall''
100** ''VideoGame/Pitfall3DBeyondTheJungle''
101* ''Teen Digital Diva'' (developed by ''Girl Games'')
102** ''Teen Digital Diva II'' (also developed by ''Girl Games'')
103* ''VideoGame/TheThreeStooges'' (NES version of the Cinemaware PC Game)
104* ''VideoGame/TombsAndTreasure'' (published under the Creator/{{Infocom}} imprint, but not developed by the original Infocom company)
105* ''VideoGame/TimeCommando''
106* ''VideoGame/TonyHawksProSkater''
107* ''VideoGame/TrueCrimeStreetsOfLA''
108** ''VideoGame/TrueCrimeNewYorkCity''
109* ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines''
110* ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeRedemption''
111* ''VideoGame/{{Vigilante 8}}''
112** ''VideoGame/Vigilante8SecondOffense''
113* ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDeadSurvivalInstinct''
114* ''VideoGame/WhiteNight''
115* ''VideoGame/{{Wolfenstein}}'':
116** ''VideoGame/ReturnToCastleWolfenstein''
117** ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein2009''
118* ''VideoGame/{{Wreckless}}: The Yakuza Missions'' (published outside Japan)
119* ''[=XiaXia=]''
120* The graphical ''VideoGame/{{Zork}}'' games
121[[/index]]
122
123!!Sierra Entertainment/Vivendi/Universal properties:
124* ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot''
125* ''Franchise/SpyroTheDragon''
126** ''VideoGame/{{Skylanders}}''
127* ''VideoGame/TimeShift''
128
129!!Blizzard properties:
130* ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'' series
131* ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' series
132* ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' franchise
133* ''VideoGame/HeroesOfTheStorm''
134* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}''
135See Creator/BlizzardEntertainment for a complete list.
136
137
138!!Licensed Games
139* ''Franchise/{{Barbie}}'' (including Barbie Horse Adventures, The Barbie Diaries: High School Mystery, Barbie & the Three Musketeers and Barbie as the Island Princess)
140* Games based on movies from ''Creator/{{Disney}}'' (including Tarzan, Frozen and Wreck-It Ralph)
141** ''VideoGame/ToyStory2'' (1999)
142** ''VideoGame/TheLionKingSimbasMightyAdventure'' (2000)
143** ''VideoGame/DisneysExtremeSkateAdventure'' (2003)
144* [[/index]]Games based on movies from ''Creator/DreamworksAnimation'' films (2004-2011)[[index]]
145** ''Franchise/{{Shrek}}''
146*** ''VideoGame/Shrek2''
147*** ''VideoGame/ShrekSuperSlam''
148*** ''VideoGame/ShrekSmashNCrashRacing''
149*** ''VideoGame/ShrekTheThird''
150** ''VideoGame/SharkTale''
151** ''VideoGame/{{Madagascar}}''
152*** ''VideoGame/MadagascarKartz''
153** ''VideoGame/OverTheHedge''
154** ''VideoGame/BeeMovieGame''
155** ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda1''
156** ''VideoGame/MonstersVsAliens''
157** ''WesternAnimation/{{How to Train Your Dragon|2010}}''
158** ''Dreamworks Super Star Kartz''
159* ''VideoGame/FamilyGuyBackToTheMultiverse''
160* ''Franchise/JamesBond'':
161** ''VideoGame/QuantumOfSolace''
162** ''[[VideoGame/GoldenEyeWii GoldenEye]]'' (2010)
163** ''VideoGame/BloodStone''
164** ''VideoGame/DoubleOhSevenLegends''
165* ''TabletopGame/HeavyGear''
166* ''WesternAnimation/IceAgeDawnOfTheDinosaurs''
167** ''WesternAnimation/IceAgeContinentalDrift''
168* [[/index]]Activision once explicitly held licences to produce [[Creator/MarvelComics Marvel]] games based on both the ''ComicBook/XMen'' and ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' comics & films, ''Ultimate Alliance'' being an odd one out as it involves the general Franchise/MarvelUniverse. This did not prevent Spidey and the mutants from appearing in [[VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3 other]] [[VideoGame/MarvelNemesisRiseOfTheImperfects games]], [[VideoGame/DisneyInfinity however.]][[index]]
169** ''VideoGame/TheAmazingSpiderMan''
170*** ''VideoGame/TheAmazingSpiderMan2''
171** ''VideoGame/Blade2000''
172*** ''VideoGame/BladeII''
173** ''VideoGame/Deadpool2013''
174** ''VideoGame/FantasticFourDuology''
175*** ''VideoGame/FantasticFour2005''
176*** ''VideoGame/FantasticFourFlameOn''
177** ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance''
178*** ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance2''
179** ''VideoGame/SpiderMan2000''
180** ''VideoGame/SpiderMan2EnterElectro''
181** ''VideoGame/SpiderMan2TheSinisterSix''
182** ''VideoGame/SpiderManMysteriosMenace''
183** ''VideoGame/SpiderManFriendOrFoe''
184** ''VideoGame/SpiderManShatteredDimensions''
185** ''VideoGame/SpiderManEdgeOfTime''
186** ''VideoGame/SpiderManTrilogy''
187*** ''VideoGame/SpiderManTheMovie''
188*** ''VideoGame/SpiderMan2''
189*** ''VideoGame/SpiderMan3''
190** ''VideoGame/SpiderManWebOfShadows''
191** ''VideoGame/UltimateSpiderMan2005''
192*** ''VideoGame/SpiderManBattleForNewYork''
193** ''VideoGame/X2WolverinesRevenge''
194** ''VideoGame/XMenDestiny''
195** ''VideoGame/XMenLegends''
196*** ''VideoGame/XMenLegendsII''
197** ''VideoGame/XMenMutantAcademy''
198*** ''VideoGame/XMenMutantAcademy2''
199** ''VideoGame/XMenNextDimension''
200** ''VideoGame/XMenTheOfficialGame''
201** ''VideoGame/XMenOriginsWolverine''
202* ''VideoGame/MuppetTreasureIsland''
203* Games based on ''Creator/{{Nickelodeon}}'' properties (2013-2017)
204** ''Series/{{iCarly}}''
205** ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants''
206*** ''VideoGame/SpongeBobSquarePantsPlanktonsRoboticRevenge''
207** ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles''
208*** ''VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMutantsInManhattan''
209** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfKorra''
210* ''VideoGame/TheSimpsonsWrestling''
211* ''VideoGame/StarTrekArmada''
212* ''VideoGame/StarTrekEliteForce''
213* ''Franchise/StarWars'': ''VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga'':
214** ''VideoGame/JediKnightIIJediOutcast''
215** ''VideoGame/JediKnightJediAcademy''
216* ''WesternAnimation/ThePeanutsMovie'': Snoopy's Grand Adventure
217* ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDeadSurvivalInstinct''
218* ''VideoGame/{{Transformers}}'' (2007-2017):
219** ''VideoGame/TransformersTheGameConsole''
220*** ''VideoGame/TransformersTheGameDS''
221*** ''VideoGame/TransformersDarkOfTheMoon''
222** ''VideoGame/TransformersPrimeTheGame''
223** ''VideoGame/TransformersRiseOfTheDarkSpark''
224** ''VideoGame/TransformersWarForCybertron''
225*** ''VideoGame/TransformersCybertronAdventures''
226*** ''VideoGame/TransformersFallOfCybertron''

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