25 Facts About Activision

Activision Publishing, Inc is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California.

Activision is one of the largest third-party video game publishers in the world and was the top United States publisher in 2016.

Activision was the first independent, third-party, console video game developer.

Activision was formally founded on October 1, 1979, with Levy serving as CEO.

Activision was initially named "Computer Arts, Inc " while they considered a better title.

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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.

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.

The lawsuit was settled by 1982, with Activision agreeing to pay royalties to Atari but otherwise legitimizing the third-party development model.

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.

Total sales for Activision were estimated at and revenues at ahead of its June 1983 initial public offering; at this point Activision had around 60 employees.

Activision completed its public offering in June 1983 on NASDAQ under the stock ticker AVSN.

Activision produced some of its Atari games for the Intellivision and ColecoVision consoles, among other platforms.

However, several new third-party developers 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.

In 1988, Activision began involvement in software besides video games, such as business applications.

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.

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.

The new Activision went public in October 1993, raising about, and was listed on NASDAQ under its new ticker symbol ATVI.

Activision published the first-person perspective MechWarrior in 1989, based on FASA's pen-and-paper game BattleTech.

Activision procured the license to another pen-and-paper-based war game, Heavy Gear, in 1997.

The Mechwarrior 2 engine was used in other Activision games, including 1997's Interstate '76 and 1998's Battlezone.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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