January 20th 2017

The studio ... officially merged with Blizzard Entertainment in January. Vicarious Visions had been working with the Overwatch and World of Warcraft publisher for some time, but the official merger meant that its primary focus would shift to “long-term support” of Blizzard games.

Vicarious Visions workers told Polygon that they were initially under the impression the merger meant their employer would continue to operate as its own studio, although it was owned by Blizzard. The news about the name drop came during a town hall meeting on Wednesday morning. A new name for the studio has not been announced, but some workers speculated that it could be simply called Blizzard Albany.

In August, former Vicarious Visions studio head Jen Oneal was named a co-president of Blizzard Entertainment. (She was named an executive vice president of development at Blizzard during the January merger.)

meeting on what employees described as a costume day. Some employees were dressed in Halloween costumes during the call.