Vivendi Universal Games
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Formerly called
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Vivendi Universal Games (2001–2006) |
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| Division of Vivendi | |
| Industry | Video game industry |
| Fate | Merged with Activision |
| Successor | Activision Blizzard (Activision) |
| Founded | 2001 (as Vivendi Universal Games) 2006 (as Vivendi Games) |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California, United States |
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Key people
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| Products |
Sierra Entertainment: Crash Bandicoot The Simpsons: Hit & Run Spyro the Dragon King's Quest Space Quest Gabriel Knight SWAT Blizzard Entertainment: Warcraft series StarCraft series Diablo series |
| Revenue |
 $1.018 billion USD (2007)
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Number of employees
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3,400 |
| Parent | Vivendi |
| Subsidiaries |
Blizzard Entertainment Sierra Entertainment |
| Website | www |
Vivendi Games, formerly known as Vivendi Universal Games or VU Games, was a wholly owned subsidiary of Vivendi responsible for video game developers inherited after acquiring Havas and Universal Studios.
Headed by Bruce Hack, it was headquartered in Los Angeles, California and employed over 3,400 people at four separate development divisions. Vivendi Games owned the rights to franchises such as Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo and World of Warcraft (all games developed by Blizzard Entertainment), as well as others like Empire Earth, Ground Control, Tribes, Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon owned by Sierra Entertainment. It later merged with Activision and is now known as Activision Blizzard.
The direct predecessor of Vivendi Games was Universal Interactive, the game publishing division of Universal Studios. Founded in 1993, it was best known for publishing the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon series, along with games based on Universal properties.
CUC Software was founded in February 1996, when CUC International, a large mail order and subscription company, offered to acquire entertainment software developer Sierra Entertainment. Headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, Sierra published adventure game series such as King's Quest, Gabriel Knight, Space Quest. Sierra was a public company, which employed roughly 1,000 employees at 12 different acquired studios. CUC offered to absorb Sierra's stock shares at a price roughly 90% higher than what Sierra was trading, and on July 24, 1996, Sierra became a wholly owned subsidiary of CUC.
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Wikipedia