Activision

Founded: 1979-10-01

T-series code: T-130

Merged with: Vivendi Games (2008)

Merged into: Microsoft (2023)

	46000 Bohannon Dr., Suite 210, Menlo Park, California, 94025, United States^[1]
	3100 Ocean Park Blvd., Santa Monica, California, 90405, United States^[2]
	Foster City, California

Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher, and one of the largest companies of its type in the world.

History

Activision, Inc. was founded in October 1979 by four programmers (David Crane, Larry Kaplan, Alan Miller and Robert Whitehead) from Atari. After discovering their efforts represented 60% of the company's sales at the time (valued at over $60 million), they prompted Atari to start treating its staff like the music industry, paying programmers royalties and allowing them to be recognised for their work in the products sold, rather than just allowing Atari to take credit. Renegotiations failed and Activision was formed to fulfil their demands.

Activision represented a number of firsts in the industry, being one of the first third-party game developers for the Atari 2600 (and by extension, third-party software houses, period), the first to fully credit its staff in video game releases (albeit just in manuals at first due to technology restraints) and the first video game company to use a name earlier in the alphabet than "Atari" in order to be found more quickly (a practise also mirrored in later companies such as Accolade, Acclaim and Absolute Entertainment).

Activision was enormously successful in the early years, but was hit by the North American video game crash of 1983, which subsequently led to lower sales, employees leaving and a renewed focus on home computer games. It purchased struggling developer Infocom in 1986 (which it would close in 1989) and would attempt to diversify into other types of computer software aside from games. This change of pace caused the company to change its name to Mediagenic in 1988^[3], with "Activision" being retained as a brand for "entertainment software"^[4] (alongside Infocom).

In 1981 an "international" company had been set up as Activision (UK) Inc., and by 1983/1984 it was a success in its own right, supporting numerous European home computers. It was this branch of Activision (which for a while traded as Activision Entertainment Software) which first interacted with Sega, securing the license to publish several Sega arcade games for home computers.

The firm had a confused presence during the late 1980s after the firm attempted to diversify its business, trading as both Mediagenic (the official name) and Activision (the more well-known name) depending on the situation (after creating the Electric Dreams label in the UK, customers could find that for support, they were contacting not Electric Dreams, but "Mediagenic" headquartered at "Activision House" in London).

Mediagenic lost $19 million USD in 1989^[3], $6 million due to a patent infringement lawsuit with Magnavox^[3], but also due to sluggish software sales over this period. In 1990, in an attempt to refocus on its domestic market, the UK division was effectively closed, with Mediagenic publicly announcing that it would only support consoles and the IBM PC in the future (dropping what were strong markets for the Amiga and Atari ST in the region)^[3].

The firm was purchased by a group of investors led by Robert Kotick, after which management filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy, after which significant structural changes to the company occurred and the headquarters moved. The Mediagenic name would be dropped in January 1992, with the company reverting back to Activision^[5], and with this, a renewed focus on video games^[5].

Activision's subsequent success with the likes of the MechWarrior series of games led to rapid growth during the 1990s, resulting in more publishing and distribution deals, as well as developer acquisitions. In 2000 Activision Inc. became the name of a holding company to manage the group's subsidiaries, while the official name for the publisher changed to "Activision Publishing, Inc.". A merger with Vivendi Games (owner of Sierra and Blizzard) in 2008 led to the creation of a new holding company Activision Blizzard. Vivendi would own a stake in the company until 2016.

Since the late-2000s, Activision and Electronic Arts have battled to be the largest video game publisher in the world. Activision owns such properties as Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Guitar Hero and most notably, Call of Duty.

For a time, Sega PC games were published by one of Activision's subsidiaries; Activision Value Publishing.

In 2022, Microsoft announced its intention to acquire Activision Blizzard for $68,7 billion.^[6] The acquisition was completed on August 13, 2023.

Following changes on Microsoft internship, the conglomerate disintegrated Rare as part of Xbox Game Studios and turned into a subsidiary of Activision in September 2026, alongside changes on other studios owned by the company.^[7]

Releationship with Sega

Activision began working with Sega around 1985, when it began licensing many of its titles to be turned into SG-1000 and later Sega Master System games. It joined as a fully-fledged third-party publisher in the summer of 1988 (being the second US company to do so, after Parker Brothers)^[8], though its initial set of games, Bomber Raid, Galaxy Force and Rampage were still developed by Sega in Japan. The company would not directly support the Sega Mega Drive until 1994.