EntityQ200491· pop 57· linked from 2,811 articles

Q200491

Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one of the largest third-party video game publishers in the world and was the top United States publisher in 2016.

AI overview

Activision Publishing is a major American video game company based in Santa Monica that publishes games for its parent company Activision Blizzard through various studios it owns. It matters because it's one of the world's largest video game publishers and was the leading U.S. publisher in 2016, making it a significant player in the entertainment industry.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Key facts

Company.name: Activision Publishing, Inc.
Company.logo: frameless|class=skin-invert
Company.logo_caption: Logo used since 1979
Company.image: 2701 Olympic Boulevard.jpg
Company.image_caption: Current headquarters in Santa Monica in 2025 (shared with parent company Activision Blizzard)
Company.type: Subsidiary
Company.industry: Video games
Company.hq_location: 2701 Olympic Blvd
Company.hq_location_city: Santa Monica, California
Company.hq_location_country: US
Company.area_served: Worldwide
Company.key_people: Rob Kostich (president)

Article

21 sections

Contents

History
Founding (1979)
Early years (1980–1982)
The video game market crash (1983–1988)
Mediagenic (1988–1991)
Purchase by Bobby Kotick (1991–1997)
Growth and acquisitions (1997–2008)
Merger with Vivendi Games (2008)
Post-merger developments (2009–2022)
Purchase by Microsoft (2023–present)
Studios
Former studios
Notable games published
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
Awards
See also
References
External links

The company was founded as Activision, Inc. on October 1, 1979, in Sunnyvale, California, by former Atari, Inc. programmers for the popular Atari Video Computer System (later renamed to Atari 2600) home video game console. Upset at their treatment by Atari, they left to develop games for the same system. Activision was the first independent, third-party, console video game developer. The video game crash of 1983, in part created by too many new companies trying to follow in Activision's footsteps without the experience of Activision's founders, hurt Activision's position in console games and forced the company to diversify into games for home computers, including the acquisition of Infocom. After a management shift, with CEO Jim Levy replaced by Bruce Davis, the company renamed itself to Mediagenic and branched out into business software applications. Mediagenic quickly fell into debt, and the company was bought for around by Bobby Kotick and a small group of investors around 1991.