Vivendi Games (formerly known as Vivendi Universal Games) is a global developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment. Vivendi Games is a 100% subsidiary of Vivendi SA. Headed by Bruce Hack, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California and employs over 3,400 people at 4 separate development divisions. Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Pac-Man is one of the most recognizable video games ever created. ... Namcos Pac-Man is one of the most popular video games ever made. ... For the tax agency in Ireland of the same name, see Revenue Commissioners. ... USD redirects here. ... This article is about work. ... For the band, see Big Brother and the Holding Company. ... For a definition of the word vivendi, see the Wiktionary entry vivendi. ... For a definition of the word vivendi, see the Wiktionary entry vivendi. ...

Vivendi Games owns the rights to such franchises as Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo and World of Warcraft as well as others like, Empire Earth, Leisure Suit Larry, Ground Control and Tribes. “Starcraft” redirects here. ... Diablo is a dark fantasy-themed action role-playing game developed by Blizzard North and released by Blizzard Entertainment in December, 1996. ... World of Warcraft (commonly abbreviated as WoW) is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Blizzard Entertainment and is the fourth game in the Warcraft series, excluding expansion packs and the cancelled Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans. ... The Empire Earth series is a franchise of Real-time strategy computer games developed by Stainless Steel Studios and Mad Doc Software, and published by Sierra Entertainment, Activision, and Vivendi. ... Leisure Suit Larry 7: Love for Sail! Leisure Suit Larry is the title character of a series of adult adventure games written by Al Lowe and published by Sierra On-Line from the 1980s to the present. ... Ground Control was a real-time tactics game developed by Massive Entertainment and was at the time a forerunner in its genre, winning many industry awards. ... Tribes is a series of science fiction first-person shooter computer games originally published by Dynamix, a subsidiary of Sierra Entertainment. ...

History

history of Vivendi Games begins in February 1996, when CUC International, a large mail order and subscription company, offered to acquire entertainment software developer Sierra On-Line. Headquarted in Bellevue, Washington, Sierra was the leading developer and publisher of computer games and was famous for its adventure game series such as King's Quest, Gabriel Knight, Space Quest, and Leisure Suit Larry. 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 24th 1996, Sierra became a wholly owned subsidiary of CUC. CUC International was originally named Comp-U-Card. ... Sierra Entertainment is an American computer game developer and publisher headquartered in Los Angeles, California. ... Kings Quest IV screenshot Kings Quest is an adventure game series made by the American computer game company Sierra On-Line (currently known as Sierra Entertainment). ... This article is about a fictional character. ... Space Quest is a series of six science fiction computer games that follow the adventures of a hapless janitor named Roger Wilco, as he campaigns through the galaxy for truth, justice and really clean floors. ... Leisure Suit Larry 7: Love for Sail! Leisure Suit Larry is the title character of a series of adult adventure games written by Al Lowe and published by Sierra On-Line from the 1980s to the present. ...

At the same time, CUC also approached Davidson & Associates, a leading publisher and distributor of educational software, with an offer of a similar stock swap. Headquarted in Torrance, California, Davidson was famous for its Math Blaster series, and also for Warcraft and Diablo. While mainly a game publisher, Davidson also had a major in-house developer in the form of Blizzard Entertainment, which Davidson had acquired in 1994, and employed over 800 employees as of February 1996. Davidson was also a public company, founded and headed by Bob Davidson, who acted as CEO, and also by Jan Davidson, who acted as President. Davidson & Associates is a software company, famous for creating the Blaster series of educational games. ... The Blaster Learning System was originally created by Davidson, but is now owned by Knowledge Adventure. ... Blizzard Entertainment, a division of Vivendi Games, is an American computer game developer and publisher headquartered in Irvine, California. ...

After acquiring these companies, CUC quickly integrated these two new divisions into the main CUC organization by announcing in September 1996 the creation of CUC Software, a holding company which would consolidate the finance, distribution, manufacturing, accounting, sales, R&D and overall management of CUC's software companies.

Soon after its creation, CUC Software acquired in January 1997 Knowledge Adventure, a leading developer of educational software, famous for its JumpStart series of child oriented programs. CUC also acquired Gryphon Software, another educational software company. Davidson & Associates and Gryphon were then absorbed into Knowledge Adventure, and Blizzard Entertainment was made a separate division of CUC Software. In 1997, CUC Software also acquired Berkeley Systems, a California-based developer famous for its You Don't Know Jack series, and integrated Berkeley Systems into Sierra On-Line. Knowledge Adventure, Inc. ... The box of JumpStart Advanced 3rd Grade from 2003 to 2006 JumpStart is a series of educational games produced by Knowledge Adventure. ... Blizzard Entertainment, a division of Vivendi Games, is an American computer game developer and publisher headquartered in Irvine, California. ... Berkeley Systems was a San Francisco Bay Area software company cofounded in 1987 by Wes Boyd and Joan Blades. ... You Dont Know Jack is a series of computer games developed by Jellyvision. ...

CUC then merged with a hotel, real-estate, and car-rental franchiser called HFS Corporation to form Cendant in 1997. In 1998 it became apparent that CUC had engaged in accounting fraud for years before the merger; Cendant's stock lost 80% of its value over the next six months in the ensuing widely discussed accounting scandal. The company sold its consumer software operations, which included Sierra On-line and Blizzard, to French publisher Havas in 1998, the same year Havas was purchased by Vivendi, which formed Vivendi Universal Games. Cendant Corporation was a New York-based provider of business and consumer services, primarily within the real estate and travel industries. ... Havas was the first French news agency, created in 1835 by Charles-Louis Havas. ... For a definition of the word vivendi, see the Wiktionary entry vivendi. ...

In 2004, Vivendi Games sold one of its divisions, Knowledge Adventure to a group of private investors. In 2005 Vivendi's revenues made 641 million euros with earnings from operations equaling to 41 million euros. In 2006 Vivendi Games created a new mobile division Vivendi Games Mobile, which was promised to begin publishing and distributing games in 2006 through mobile carriers and portals. Knowledge Adventure, Inc. ...

In December 2007 it was announced that Vivendi Games would merge with games developer Activision, forming Activision Blizzard.^[1] Activision, Inc. ... Activision Blizzard, Inc. ...

Divisions

Blizzard Entertainment

Main article: Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment is a world-renowned development studio best known for creating World of Warcraft, Diablo, StarCraft, and Warcraft. World of Warcraft, the world’s most popular game in the MMORPG category, has currently over 10 million subscribers. [1] Blizzard Entertainment, a division of Vivendi Games, is an American computer game developer and publisher headquartered in Irvine, California. ... World of Warcraft (commonly abbreviated as WoW) is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Blizzard Entertainment and is the fourth game in the Warcraft series, excluding expansion packs and the cancelled Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans. ... Diablo is a dark fantasy-themed action role-playing game developed by Blizzard North and released by Blizzard Entertainment in December, 1996. ... “Starcraft” redirects here. ...

The Blizzard headquarters is located in Irvine, California.

Sierra Entertainment

Main article: Sierra Entertainment

Sierra Entertainment creates and publishes software for consoles, handheld gaming devices and personal computers. Sierra Entertainment features a portfolio of titles based on original intellectual property and popular licenses from industry-leading content partners, including F.E.A.R., Scarface, and Ice Age. Sierra Entertainment is an American computer game developer and publisher headquartered in Los Angeles, California. ... This article is about the computer game. ...

Operating out of Los Angeles, California, Sierra employs over 700 people in development and has four wholly owned studios providing creative talents and development capabilities across multiple gaming genres: High Moon Studios, Radical Entertainment, Swordfish Studios and Massive Entertainment. High Moon Studios is a video game developer formerly known as Sammy Studios, Inc, originally a subsidiary of Sammy Corporation. ... Radical Entertainment is a video game developer based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. ... In October 2002 in a claimed cost cutting exercise Rage Software Limited sold its Birmingham development studio for £1 to Swordfish Studios, a company founded by Rage executive director Trevor Williams and Joan Finnegan, wife of Rage managing director Paul Finnegan. ... Massive Entertainment is a Swedish computer game company. ...

Sierra Online

Main article: Sierra Online

Sierra Online, a newly created division, focuses on developing and publishing high quality short and mid-session casual online games for PC, Xbox Live Arcade and a range of other platforms. Sierra Entertainment was a computer game developer and publisher active from 1980 to 2004. ... A stylised illustration of a modern personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a computer whose original sales price, size, and capabilities make it useful for individuals. ... Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) is an online service operated by Microsoft that is used to distribute video games to Xbox and Xbox 360 owners and from late 2007 to Games for Windows - Live users [1]. The service was first launched in late 2004 and offers games from about US$5...

Sierra Online’s titles include Assault Heroes, an award-winning game for Xbox Live Arcade, and the upcoming FreeStyle Street Basketball, an online PC game from leading Korean developer JC Entertainment, Inc.

The division is also developing a variety of other Xbox Live Arcade and PC online games targeting the mass market.

Vivendi Games Mobile

Main article: Vivendi Games Mobile

Vivendi Games Mobile, a newly formed division, creates and publishes games for the worldwide mobile market. The division publishes games based on original intellectual property, popular entertainment licenses and classic Sierra Entertainment intellectual property games which are distributed by more than 90 operators and dozens of Web portals in more than 60 countries.

Vivendi Games Mobile has launched a number of award-winning titles, including SWAT Force which was named “Best Wireless Game of the Year” by Spike TV in December 2006.

Executive Management

René Pénisson, Chairman, Vivendi Games

Bruce Hack, CEO, Vivendi Games

Pascal Brochier, President, Global Retail

Cindy Cook, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer Cindy Cook with her friends from Polka Dot Door Cindy Cook (born in Sudbury, Ontario) is a Canadian childrens entertainer. ...

Terri Durham, Executive Vice President, Business Development and Global General Counsel

Jean-François Grollemund, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Mark Halacy, Executive Vice President, Global Human Resources

Divisional Management

Michael Morhaime, President, Blizzard Entertainment Mike Morhaime is the president and a co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment, a video game developer located in Irvine, California and currently owned by the Vivendi Games group of Vivendi. ... Blizzard Entertainment, a division of Vivendi Games, is an American computer game developer and publisher headquartered in Irvine, California. ...

Martin Tremblay, President Worldwide Studios, Sierra Entertainment Sierra Entertainment is an American computer game developer and publisher headquartered in Los Angeles, California. ...

Al Simone, Senior Vice President, Global Marketing Sierra Entertainment Sierra Entertainment is an American computer game developer and publisher headquartered in Los Angeles, California. ...

Ed Zobrist. President, Sierra Online

Paul Maglione, President, Vivendi Games Mobile

See also

• Vivendi
• List of assets owned by Vivendi

For a definition of the word vivendi, see the Wiktionary entry vivendi. ... This is a list of assets owned by Vivendi Universal. ...

References

Activision, Inc. ... For a definition of the word vivendi, see the Wiktionary entry vivendi. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 336th day of the year (337th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For information on Wikipedia press releases, see Wikipedia:Press releases. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 336th day of the year (337th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Vivendi.com - Official site of Vivendi
• VUgames.com - Official site of Vivendi games, redirects to Sierra Entertainment official site.
• Vivendi games at Vivendi.com — Vivendi Games page at vivendi.com.