Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the worlds first independent developer and distributor of. Activision Wikipedia. Activision Publishing, Inc. American video game publisher. It was founded on October 1, 1. Its first products were cartridges for the Atari 2. July 1. 98. 0 for the US market and from August 1. UK. 6As of January 2. Activision is one of the largest third party video game publishers in the world and was also the top publisher for 2. United States. 7 Its parent company is Activision Blizzard, formed from the merger of Activision and Vivendi Games on July 9, 2. July 2. 5, 2. 01. Activision Blizzard purchased the remaining shares from then majority owner Vivendi. 9 Its CEO is Eric Hirshberg. 1HistoryeditBefore Activision, third party developers did not exist. 1. Software for video game consoles were published exclusively by makers of the systems for which the games were designed. 1. For example, Atari was the only publisher of games for the Atari 2. This was particularly galling to the developers, as they received neither financial rewards nor credit for games that sold well. 1. Atari programmers. David Crane, Larry Kaplan, Alan Miller, and Bob Whitehead met with Atari CEO Ray Kassar in May 1. Kaplan, who called the others the best designers for the 2. Kassar called the four men towel designers and that anyone can do a cartridge. Crane, Miller, and Whitehead left Atari and founded Activision in October 1. Jim Levy and venture capitalist Richard Muchmore Kaplan joined soon. David Crane has said the name Activision was based on Jim Levys idea to combine active and television. The original name proposed for the company was VSync, Inc. 1. Unlike Atari, the company credited and promoted game creators along with the games themselves. The steps taken for this included devoting a page to the developer in their instruction manuals1. These approaches helped the newly formed company attract experienced talent. In recognition of this step, Kaplan, Levy, Miller, and Whitehead received the Game Developers Choice First Penguin award in 2. The departure of the four programmers, whose titles made up more than half of Ataris cartridge sales at the time,1. As the market for game consoles started to decline, Activision branched out, producing game titles for home computers and acquiring smaller publishers. By 1. 98. 3 Danny Goodman stated in Creative Computing Video Arcade Games, I doubt that there is an active VCS owner who doesnt have at least one Activision cartridge in his library. 2. In 1. 98. 2, Activision released Pitfall Atari 2. 60. 0. Designed and developed by David Crane, it was a huge success. Many clones of the game were introduced, including stand up arcade games. On June 1. 3, 1. 98. Activision purchased struggling text adventure pioneer Infocom. Jim Levy was a big fan of Infocoms titles and wanted the company to remain solvent. About six months after the Info. Wedding, Bruce Davis took over as CEO of Activision. Davis was against the merger from the start and was heavy handed in its management. Eventually in 1. 98. Activision closed down the Infocom studios in Cambridge, Massachusetts, extending to only 1. Activisions Silicon Valley headquarters. Five of them accepted this offer. 2. In 1. 98. 8, Activision began involvement in software besides video games, such as business applications. As a result, Activision changed its corporate name to Mediagenic to better represent all of its activities. 2. Mediagenic consisted of four groups New ActivisioneditFollowing a multi million judgment on damages in a patent infringement suit, wherein infringement had been determined many years prior during the Levy era, a financially weakened Mediagenic was taken over by an investor group led by Robert Kotick. The database recognizes 1,746,000 software titles and delivers updates for your software including minor upgrades. PSP ROMS PlayStation Portable Games. A couple of years ago there was a home made Portable PlayStation that used PS1 as the base platform. Download PC Game Midnight Club 3 DUB Edition Remix Free Download Download Midnight Club 3 DUB Edition Remix PC Download Free Game Download Full Game Midnight Club 3. After taking over the company, the new management filed for a Chapter 1. In the reorganization, Mediagenic merged with The Disc Company with Mediagenic being the surviving company. Mediagenic, through Activision, continued to publish games for PCs and video game consoles, but stopped making strategic acquisitions. After emerging from bankruptcy, Mediagenic officially changed its corporate name back to Activision in December 1. Delaware Corporation, as it was previously a California Corporation. At that point, Activision moved its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Santa Monica in Southern California and from then on concentrated on video gaming. In 1. 99. 1, Activision packaged 5. Infocoms past games into a CD ROM collection called The Lost Treasures of Infocom, without the feelies Infocom was famous for. The success of this compilation led to the 1. Infocom titles in The Lost Treasures of Infocom II. Activision published the first person perspective Mech. Warrior in 1. 98. FASAs pen and pencil game Battle. Tech. A sequel, Mech. Warrior 2, was released in 1. FASA not to renew their licensing deal with Activision. To counter, Activision released several more games bearing the Mech. Warrior 2 name, which did not violate their licensing agreement. These included Net. Mech, Mech. Warrior 2 Ghost Bears Legacy, and Mech. Warrior 2 Mercenaries. The entire Mech. Warrior 2 game series accounted for more than US7. Activision procured the license to another pen and paper based war game, Heavy Gear, in 1. The video game version was well received by critics, with an 8. Game. Rankings and being considered the best game of the genre at the time by Game. Spot. The Mechwarrior 2 engine was also used in other Activision games, including 1. Interstate 7. 6 and finally 1. Battlezone. 2. 6In June 2. Activision Holdings was created as a holding company to manage more effectively Activision and its subsidiaries. 2. Immediately after, Activision changed its corporation name from Activision Inc to Activision Publishing, while Activision Holdings took Activisions former corporate name of Activision Inc. 2. Merger with VivendieditIn December 2. Activision would merge with Vivendi Games, which owned fellow games developer and publisher Blizzard, and the merger would close in July 2. The new company was called Activision Blizzard and was headed by Activisions former CEO, Robert Kotick. Vivendi was the biggest shareholder in the new group. 2. The new company was estimated to be worth US1. Electronic Arts, which was valued at US1. Post merger developmentseditSledgehammer Games was founded on November 1. Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey,3. Electronic Arts subsidiary, Visceral Games. 3. The Sledgehammer Games micro site went live on December 8, 2. Speculation on the studios next game has been offered by industry sites, Kotaku and Gamasutra. 3. The studios first game was originally planned to be a first person shooter in the Call of Duty series, with rumors of MMO aspects, as revealed on their website3. June 1. 9, 2. 01. However, after the resignation of many Infinity Ward employees, Sledgehammer Games was brought in to help with Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3. 3. On February 9, 2. Activision announced that it was ending its once profitable Guitar Hero franchise, in the process doing a layoff of approximately 5. At the same time it announced that it was discontinuing development of True Crime Hong Kong, and that it was refocusing its efforts into a new online service named Call of Duty Elite for its IP Call of Duty. At the same meeting these announcements were made, Activision reported net losses of 2. In 2. 01. 1 Activision restarted its in house development team, releasing Generator Rex Agent of Providence in October 2. Play. Station 3, Nintendo 3. DS, Nintendo DS, Wii, and Xbox 3.