Vicarious Visions' CA Office Closed

Activision yesterday ordered the closing of the Mountain View, CA office of developer Vicarious Visions, according to Gamasutra. The studio most recently worked on the Spider-Man 3 tie-in property, along with developer Treyarch. Vicarious was tasked with developing the Wii, PS2, DS, and GBA versions of the game, which were generally met with poor reviews from critics and fans. The office had employed around 20-30 people. While most employees have been laid off, some staff may reportedly be offered jobs at the studio's East coast office. Vicarious maintains its center of operations in Albany, New York. Founded in 1990 by two brothers still in high school--Karthik and Guha Bala--the company gained notoriety with its space-based RPG Terminus, which won two Independent Games Festival awards in 1999. Vicarious has since been responsible for many well-received projects, including the Xbox version of Doom 3, as well as many handheld games based on established console franchises such as Tony Hawk and Crash Bandicoot. The studio was acquired by publisher Activision in 2005.