Activision

In 1979, four top Atari programmers, David Crane, Alan Miller, Bob Whitehead, and Larry Kaplan, walked away from the company that had made them famous. Frustrated by Atari's refusal to credit developers or pay royalties on game sales, they founded Activision in Sunnyvale, California. It was a radical move: the first independent third-party developer for home consoles. Their early hits like Pitfall!, River Raid, and Kaboom! sold millions, proving that games could thrive outside a hardware maker's walled garden.

The 1983 video game crash hit Activision hard. The company pivoted into business software under the name Mediagenic in 1988, a disastrous move that drove it toward bankruptcy. In 1991, Bobby Kotick and a small investment group bought the struggling firm for roughly $500,000. Kotick moved headquarters to Los Angeles, restored the Activision name in 1992, and began an aggressive turnaround. He acquired studios and publishing rights, building a portfolio that would eventually include some of the biggest franchises in gaming.

Under Kotick, Activision grew into a powerhouse. The 2008 merger with Vivendi Games brought in Blizzard Entertainment and its stable of hits like World of Warcraft. The company's crown jewel, Call of Duty, became the best-selling first-person shooter franchise in history, with over 425 million lifetime unit sales. Other major properties include Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, and Skylanders. In October 2023, Microsoft completed its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, making Activision a subsidiary of Microsoft Gaming. Johanna Faries became president of Activision in January 2024, as the division continues to operate independently within the larger Microsoft structure.[edit]