some history on them too devs
Acquisitions and partnershipsYear Acquisition
1997 Raven Software made an exclusive publishing deal with Activision and was subsequentally acquired by them. This partnership resulted in Hexen II, Heretic II, Soldier of Fortune, its sequel and Quake 4. That same year, Activision acquired CentreSoft Ltd., (an independent distributor in the United Kingdom) and NBG Distribution (a German distributor).
1998 Pandemic Studios was founded with an equity investment by Activision. Pandemic's first two games, Battlezone II: Combat Commander and Dark Reign 2, were both sequels to Activision games. That same year, Activision also inked deals with Marvel Entertainment, Head Game Publishing, Disney Interactive, LucasArts Entertainment and CD Contact Data.
1999 Activision acquired Neversoft, best recognized for their line of Tony Hawk skateboarding games. That same year, Activision acquired Expert Software (maker of Home Design 3D).
2000 Activision made an equity investment in Gray Matter Interactive, to develop the follow-up to id Software's Wolfenstein 3D.
2001 Activision acquired rights to Columbia Pictures' feature film Spider-Man. That same year, Activision also acquired Treyarch.
2002 Activision made an equity investment in Infinity Ward, a newly formed studio comprising 22 of the individuals who developed Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. That same year, Activision acquired Z-Axis Ltd. (the studio behind Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX) and Luxoflux Corporation.
2003 Activision and DreamWorks SKG inked a multi-year, multi-property publishing agreement. That same year, Activision also formed a partnership with Valve and acquired both Infinity Ward (developers of the Call of Duty franchise) and software developer Shaba Games LLC.
Activision and Sega made a deal to publish the US releases of PC versions of some titles, especially Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut.
Activision, along with several other game software publishers, was investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for its accounting practices, namely the use of the "return reserve" to allegedly smooth quarterly results.
2004 The company marked its 27th anniversary, and stated that it had posted record earnings and the twelfth consecutive year of revenue growth.
2005 Activision acquired ShaderWorks, acquired game developers Vicarious Visions, Toys For Bob and Beenox.
2006 Activision secured the video game license to make games based on the world of James Bond from MGM Interactive. An exclusive agreement between the two begins in September 2007 with Activision's first game set for release in May 2008 being developed by Treyarch, Beenox and Vicarious Visions.[23] Also in 2006, Activision acquired publisher RedOctane, Inc. (the publisher of the Guitar Hero franchise).
2007 Activision acquired the control of games developer Bizarre Creations.
2007 Activision acquired Irish multiplayer technology company Demonware.[24]
2008 Merger with Vivendi (who owned Blizzard) to become Activision Blizzard.[25]
2008 Activision acquired UK games studio FreeStyleGames.[26]
2009 Activision acquired Los Angeles based developer 7 Studios.[27]
2010 Partnership with Bungie.[28]
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List of Activision games
[edit]
1980s
Fishing Derby (1980)
Skiing (1980)
Freeway (1981)
Ice Hockey (1981)
Kaboom! (1981)
Stampede (1981)
Barnstorming (1982)
Chopper Command (1982)
Pitfall! (1982)
River Raid (1982)
Robot Tank (1983)
H.E.R.O. (1984)
Enduro (1982)
[edit]
1990s
Popeye 2 (1994)
MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat (1995)
The Quake series (with the exception of the first Quake)
Interstate '76 (1997)
Battlezone (1998)
Civilization: Call to Power (1999)
Tony Hawk series (1999-)
[edit]
2000s
Star Trek series (2000–2002)
Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX (2001)
The Weakest Link (2001)
Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (2002)
Spider-Man movie series (2002–)
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (2003)
True Crime series (2003–2011)
Call of Duty series (2003–)
Doom 3 (2004)
Guitar Hero series (2006–2011) (with some exceptions)
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance series (2006 - )
Prototype (2009)
Wolfenstein (2009)
DJ Hero series (2009–2011)
[edit]
2010s
Blur (2010)
Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2011 (2010)
GoldenEye 007 (2010)
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock (2010)
James Bond 007: Blood Stone (2010)
Singularity (2010)
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions (2010)
Transformers: War for Cybertron (2010)
Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010)
[edit]
Upcoming games
[edit]
2011
NASCAR The Game: 2011 (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (11/08/11)
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, 3DS, DS)
Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, 3DS, PC)
X-Men: Destiny (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii)
Spider-Man: Edge of Time (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, 3DS, DS)
[edit]
2012
Prototype 2 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
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Main article: List of Electronic Arts games
[edit] Notable games publishedSome of the most notable and popular games of video game history have been published by EA, and many of these are listed below. Though EA published these titles, they did not always develop them; some were developed by independent game development studios. EA developed their first game in 1987.
Pinball Construction Set (1983) by Bill Budge[86]
Archon (1983) and Archon II: Adept (1984) by Free Fall Associates
M.U.L.E. (1983) by Dan Bunten and Ozark Softscape
One on One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird (1983) by Eric Hammond
Music Construction Set (1984) by Will Harvey
The Seven Cities of Gold (1984) by Dan Bunten and Ozark Softscape
The Bard's Tale (1985) by Interplay Productions
Mail Order Monsters (1985) by Paul Reiche III, Evan Robinson and Nicky Robinson
Racing Destruction Set (1985) by Rick Koenig
Starflight (1986) by Binary Systems
Skate or Die! (1987), EA's first internally-developed title
Zany Golf (1988), by Sandcastle Productions (Will Harvey)
Lakers versus Celtics (1989)
Populous (1989) by Bullfrog which EA acquired in 1995
The Immortal (1990) by Sandcastle Productions (Will Harvey)
Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf (1992) by EA's High Score Production group
NHL series (1991–)
Wing Commander (franchise) series (1992 onwards, previous games published in-house)
FIFA series (1993–)
Need for Speed series (1994–) (first installment was made by EA in collaboration with Road & Track)
Ultima Online (1997) by Origin Systems
NASCAR series (1997–2009)
Command & Conquer series (titles from 1999–present) by Westwood Studios (earlier titles released by Virgin Interactive)
Dungeon Keeper series by Bullfrog Productions
SimCity series (titles from 1999–) by Maxis (earlier titles released by other publishers)
Medal of Honor series (1999–)
System Shock 2 (1999)
American McGee's Alice (2000)
SSX series (2000–)
James Bond series (1999–2005)
The Sims (2000–2003) by Maxis
The Sims 2 (2004–2008) by Maxis (and later The Sims Studio)
The Sims Stories series (2007–2008) by Aspyr and EA
The Sims 3 (2009–present) by Visceral Games and The Sims Studio
Burnout series (2004–present)
Battlefield series (2002–present) by EA Digital Illusions CE
Madden NFL series (1989–present)
NCAA Football series (1993–present)
Dark Age of Camelot (republished after EA acquired Mythic in 2005)
Crysis series (2007–) by Crytek
Rock Band series (2007–) by Harmonix
Skate series (2007–) by EA Black Box
Mass Effect series (starting with Mass Effect 2, 1 was published by Microsoft)(2009–) by BioWare
Spore series (2008–) by Maxis
Army of Two series (2008–) by EA Montreal
Dead Space series (2008–) by Visceral Games
Mirror's Edge (2008) by EA Digital Illusions CE
Dragon Age series (2009–) by BioWare
Dante's Inferno series (2010–) by Visceral Games
Electronic Arts also published a number of non-game titles. The most popular of these was closely related to the video game industry and was actually used by several of their developers. Deluxe Paint premiered on the Amiga in 1985 and was later ported to other systems. The last version in the line, Deluxe Paint V, was released in 1994. Other non-game titles include Music Construction Set (and Deluxe Music Construction Set), Deluxe Paint Animation and Instant Music. EA also published a black and white animation tool called Studio/1, and a series of Paint titles on the Macintosh: Studio/8 and Studio/32 (1990).
[edit] Games in development[edit] 2011 releaseAlice: Madness Returns (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows)
Shadows of the Damned (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
NCAA Football 12 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
Madden NFL 12 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo 3DS, PSP)
Need for Speed: The Run (Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Windows)
Battlefield 3 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows)
Star Wars: The Old Republic (Windows)
The Secret World (Xbox 360, Windows)
[edit] 2012 releaseKingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows) - Developed by 38 Studios[87]
Mass Effect 3 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows)
SSX (2012 video game) (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
[edit] TBABurnout Crash[88]
Mirror's Edge 2 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows)[89]
Mercs Inc