Activision Blizzard Studios, LLC was a motion picture production company and a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

of American video game company

Activision Blizzard Activision Blizzard, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in Santa Monica, California. Activision Blizzard currently includes three operating units: Activision, Blizzard Entertainment and King (company), King. Founded in July 2 ...

based in

Beverly Hills, California Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hills ...

. It was created to utilize its parent company's popular game franchises through films and television shows. It was co-headed by

Stacey Sher Stacey Sher (born November 30, 1962) is an American film producer. Early life and education Sher was born to a Jewish family in New York City and raised in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She attended the University of Southern California, where sh ...

and Nick van Dyk, the latter being a former executive of

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

. In 2021, the two co-presidents of Activision Blizzard Studios departed to explore other opportunities, and given the lack of production since 2018, it is likely that the studio has ceased operations.

History

At an investor day presentation on November 6, 2015, in the wake of the ''Warcraft'' feature film, Activision Blizzard announced the formation of Activision Blizzard Studios, a film production subsidiary dedicated to creating original television series and films based on their video game franchises. In January 2016, the company announced that the studio will be co-headed by producer

and former

executive Nick van Dyk. In 2016, the company partnered with

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

to exclusively air its first television program, an

animated Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and e ...

series based on

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

's video game series ''

Skylanders ''Skylanders'' is a toys-to-life action-adventure video game franchise published by Activision. ''Skylanders'' games are played by placing a character's figure on the "Portal of Power", a device that reads its tag using NFC and "imports" them ...

'', called '' Skylanders Academy''. Also in 2016, Activision Blizzard Studios entered into a content licensing agreement with a third-party production studio,

Legendary Pictures Legendary Entertainment, LLC (also known as Legendary Pictures or simply Legendary) is an American mass media and film production company based in Burbank, California, founded by Thomas Tull. The company has often collaborated with the major stu ...

, to produce sequels to the ''Warcraft'' feature film, based on their video game franchise ''

World of Warcraft ''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a 2004 massively multiplayer online role-playing (MMORPG) video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment for Windows and Mac OS X. Set in the '' Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of War ...

''. By April 2017, work on a film based on Activision's video game series ''

Call of Duty ''Call of Duty'' is a first-person shooter military video game series and media franchise published by Activision, starting in 2003. The games were first developed by Infinity Ward, then by Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games. Several spin-of ...

'' had generated several scripts, with the hope that filming would begin in 2018. The company also hopes to create films based on ''

Overwatch ''Overwatch'' (abbreviated as OW) is a multimedia franchise centered on a series of multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) video games developed by Blizzard Entertainment. ''Overwatch (video game), Overwatch'' was released in 2016 with a success ...

'' and others. A movie for

has been announced in 2015 during the investor day, however in 2020 the movie director Stefano Sollima said the movie production is " in limbo" and "has stood still", saying “the idea of expanding the universe, the world of Call of Duty, is no longer at the moment an industrial priority of the group, of Activision.” Activision Blizzard Studios no longer appears on the corporate website, and there has been no content produced or released since 2018. Additionally, both co-presidents of the studio seem to have departed, suggesting that the company may no longer be active

Productions

Film

Television

Cancelled

References

External links

* {{Film Studio Activision Blizzard Film production companies of the United States Television production companies of the United States Companies based in Beverly Hills, California American companies established in 2015 2015 establishments in California 2015 establishments in the United States