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|}} | equity = | owner = | num_employees = >4000 | parent = Activision Blizzard | divisions = | subsid = Beachhead Studios Beenox Demonware FreeStyleGames Fun Labs High Moon Studios Infinity Ward Radical Entertainment Raven Software Sierra Entertainment Sledgehammer Games Toys for Bob Treyarch Vicarious Visions | homepage = | footnotes = 〔〔 | intl = | bodystyle = }} Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher. It was founded on October 1, 1979〔(Activision – Investor Relations: Historical Timeline ) from Activision's official website〕 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles. Its first products were cartridges for the Atari 2600 video console system published from July 1980 for the US market and from August 1981 for the international market (UK).〔(Zoom )〕 Activision is now one of the largest third party video game publishers in the world and was also the top publisher for 2007 in the United States. On January 18, 2008, Activision announced they were the top US publisher in 2007, according to the NPD Group.〔(Activision Beats EA As Top Third Party Publisher In U.S. )〕 Its former CEO is Robert Kotick, who was the Chief Executive Officer of Activision, Inc. since February 1991 until Activision and Vivendi Games merged on July 9, 2008 to create the newly formed company known as Activision Blizzard.〔(About Us - Board of Directors - ROBERT A. KOTICK )〕 On July 25, 2013, Activision Blizzard announced the purchase of 429 million shares from owner Vivendi, valuing US$2.34 billion. As a result, Activision Blizzard became an independent company.〔(Activision Blizzard Announces Transformative Purchase of Shares from Vivendi and New Capital Structure ), Retrieved 25 July 2013.〕 == History == Before Activision, third-party developers did not exist. Software for video game consoles were published exclusively by makers of the systems for which the games were designed. For example, Atari was the only publisher of games for the Atari 2600. This was particularly galling to the developers of the games, as they received no financial rewards for games that sold well, and did not receive credit for their games. Atari programmers David Crane, Larry Kaplan, Alan Miller, and Bob Whitehead met with Atari CEO Ray Kassar in May 1979 to demand that the company treat developers as record labels treated musicians, with royalties and their names on game boxes. Kaplan, who called the others "the best designers for the () in the world", recalled that 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 1979 with former music industry executive Jim Levy and venture capitalist Richard Muchmore; Kaplan soon joined the company. The name "Activision" was possibly decided upon so that the company would appear before Atari in the phone book, although David Crane has said that the name was based on an idea by Jim Levy to combine 'active' and 'television'. The original name proposed for the company was VSync, Inc. 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 manuals〔''Ice Hockey'' Instructions, page 4. Activision 1981〕〔''Pitfall!'' Instructions, page 4. Activision 1982〕〔''Chopper Command'' Instructions, page 4. Activision 1982〕 and challenging players to send in a high score (usually as a photograph, but sometimes as a letter) in order to receive an embroidered patch.〔''Ice Hockey'' instructions, page 3. Activision 1981〕〔''Pitfall!'' Instructions, page 3. Activision, 1982〕〔''Chopper Command'' Instructions, page 3. Activision 1982〕〔(''Chopper Command'' patch ) on eBay〕 These approaches helped the newly formed company attract experienced talent. Crane, Kaplan, Levy, Miller, and Whitehead received the Game Developers Choice "First Penguin" award in 2003, in recognition of this step. The departure of the four programmers, whose titles made up more than half of Atari's cartridge sales at the time,〔 caused legal action between the two companies that were not settled until 1982. As the market for game consoles started to decline, Activision branched out, producing game titles for home computers and acquiring smaller publishers. In 1982, Activision released ''Pitfall!'', a best selling title on the Atari 2600. Developed and designed by David Crane, ''Pitfall!'' was a huge success for the company and the developers. Due to this success, many clones of the game were introduced, including stand-up arcade games. On June 13, 1986, Activision purchased struggling text adventure pioneer Infocom. Jim Levy was a big fan of Infocom's titles and wanted the company to remain solvent. About six months after the "InfoWedding", 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 1989, after several years of losses, Activision closed down the Infocom studios in Cambridge, Massachusetts, extending to only 11 of the 26 employees an offer to relocate to Activision's Silicon Valley headquarters. Five of them accepted this offer.〔(''Down From the Top of Its Game: The Story of Infocom, Inc.'' ) report from MIT〕 In 1988, Activision began involvement in software besides video games, such as business applications. As a result, Activision changed its corporate name to Mediagenic to have a name that globally represented all its activities. Under the Mediagenic holding company, Activision continued to publish video games for various platforms, notably the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Sega Master System, the Atari 7800, Atari ST, Commodore 64 and Amiga. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Activision」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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