Descriptions by EnormousRat, Luigitehplumber and SBF2004
Captures by EnormousRat and Luigitehplumber
Background
Vivendi Games was founded in 1996 when CUC International, an American consumer services conglomerate, entered into the video game industry by purchasing two large game companies: Davidson & Associates (owners of Blizzard Entertainment, Knowledge Adventure and other smaller companies) and Sierra On-Line (owned various developers including Dynamix Software, Papyrus Design Software, Impressions Games, Coktel Vision, etc.), forming CUC Software.
The company went through various name changes over its lifespan. It was renamed to Cendant Sofware in 1997 when CUC and Hospitality Franchise Systems merged, and after Cendant was involved in a financial scandal, they sold the video game division to Vivendi's recently-acquired company Havas in 1998, who renamed it Havas Interactive. In 2000, Vivendi purchased Segram's (which owned Universal Studios at that time), and the parent company became known as Vivendi Universal SA. Universal Studios subsidiary Universal Interactive was moved to Havas Interactive, and in 2001, the division was renamed as Vivendi Universal Interactive Publishing, which by 2002 became Vivendi Universal Games. By then, the company operated various labels and businesses including Sierra Entertainment, Blizzard Entertainment, Knowledge Adventure, Black Label Games, NDA Productions, Coktel Studio and Fox Interactive, among others.
In 2006, after their parent company announced to rebrand themselves back as Vivendi SA, the video game division followed suit and became Vivendi Games. By then, the company began publishing all their mainstream titles under the Sierra name.
In December 2007, Vivendi Games announced they would merge with Activision, which was finalised in July 2008, with Vivendi Games being folded into the new parent company: Activision Blizzard. All mainstream games are now published under the Activision name.
Visuals: On a white background are the words "VIVENDI" and "UNIVERSΛL" in their corporate font stacked together, and the words "INTERACTIVE PUBLISHING" below.
Variant: On Diva Starz: Mall Mania, nothing appears below the Vivendi Universal logo.
Technique: A still, sprite-based graphic.
Audio: None or the opening theme of the game.
Availability: It appears on earlier PC and Game Boy Color titles. This was used mainly for kid-friendly/educational games while the company used their other publishing brands for core titles.
It appears on a small number of Barbie titles: Barbie Beach Vacation and Secret Agent Barbie are such examples. Most Barbie licensed titles from this period only use Barbie Software vanity cards.
It also appears on Kelly Club: Clubhouse Fun (GBC) and Diva Starz: Mall Mania (GBC).
2nd Logo (2002-2006)
Standard logo, used on most PC/console titles
Barbie: Gotta Have Games (2003, PS1)
Barbie Horse Adventures: Mystery Ride (2003, PC)
Secret Agent Barbie: Royal Jewels Mission (2002, GBA)
Barbie Groovy Games (2002, GBA)
GBA titles and Crash Nitro Kart variant
Visuals: On a white background are the words "VIVENDI" and "UNIVERSΛL" in their corporate font stacked together, and a purple bar is seen below with the word "games" in it.
Variants:
On some titles, the bar may take the entirety of the bottom of the logo.
On the GBA and NDS versions of Robots, the still logo is superimposed over the game's intro.
Some Game Boy Advance releases and the console versions of Crash Nitro Kart have this logo in a box rectangle with two edges rounded.
Technique: A still, digital graphic (with fading effects on occasion).
Audio: None or the opening theme of the game.
Availability: It appears on handheld titles on the GBA and DS, as well as PC titles. It also appears on some console titles.
Once again, Barbie titles will have this logo alongside the Barbie Software. Such examples include Barbie Sparkling Ice Snow (PC), Barbie as Rapunzel: A Creative Adventure! (PC), Barbie Horse Adventures: Mystery Ride (PC), Barbie Horse Adventures: Wild Horse Rescue (PS2/Xbox), Barbie: Gotta Have Games (PS1), Barbie Fashion Show (PC), Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus (PC) and My Scene Goes Hollywood CD-ROM (PC).
Also appears on Kelly Club: Pet Parade (PC), American Idol: The Search For a Super Star (PC), Tribes Vengeance (PC), Butt-Ugly Martians: Martian Boot Camp (PC), Butt-Ugly Martians: Zoom or Doom! (PS2/GameCube), the demo of Freedom Force vs. the 3rd Reich (PC, retail release solely has the Sierra logo), Hulk (PS2/GCN/Xbox/PC), Crash Nitro Kart (PS2/GCN/Xbox), Battlestar Galactica (PS2/Xbox), among others.
It appears on almost every GBA title from the company, such as the Spyro Superpack (a re-release of two previous Spyro games) for the GBA, and Robots for GBA and NDS.
It also appeared on the European release of Bomberman Generation (GCN), although none of the other Majesco Entertainment titles that VU published in Europe have this logo. It also doesn't appear on Whirl Tour (PS2/GameCube) despite the logo appearing on the cover.
3rd Logo (August 12, 2003-April 26, 2005)
Visuals: On a white background is the Vivendi Universal logo with the same purple bar below the words. The logo is overlapped by shadows running horizontally and painting the words in red and blue. Before the animation is finished, the word "games" is wiped into the purple bar by a shadow.
Variant: Another rare variant has just "VIVENDI UNIVERSAL" on a black background.
Technique: Computer effects.
Audio: Many repeating Tangerine Dream-like scurry sounds.
Audio Variant: On some titles, different synth music is played with more chimes added to the jingle.
Availability:
It first appeared on the North American release of Futurama (PS2/Xbox) and went on to appear on The Simpsons: Hit & Run (PS2/GCN/Xbox/PC), Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds (PS2/GCN/PC), The X-Files: Resist or Serve (PS2), Spyro: A Hero's Tail (PS2/GCN/Xbox; the PAL PS2/Xbox versions use the Sierra logo), Crash Twinsanity (PS2/Xbox), Robots (PS2/GCN/Xbox; the PC version has the next logo), and Predator: Concrete Jungle (PS2/Xbox).
The alternate music version appears on at least three Barbie PC titles: Barbie Beauty Boutique, Barbie: Mermaid Adventure and Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper. The alternate music version also appears on My Scene CD-ROM for PC.
4th Logo (September 16, 2003-2007)
Visuals: On a white background, the words "VIVENDI" and "UNIVERSΛL" from before fly into the screen (overlapping each other) and take their places, while the purple bar appears below and the letters of "games" zoom to it. The result looks exactly like the previous logo.
Technique: 2D computer animation.
Audio: It is most commonly a background air synth followed by whooshing-like sounds of the letters flying.
Audio Variants:
Sometimes, it uses a weird dubstep-like sounder.
Sometimes, it uses the alternate version of the last logo's track.
Availability: It appears on almost every title from the company under their label, sometimes with Sierra's logo as well.
Track 1:
It appears on SWAT: Global Strike Team (PS2/Xbox), Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat (PS2/Xbox/PC), Van Helsing (PS2/Xbox), The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (Xbox/PC), Disney's Aladdin Chess Adventures (PC), Adiboo and the Energy Thieves (PS2/PC), Men of Valor (Xbox/PC), Fight Club (PS2/Xbox), Red Ninja: End of Honor (PS2/Xbox), 50 Cent: Bulletproof (PS2/Xbox), Lawnmower Racing Mania 2007 (PC), Bass Pro Shops Trophy Bass 2007 (Xbox/PC), Bass Pro Shops Trophy Hunter 2007 (Xbox/PC) and the PS2 demo for Spyro: A Hero's Tail.
It appears with the Sierra logo on Homeworld 2 (PC), the European version of Judge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death (PS2/GCN/Xbox/PC), Contract J.A.C.K. (PC), The Hobbit (PS2/GCN/Xbox/PC), Metal Arms: Glitch in the System (PS2/GCN/Xbox), Lords of the Realm III (PC), Ground Control II: Mission Exodus (PC) and Evil Genius (PC). It also appears in the files of Empire Earth II (PC), although only the Sierra logo appears.
Track 2: It appears on Hunter: The Reckoning - Redeemer (Xbox) and with the Sierra logo on Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude (PS2/Xbox/PC).
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