Vivendi Games

Background

The history of Vivendi Games started in 2000, when French media giant Vivendi SA bought Universal Interactive and renamed it "Vivendi Universal Games" (VUG). Thus Vivendi started publishing video games, though most of them were presented under the name of subsidiary Sierra Entertainment, which was taken over a few years earlier through a long chain of acquisitions. In 2006, the word "Universal" in the name was abandoned and further games were published under the Sierra Entertainment name. In 2008, Vivendi Games merged with Activision and formed "Activision Blizzard". All games are now published under the name of Activision.

1st Logo (2001-2006)

Logo: On a white background, we see the words "VIVENDI" and "UNIVERSAL" in their corporate font stacked together, with a purple bar below them. 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.

Variants:

Before 2002, "INTERACTIVE PUBLISHING" appeared in place of the "games" bar. This version mainly appeared on PC titles.
Another rare variant has just "VIVENDI UNIVERSAL" on a black background.
There is also a still version.
On the GBA and NDS versions of Robots, the still logo is auperimposed over the game's intro.

FX/SFX: Computer effects. None for the still version.

Music/Sounds: Many repeating Tangerine Dream-like scurry sounds. None or the opening theme of the game for the still version.

Music/Sound Variants: On the non-American demo version of Spyro: A Hero's Tail packaged in the PS2 Magazine Demo Discs, a different synth music is played with more chimes added to the jingle.

Availability: Common.

Most games with this logo have it with Sierra's following, such as on Ground Control II, Robots for PS2, Xbox, GCN, and PC, and Empire Earth II.
It was seen without the Sierra logo on several console games, including Fight Club, My Scene: CD-ROM, The Simpsons: Hit & Run for Xbox, PS2, GCN and PC, Spyro: A Hero's Tail for PS2 and GCN (the Xbox and international versions have the Sierra logo instead of this logo), and Crash Twinsanity for PS2 and Xbox, as well as the Spyro Superpack (a re-release of two previous Spyro games) for the GBA, and Robots for GBA and NDS.
The "INTERACTIVE PUBLISHING" version is extremely rare, and only appeared on earlier PC titles.
The still version can be seen on some Barbie games, My Scene Goes Hollywood CD-ROM and American Idol: The Search For a Super Star.
This logo did not appear on Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, even though it was seen on the cover.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (2001-2006)

Logo: "VIVENDI" and "UNIVERSAL" 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 first logo.

Variants:

Some Game Boy Advance releases have this logo in a box rectangle with two edges rounded.
There is a still version on the demo of Freedom Force vs. the 3rd Reich. The retail revision replaces it with the Sierra logo. Tribes: Vengeance also has the still logo.

FX/SFX: The words flying in.

Music/Sounds: A background air synth followed by whooshing-like sounds of the letters flying.

Availability: Not as common as the previous logo. Can be found on several games like Hulk, Battlestar Galactica, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds, Lawnmower Racing Mania 2007, and 50 Cent: Bulletproof.

Editor's Note: None.