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High Moon Studios, Inc.

Logo used since 2012
Formerly	Sammy Entertainment Inc.(2001–2002) Sammy Studios, Inc.(2002–2005)
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Video games
Founded	April 2001; 24 years ago (2001-04) (as Sammy Entertainment Inc.)
Headquarters	Carlsbad, California , US
Key people	Peter Della Penna (president)
Products	Darkwatch (2005) Transformers series (2010–2012) Deadpool (2013) Destiny series (2014–2017) Call of Duty series (2014–present)
Number of employees	155
Parent	Sammy Corporation (2001–2005) Vivendi Games (2006–2008) Activision (2008–present)
Website	highmoonstudios.com

High Moon Studios, Inc. (formerlySammy Entertainment Inc. andSammy Studios, Inc.) is an Americanvideo game developer initially formed in 2001. After nearly a year as an independent studio, the developer was acquired byVivendi Games in January 2006 and placed underSierra Entertainment. It is currently owned byActivision.^[1][2] It has developed multipleTransformers video games and assisted in the development of selectCall of Duty games, as well asDestiny.

High Moon Studios was formed in April 2001 as a division of the Japanese publisherSammy, first known asSammy Entertainment and later renamedSammy Studios the following year, to develop and publish games in America. After Sammy merged withSega to formSega Sammy Holdings on October 1, 2004, Sammy discontinued all video game development in America to focus on its Japanese productions, and planned on closing Sammy Studios as part of this. However on March 3, 2005, Sammy Studios was acquired in a management buyout by a group led by president and CEO John Rowe, and renamedHigh Moon Studios. Turning to game development only, the studio continued development of games from its time as Sammy Studios, including the Western horror shooterDarkwatch. In January 2006, it was announced thatVivendi Universal Games had acquired the studio. After the merger of Vivendi andActivision, High Moon became a subsidiary ofActivision.

Following the completion ofDeadpool, Activision laid off 40 full-time employees from High Moon Studios that worked on the project. Activision stated "Activision Publishing consistently works to align its costs with its revenues – this is an ongoing process, with the completion of development onDeadpool, we are taking a reduction in staff at High Moon Studios to better align our development talent against our slate."^[3]

• Official website
• High Moon Studios profile onMobyGames

• 2001 establishments in California
• 2006 mergers and acquisitions
• Activision
• American companies established in 2001
• Companies based in Carlsbad, California
• Microsoft subsidiaries
• Sierra Entertainment
• Video game companies based in San Diego
• Video game companies established in 2001
• Video game development companies

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• Use mdy dates from July 2024