Activision was the first third-party publisher of games. It was founded by Jim Levy of the music industry and Atari founders David Crane, Larry Kaplan, Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead.

In 1988, Activision expanded beyond gaming and changed its name to Mediagenic, releasing Cornerstone (a relational database program developed by Infocom), but the market response was lukewarm.

In 1992, Mediagenic initiated bankruptcy proceedings and the original Activision disappeared.

Mediagenic experienced a failure that led to its merger with The Disc Corporation. After going through bankruptcy, the company changed its name back to Activision. It continued to publish games during the period.

In 1991, Activision released 20 games developed by the original Infocom on a CD called "Infocom's Lost Treasures". This collection was so successful that 11 more games were released in subsequent editions.

In 2004, Activision celebrated its 25th anniversary and achieved its 12th consecutive year of revenue growth.

In December 2007, Activision merged with Vivendi Games to form Activision Blizzard, Inc.