1.
Action-adventure game
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The action-adventure video game genre includes video games that combine core elements from the action and adventure genres. With the decline of the game genre from mainstream popularity. It is not uncommon for gamers to apply the term adventure or action adventure to describe the genre of fiction to which a game belongs, typically, pure adventure games have situational problems for the player to solve, with very little or no action. If there is action, it is confined to isolated minigames. Pure action games have gameplay based on real-time interactions that challenge the reflexes, therefore, action-adventure games engage both reflexes and problem-solving, in both violent and non-violent situations. An action-adventure game can be defined as a game with a mix of elements from an action game and an adventure game, especially crucial elements like puzzles. Action-adventures require many of the physical skills as action games, but also offer a storyline, numerous characters, an inventory system, dialogue. They are faster-paced than pure adventure games, because they include both physical and conceptual challenges, action-adventure games normally include a combination of complex story elements, which are displayed for players using audio and video. The story is heavily reliant upon the characters movement, which triggers story events. Some examples of games include The Legend of Zelda, God of War. Exactly when a game stops being a game and becomes an action game is a matter of interpretation. There are quite a few disagreements in the community and in the media over what constitutes an action-adventure game. In some cases a game with puzzles will be classified as an action-adventure game. Others see action games as a genre, while an action-adventure is an action game that includes situational problem-solving. Adventure gamers may also be purists, rejecting any game that makes use of physical challenges or time pressure, regardless, the action-adventure label is prominent in articles over the internet and media. The term action-adventure is usually substituted for a particular subgenre due to its wide scope, although action-adventure games are diverse and difficult to classify, there are some distinct subgenres. These are sometimes called Real-Time Adventure games or RTAs for short, notable examples of this include Metroid Prime, Half-Life 2, Dishonored, and Far Cry 3. Third-person action-adventure, in gameplay is in the third-person
2.
Parker Brothers
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Parker Brothers was an American toy and game manufacturer which later became a brand of Hasbro. More than 1,800 games were published under the Parker Brothers name since 1883, among its products were Monopoly, Cluedo, Sorry. Risk, Trivial Pursuit, Ouija, Aggravation, Bop It, the trade name is now defunct, former products are marketed under the Hasbro Gaming label. Parker Brothers was founded by George S. Parker, Parkers philosophy deviated from the prevalent theme of board game design, he believed that games should be played for enjoyment and did not need to emphasize morals and values. He created his first game, called Banking, in 1883 when he was 16, Banking is a game in which players borrowed money from the bank and tried to generate wealth by guessing how well they could do. The game included 160 cards which foretold their failures or successes, the game was so popular among family and friends that his brother, Charles Parker, urged him to publish it. George approached two Boston publishers with the idea, but was unsuccessful, not discouraged, he spent $40 to publish 500 sets of Banking. He eventually sold all but twelve copies, making a profit of $100, Parker founded his game company, initially called the George S. Parker Company, in his hometown of Salem, Massachusetts in 1883. When Georges brother Charles joined the business in 1888, the name was changed to its more familiar form. In 1898 a third brother, Edward H. Parker, joined the company, for many years, George designed most of the games himself, and wrote all the rules. Many games were based on important events of the day, Klondike was based on the Alaskan gold rush, the game industry was growing, and the company was becoming very profitable. In 1906, Parker Brothers published the game Rook, their most successful card game to this day, during the Great Depression, a time when many companies went out of business, Parker Brothers released a new board game called Monopoly. Although the company had rejected the game in 1934, they decided to publish it the next year. It was an instant success, and the company had difficulty keeping up with demand, the company continued to grow throughout the next several decades, producing such lasting games as Clue, Risk, and Sorry. Parker Brothers marketed its first puzzle in 1887, the most highly sought of Parker puzzles are the wooden Parker Pastimes. Parker also produced childrens puzzles, as well as the Climax, Jig-A-Jig, Jig Wood, and Paramount lines. According to Jigsaw Puzzles, An Illustrated History and Price Guide, by Anne D. Williams, Parker Bros. closed the Pastime line in the 1950s, even after George Parkers death, the company remained family-owned until 1968 when General Mills purchased the company. After this, Parker Brothers produced the first Nerf ball, which became another major national hit, in the UK during the 1970s, Parker Bros. was the games division of Palitoy, and produced a variety of releases such as Escape from Colditz
3.
Atari Games
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Atari Games Corporation was an American producer of arcade games. It was originally the arcade game division of Atari, Inc. and was split off into its own company in 1984. When the Atari Inc. division of Warner Communications lost $500 million in the first three quarters of 1983, its arcade division was the only one to make money. In 1984 Warner sold the Atari Consumer division of Atari Inc. to Jack Tramiel, Atari Games retained most of the same employees and managers that had worked at the old Atari Inc. It was able to carry on many of its projects from before the transition. Atari Corp. in contrast, froze projects and streamlined staff, in 1985, the controlling interest of Atari Games was sold to Namco, who soon lost interest in operating an American subsidiary. In 1986 a group of employees bought Namcos share, the suit finally reached a settlement in 1994, with Atari Games paying Nintendo cash damages and use of several patent licenses. In 1989, Warner Communications merged with Time Inc. forming Time Warner, in 1993, Time Warner bought a controlling interest in Atari Games and made it a subsidiary of its Time Warner Interactive division. While Atari Games maintained its identity under the new ownership, its consumer division Tengen, in mid-1994 Atari Games, Tengen, and Time Warner Interactive Group were all consolidated as Time Warner Interactive. In 1996 after a bid by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell. Midway left the market to concentrate on home systems in 2001. Midway Games West produced games for home systems, but was disbanded by Midway in early 2003 after a slump in game sales, until 2009, Midway Games West still existed as a holding entity whose primary function was to be the copyright and trademark owner for its franchises. In July 2009, all of the property of Midway was sold to Warner Bros. Entertainment, ultimately bringing the Atari Games properties and history back to Warner one final time, a History of Atari Games Corp. / Midway Games West
4.
Square Enix Europe
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Eidos Interactive Ltd. was a British software technology developer and video game publisher, now operating as Square Enix Europe. The company was headquartered in the Wimbledon Bridge House in Wimbledon, London Borough of Merton, the company has had offices all around the world, including the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Australia and Japan. Prior to its best known games, Eidos developed Full Motion Video compression techniques on platforms such as the RISC OS computers of the early 1990s and its best-known game series include Tomb Raider, Hitman, Commandos, and Deus Ex. Eidos officially became part of Square Enix on 22 April 2009, following a reorganization of the company, Eidos was merged with Square Enixs European operations into Square Enix Europe. In 1996, Eidos Technologies merged with Domark Software, Simis, on 3 August 2004, the Wall Street Journal reported that Eidos was in preliminary discussions with a small number of companies in relation of a possible business combinations. In early March 2005, Eidos admitted that cash reserves had dwindled to £11. 9m during the half of 2004. This takeover valued the company at £71m, and would inject £23m in order to keep the company solvent in the short term, on 22 March, Eidos received a second takeover bid from the British games manufacturer SCi Entertainment. Sci offered £74m, and tabled a plan to cut £14m from annual costs. To fund this takeover, SCi proposed to sell £60m worth of stock, eventually, in late April, Elevation Partners formally withdrew its offer, leaving the way clear for SCi. The takeover was finalized on 16 May 2005, since the Sci purchase, the vast majority of the old Eidos management were let go. SCi left their Battersea Office and moved into the old Eidos office on the floor of Wimbledon Bridge House,1 Hartfield Road. Eidos announced on 15 February 2007 that they would open a new studio in Montreal, Quebec, Eidos Montréal started developing a new game in the Deus Ex franchise. In February 2007, Eidos acquired Rockpool Games, along with its two sister companies Ironstone Partners and SoGoPlay, on 4 September 2007, the board of Sci Entertainment confirmed recent speculation that the company has been approached with a view to making an offer. On 10 January 2008, SCi announced take over and/or merger talks had been halted, as a result, the share price dropped by over 50%. Major investors called for the resignation of key personnel, including CEO Jane Cavanagh, on 18 January 2008, Jane Cavanagh, Bill Ennis and Rob Murphy left the company. Eidoss parent company, Sci, revealed its 2008 financial report, losses were at £100 million, but new CEO Phil Rogers claimed this was only due to the reconstructing plans. On 19 September 2008, Eidos opened a Shanghai-based studio consisting of a team to build up relations in Asia. On 3 December 2008, Sci changed its name to Eidos plc, in February 2009, Square Enix reached an agreement to purchase Eidos for £84.3 million, pending shareholder approval, with an initial aim of fully buying Eidos on 6 May 2009
5.
Namco
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Namco Limited is a Japanese corporation best known as a video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies game production assets were spun off into Bandai Namco Games on March 31,2006, Namco was re-established to continue domestic operation of video arcades and amusement parks. Its headquarters are located in Ōta, Tokyo, the companys English name is often officially written as NAMCO. Namco was a front-runner during the age of arcade video games. Pac-Man went on to become the best-selling arcade game in history, Namco was also known for creating successful franchises such as Galaxian, Ridge Racer, Ace Combat, Tekken, as well as the Soul and Tales series. Masaya Nakamura founded the company as Nakamura Manufacturing in 1955, based in Tokyo, the company started out by running childrens rides on the roof of a department store in Yokohama. The business eventually expanded throughout the Tokyo area, Nakamura Manufacturing was reorganized in 1958 and later underwent a name change to Nakamura Manufacturing Company, which would be used to form the acronym NAMCO. In 1970, the company produced a coin-operated mechanical driving simulator called Racer, Atari Japan, the Tokyo-based subsidiary of Atari, was struggling financially by 1974. General manager Hide Nakajima was left in charge of the company after his boss had quit, Nakajima claims that employees had been stealing money and that he had contributed funds from his personal savings in order to pay creditors and stave off bankruptcy. Sega, then a manufacturer of machines, offered to acquire Atari Japan for $50,000. Nakamura put in a bid for $800,000 and shocked others out of competition, the deal was finalized at $500,000 and Bushnell was glad to take it. Debts inherited from Atari Japan would take Nakamura two years to pay off, but the deal had also secured for him a license to distribute Ataris games in Japan for ten years. Nakamura would follow up by opening video arcades featuring Atari games, everyone thought was mad when he paid so much for Atari, but it turned out to be a very wise investment. Nakajima was promoted to president in 1978, and on his recommendation Namco opened a subsidiary, Namco America. The location he chose was across the street from Ataris former headquarters in Sunnyvale, at the time, games were not released in the U. S. under the Namco label. Namco America existed mainly to license Namcos games to companies such as Atari, Galaxian revolutionized the industry as the first video game to use RGB color graphics. It was Pac-Man, however, that would become definitive of Namcos legacy, galaga, a follow-up to Galaxian, was one of the most successful sequels of the era. Dig Dug, Xevious, and Pole Position continued Namcos success in establishing iconic franchises during the Golden Age, during this period, Namco published video games for home consoles and personal computer under the Namcot brand name
6.
Software Toolworks
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Mindscape, Inc. was an international software publishing company, previously part of The Learning Company and later affiliated with Electronic Arts. As of 2004, the group had offices in Europe, Asia, Australia and it had an annual turnover of €38 million and employed 150 people. Mindscape published and distributed educational and lifestyle games and software and its most notable titles include Law & Order, Criminal Intent and Lego Island. Mindscape began in 1983 as a publisher in Northbrook, Illinois. Founded by English-born Roger M. Buoy, the company established its early roots developing educational software for the TI-99/4A and it also released text adventures tied to famous authors and a controversial game from Tom Snyder Productions called Sub Mission. The latter required gamers to purchase a replacement disk if they lost the three times. Under creative director Sandy Schneider, the company one of the earliest publishers of software for the Macintosh, publishing the seminal Chris Crawford game. It also published the first 3D game for computers, David Alan Smiths The Colony. It also published several of the early Macromind products, namely Graphic Works, in 1984 Mindscape worked closely with Commodore in developing some of the initial applications for the Commodore Amiga. The company participated in the 1985 release of the Amiga that featured Andy Warhol, in 1988, Mindscape became a Nintendo licensee and published video games such as The Terminator for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Paperboy for both Nintendos NES and Game Boy platforms. Paperboy becoming a hit worldwide selling over 2 million copies on the NES alone. During the late 1980s, Mindscape was unique in the entertainment arena by establishing a global network. Buoy opened offices around the world and installed seasoned managers to run them, by 1990, Mindscape had offices in Sydney, Australia, Chiba, Japan, Sussex, England, and Normandy, France. In 1988 Mindscape became a public company raising $9.6 million and it was one of the first companies to have a successful IPO after the stock market crash of October 19,1987. Mindscape was famous for its Rock n Roll parties at Chicagos Summer Consumer Electronics Show where it released its new products, in 1990 Les Cranes The Software Toolworks acquired Mindscape, primarily for the Nintendo license. The company held one last Summer Consumer Electronics Show parties where Dudley Moore introduced the Miracle Piano Teaching System, Roger Buoy left the company in 1992 to pursue other entrepreneurial activities. The company became involved in another round of mergers and headquarters moved to Novato, California and it started out publishing software for Heath/Zenith personal computers. Early products for The Software Toolworks included Mychess and the C/80 C compiler for CP/M, the two most popular products were the very long-lived series Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing and the Chessmaster series of computer games
7.
LucasArts
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LucasArts Entertainment Company, LLC is an American video game publisher and licensor. Until 2013, it was also a game developer. LucasArts is best known for its graphic adventure games, as well as based on the Star Wars. Its headquarters are located in San Francisco, California and it was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as Lucasfilm Games, the video game development group of his film company, Lucasfilm. Lucas initially served as the companys chairman, during a 1990 reorganization of Lucas companies, the Lucasfilm Games division was renamed LucasArts. LucasArts was acquired by The Walt Disney Company through the acquisition of its parent company Lucasfilm in 2012, on April 3,2013, Disney halted all internal development at LucasArts and laid off most of its staff. However, LucasArts remained open so that it could retain its function as a licensor, development of games based on the Star Wars license will be performed by Electronic Arts, through an exclusive license, for the core gaming market. Disney Interactive Studios retained the ability to develop, and LucasArts retained the ability to license the franchise for the gaming market. Development of video based upon other Lucasfilm properties will now be assumed by Disney Interactive Studios or licensed to third parties. The company was founded in May 1982 as the game development group of Lucasfilm Limited. Lucas wanted his company to branch out into areas of entertainment. The Lucasfilm Games Group originally cooperated with Atari, which helped fund the video game groups founding, the first results of this collaboration were unique action games like Ballblazer in 1984, and Rescue on Fractalus. In 1984, they were released for the Atari 5200 under the Lucasfilm Games label, versions for home computers were not released until 1985, by publisher Epyx. Lucasfilms next two games were Koronis Rift and The Eidolon and their first games were only developed by Lucasfilm, and a publisher would distribute the games. Atari published their games for Atari systems, Activision and Epyx would do their computer publishing, Maniac Mansion was the first game to be published and developed by Lucasfilm Games. The early charter of Lucasfilm Games was to make experimental, innovative, Habitat, an early online role-playing game, was one such title. It was only released as a beta test in 1986 by Quantum Link, Quantum Link could not provide the bandwidth at the time to support the game, so the full Habitat was never released outside of the beta test. However, Lucasfilm Games recouped the cost of development by releasing a sized down version called Club Caribe in 1988, Lucasfilm later licensed the software to Fujitsu, who released it in Japan as Fujitsu Habitat in 1990
8.
Realtime Associates
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Realtime Associates is an American video game developer and publisher. The company was founded in 1986 by David Warhol and a group of ex-Mattel Electronics employees originally to create games for the Intellivision system, in addition to its entertainment software portfolio, the company creates serious games and Games for Health, including HopeLabs Re-Mission. Real Monsters Barneys Hide and Seek The Berenstain Bears Camping Adventure Normys Beach Babe-o-Rama Warlock Loom Caesars Palace Dick Tracy Maniac Mansion The Rocketeer Bug, candy Land Adventure Iron Man and X-O Manowar in Heavy Metal Magic The Gathering, Battlemage Re-Mission Toon Jam Video Jam
9.
Factor 5
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Factor 5 GmbH is an independent software and video game developer. The company was originally co-founded by five former Rainbow Arts employees in 1987 in Cologne, Germany, the US company closed in May 2009, following the closure of Brash Entertainment, with which the company had multiple contracts. The original German company, headed by CEO Achim Moller, remained due to its unrelated business policy. However, in January 2011, Moller liquidated Factor 5 GmbH, on March 15,2017, Factor 5 co-founder Julian Eggebrecht had announced that the company has returned and reacquired the rights to the Turrican franchise. Eggebrecht attended the Filmhochschule in Munich to become a movie director, while its founders were still university students, Factor 5 started out in game development as a part-time activity under partnership with Rainbow Arts for the Amiga computer. There, they had their earliest moderate success with Katakis, an R-Type clone of impressive technical performance, according to Julian Eggebrecht, this was because Activision couldnt find any programmers however the opportunity was a dream come true. Their first important success, however, came with Turrican, a designed by Rainbow Arts designer Manfred Trenz. Factor 5 handled the Amiga and Atari ST versions of the game, in 1991, faced with the prospect of corporate formalities imposed by the video game console industry, the company founders quit school in favor of full-time corporate careers. Eggebrecht explained, he moment you go into console programming, you wont get a development system from Nintendo unless you have a reputable company. In 1993, Factor 5 produced their last Amiga effort, an Amiga conversion of Mega Turrican handled with programming support from fellow company Neon Studios. They would develop games for the SNES, Mega Drive/Genesis, and Game Boy until 1996 and this, together with legal assistance offered by LucasArts, resulted in a new Factor 5 branch in California. There, the core of the development team from Germany was established after they finished work on their PlayStation games in late 1996, in late December 2008, several online media outlets reported that Brash Entertainment would close at the end of the month after encountering financial problems. This sudden interruption in funding left Factor 5 with their own funding difficulties, Factor 5 had been involved in litigation with its former employees in the defunct North American Factor 5 company. The suit was filed in Marin Superior Court
10.
BioWare
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BioWare is a video game developer located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in February 1995 by newly graduated medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, and Augustine Yip and they proceeded to make several other successful games based on original intellectual property, Jade Empire, the Mass Effect series, and the Dragon Age series. In 2011, BioWare launched their first massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Star Wars, BioWare was established in February 1995 by Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, Trent Oster, Brent Oster, Marcel Zeschuk, and Augustine Yip. Their success in the field provided them with the funding they needed to launch a video game company. To make their first game, they pooled their resources, which resulted in capital of $100,000 and their first game, Shattered Steel, began its life as a proof-of-concept demo, similar to the MechWarrior games. This demo was submitted to ten publishers, seven of whom returned to the company with an offer, a publishing deal for Shattered Steel was eventually signed with Interplay Entertainment. BioWares first game was released the following year, Shattered Steels release was described by IGN as a modest success with decent sales. Two noteworthy points were the terrain and zone damage. A sequel to Shattered Steel was planned for 1998 but never realized, BioWares founders and staff were keenly interested in both computerized and pen-and-paper variants of role-playing games. Their next development project, therefore, was determined to be a role-playing game, when Interplay financed exploratory development, BioWare presented the publishers with a demo called Battleground, Infinity. Interplay suggested that the gameplay engine would be well-suited to the Dungeons & Dragons license which it had acquired from SSI. Accordingly, Infinity was reworked in line with the Dungeons & Dragons ruleset and this resulted in Baldurs Gate, which witnessed a development cycle of three years. During this time, the three continued to practice medicine. However, in the years of the project, the demands of development prompted Muzyka and Zeschuck to leave medicine. Augustine Yip decided to continue with his medical practice, Baldurs Gate sold more than two million copies after its release, nearly matching the sales of Diablo. Following the success of Baldurs Gate, the Infinity Engine was used for the games Planescape, Torment, the success of Baldurs Gate was followed by an expansion pack for the game, Tales of the Sword Coast. At this point, BioWare decided to return to the action genre, the companys initial thought was to develop a sequel to Shattered Steel, but eventually a sequel to MDK from Shiny Entertainment was chosen for development. MDK2 was released on PC, Dreamcast, and eventually PlayStation 2, MDK2 drew the same level of praise as its predecessor but, despite the success, BioWare returned to the Baldurs Gate series for their next project
11.
Raven Software
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Raven Software is an American video game developing company based in Wisconsin and founded in 1990. In 1997, Raven made a publishing deal with Activision and was subsequently acquired by them. After the acquisition, many of the original developers, largely responsible for creating the Heretic and Hexen, Beyond Heretic games. Raven Software was founded in 1990 by brothers Brian and Steve Raffel, the company was independent until 1997 when it was acquired by Activision. Raven has a history of working with id Software, who were located on the same street. They used ids engines for many of their games, such as Heretic in 1994 and they took over development of ids Quake franchise for Quake 4 and the 2009 iteration of ids Wolfenstein series. The company started with three development teams, in August 2009 following poor performance and possible over-budget of Wolfenstein, the company made a major layoff of 30-35 staff, leaving two development teams. This was reduced to one after more layoffs in October 2010, after delays with Singularity, following the layoffs, Raven has been focused on assisting with the Call of Duty series ever since. In 2012, Raven began hiring employees for a next generation game, on 3 April 2013 following the closure of LucasArts, Raven Software released the source code for Star Wars Jedi Knight II, Jedi Outcast and Star Wars Jedi Knight, Jedi Academy on Sourceforge. As of April 2014, the company is the developer of the free-to-play Chinese Call of Duty title, Call of Duty. The company also remastered Call of Duty 4, Modern Warfare, titled Call of Duty, Modern Warfare Remastered
12.
Vicarious Visions
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Vicarious Visions, Inc. is an American video game developer. Vicarious Visions games accounted for over $2.5 billion in retail sales, the headquarters of Vicarious Visions is located in Menands, New York. It was announced in December 2016 by Activision that Vicarious Visions will be working on Destiny, the studio was founded by brothers Karthik and Guha Bala in 1990 while both were in high school. Under their leadership, a sale of the company was negotiated to Activision, in January 2005, Vicarious Visions was acquired by publisher Activision. On April 5,2016, the Bala brothers announced that they had left the company, terminus, an online multiplayer space trading and combat simulation game, won two Independent Games Festival Awards in 1999. They developed the first three Crash Bandicoot GBA games and they are also well known for many games including Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Ultimate Spider-Man, Crash Nitro Kart, Jedi Knight II, Jedi Academy, and Doom 3 for the Xbox. Vicarious Visions developed for the Guitar Hero series on the Nintendo DS, for Guitar Hero, On Tour, Vicarious Visions created the Guitar Grip peripheral for the Nintendo DS, which emulates the guitar controller for the portable system. It was revealed on June 10,2011, that Vicarious Visions was working on the 3DS version of Skylanders, on December 8,2016, Vicarious Visions announced that they are partnering with Bungie to work on the Destiny franchise
13.
Pandemic Studios
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Pandemic Studios was an independent developer founded in 1998. Between 2007 and 2009 it became an Electronic Arts-owned developer, and it was an American and Australian video game developer with offices in Los Angeles, California and Brisbane, Australia. Notable titles include Full Spectrum Warrior, Star Wars, Battlefront, Dark Reign 2, Mercenaries, Playground of Destruction, Mercenaries 2, World in Flames, Star Wars, Battlefront II and The Saboteur. The companys president was Josh Resnick and its CEO was Andrew Goldman — both formerly worked at Activision, and Pandemic was founded with an equity investment by Activision in 1998, Pandemics first two games, Battlezone II and Dark Reign 2, were both sequels to Activision games. In 2000, Pandemic opened a studio in the Brisbane suburb of Fortitude Valley. The first project was Army Men, RTS, a console RTS game using the Dark Reign 2 engine, the studio later developed Destroy All Humans. In 2003, the Los Angeles studio moved from its location at Santa Monica to a high-rise building in Westwood. In November 2005, it was announced that Pandemic and BioWare would be joining forces, both companies retained their brands and identities. On October 11,2007, it was announced that VG Holding Corp. the owners of BioWare and Pandemic Studios, would be acquired by Electronic Arts as of January 2008, in February 2009, their office in Brisbane, Australia was shut down. In November 2009, Electronic Arts cut a total of 1,500 jobs which affected various studios, on November 17,2009, EA officially confirmed Pandemic Studios closure, laying off 228 employees. EA absorbed 35 Pandemic employees into its EA Los Angeles studio to support The Saboteur and a project which was later revealed to be Mercs Inc. In response, a few employees of Pandemic created an Office Space-style video where they are shown smashing their office printer. Over a dozen former Pandemic developers are now employed at 343 Industries having worked on Halo, Combat Evolved Anniversary, other former employees have gone to work for Infinity Ward, Treyarch, Respawn Entertainment and many others. The studio also developed the last game in the Army Men published by 3DO, Army Men, the studio was also responsible for developing the first two games in the Destroy All Humans. Series, and its final project released was The Saboteur, at time of closure the studio still had multiple projects in development namely Project X and Y which are listed on Pandemics official site. Project X has been listed since 2007 while Project Y was recently listed in 2009, in addition, another main Mercenaries game, Mercenaries 3, No Limits, was in production at the time of the studios closure and was subsequently cancelled. Many projects that were being developed at Pandemics Brisbane studios were also cancelled when it closed including The Dark Knight and two unannounced games, Project Q and Z
14.
Daybreak Game Company
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Daybreak Game Company, LLC is an American video game developer and video game publisher. It is a division of Columbus Nova, in 2008, Daybreak Game Company’s game EverQuest was honored at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for advancing the art form of massively multiplayer online role-playing games. On February 2,2015, Sony sold Sony Online Entertainment to Columbus Nova, Sony Online Entertainment began with Sony Interactive Studios America, an internal game development studio of Sony, formed by 1995. In 1996, John Smedley was put in charge of SISAs development of an online role-playing video game, the game would evolve into the MMORPG EverQuest. Smedley hired programmers Brad McQuaid and Steve Clover, who had come to Smedleys attention through their work on the single-player RPG Warwizard, in April 1998, Sony Online Entertainment was formed by merging parts of Sony Online Ventures with Sony Pictures Entertainment. Within a matter of months after this change, Sony Interactive Studios America was renamed 989 Studios, towards the end of 1998,989 Studios shifted its strategy to making only PlayStation console games. The companys computer game and online development branch spun off, initially named RedEye Interactive, Verant Interactive launched EverQuest on March 16,1999, through Sony with modest expectations. Sales continued rising at a steady rate until mid-2001 when growth slowed, as of 2004, Sony reported subscription numbers close to 450,000. In March 2000, Verant released EverQuest, The Ruins of Kunark, in April 2000, Verant hired former Ultima Online developers Raph Koster and Rich Vogel. They formed an office in Austin, Texas, to develop Star Wars Galaxies for LucasArts, SOE acquired Verant in June 2000, and eventually promoted Brad McQuaid to be its Chief Creative Officer. In October 2001, McQuaid resigned and then founded Sigil Games Online, developed by Sony Online Entertainment, LucasArts released Star Wars Galaxies in 2003, which saw rapid growth, as expected. Bruce Woodcock estimates that Star Wars Galaxies reached nearly 300,000 subscribers within the year, LucasArts has released three expansions for Star Wars Galaxies, Jump to Lightspeed in October 2004, Rage of the Wookiees in May 2005, and Trials Of Obi-Wan in November 2005. In 2003, the company also explored relatively untouched MMOG territory with the Massively Multiplayer Online First Person Shooter PlanetSide, PlanetSide enjoyed a reasonably successful launch, however it never attracted wide popularity. SOE has released two expansions for PlanetSide, a retail product titled Core Combat, and Aftershock, a free expansion, EverQuest Online Adventures was not as successful, but it spawned an expansion, EverQuest Online Adventures Frontiers. The game was shut down on March 29,2012, after nine years of operation, EverQuest II was released on November 9,2004. The sequel was set hundreds of years after the original, similar in strategy to EverQuest, SOE has released several adventure packs and expansion packs for EverQuest II, starting with The Bloodline Chronicles in March 2005. In January 2005, Sony Online Entertainment announced the creation of Station Publishing, in November 2005, SOE added the New Game Enhancements to Star Wars Galaxies, changing many of the games core mechanics. This upset players and critics alike, with the level of concurrent players reduced to around 10,000, SOE has produced numerous EverQuest expansions and spin-off video games, including Champions of Norrath and Lords of EverQuest
15.
Electronic Arts
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Electronic Arts Inc. is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Currently, EA develops and publishes games under several labels including EA Sports titles FIFA, Madden NFL, NHL, NCAA Football, NBA Live, and SSX. EA also owns and operates major gaming studios, EA Tiburon in Orlando, EA Canada in Burnaby, BioWare in Edmonton as well as Montreal, the company began developing games in-house and supported consoles by the early 1990s. EA later grew via acquisition of several successful developers, by the early 2000s, EA had become one of the worlds largest third-party publishers. In a note to employees, EA CEO John Riccitiello called this an important milestone for the company. EA began to move toward direct distribution of games and services with the acquisition of the popular online gaming site Pogo. com in 2001. In 2009, EA acquired the London-based social gaming startup Playfish, and in June 2011, EA launched Origin, there is also a On The House feature in Origin that lets you download full versions of EA games for free, it is updated regularly. In July 2011, EA announced that it had acquired PopCap Games, in February 1982, Trip Hawkins arranged a meeting with Don Valentine of Sequoia Capital to discuss financing his new venture, Amazin Software. Valentine encouraged Hawkins to leave Apple Inc. in which Hawkins served as Director of Product Marketing, on May 28,1982, Trip Hawkins incorporated and established the company with a personal investment of an estimated US$200,000. The company was not named Amazin Software, but instead Electronic Arts, seven months later in December 1982, Hawkins secured US$2 million of venture capital from Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Sevin Rosen Funds. For more than seven months, Hawkins refined his Electronic Arts business plan, with aid from his first employee, Rich Melmon, the original plan was written, mostly by Hawkins, on an Apple II in Sequoia Capitals office in August 1982. The business plan was refined in September and reissued on October 8,1982. By November, employee headcount rose to 11, including Tim Mott, Bing Gordon, David Maynard, having outgrown the office space provided by Sequoia Capital, the company relocated to a San Mateo office that overlooked the San Francisco Airport landing path. Headcount rose rapidly in 1983, including Don Daglow, Richard Hilleman, Stewart Bonn, David Gardner and he recruited his original employees from Apple, Atari, Xerox PARC, and VisiCorp, and got Steve Wozniak to agree to sit on the board of directors. Hawkins was determined to sell directly to buyers, combined with the fact that Hawkins was pioneering new game brands, this made sales growth more challenging. Retailers wanted to buy known brands from existing distribution partners, after more flyers were handed out, former CEO Larry Probst arrived as VP of Sales in late 1984 and helped the company sustain growth into US$18 million in its third full year. This policy of dealing directly with retailers gave EA higher margins and better market awareness, in December 1986, David Gardner and Mark Lewkaspais moved to the UK to open a European headquarters. Up until that point publishing of Electronic Arts Games, and the conversion of many of their games to compact cassette versions in Europe was handled by Ariolasoft
16.
Rainbow Studios
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Rainbow Studios Inc. is an American video game developer known for their off-road racing video games involving motocross bikes and all-terrain vehicles. The company was founded in 1995, originally making Rail shooters with their first game being The Hive, the company shifed gears and created Motocross Madness, which was released in 1998 for computers running Microsoft Windows. Originally independent, it was acquired by THQ in 2001, until being acquired by Nordic Games in 2013, and incorporated as Rainbow Studios Inc. in 2015
17.
Ensemble Studios
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Ensemble developed many real-time strategy games, including the Age of Empires game series, Age of Mythology, and Halo Wars. In addition to development, Ensemble Studios also made the Genie Game Engine used in Age of Empires, Age of Empires II, The Age of Kings. The studio sold 20 million games and was worth an estimated $500 million, Ensemble Studios developed the Age of Empires game series of real-time strategy titles, comprising Age of Empires, Age of Empires II, The Age of Kings and Age of Empires III. They also released Age of Mythology, a spin-off from the original series, expansion packs were also released for all their games including two for Age of Empires III. Their last release was the strategy game called Halo Wars for Xbox 360. In 2001, Microsoft acquired Ensemble Studios, Ensemble remained at their original location in a high rise office in Dallas, TX, until April 2008 when Microsoft moved them to the Shops at Legacy in Plano, the same location as GearBox Software. Their office was 50,000 square feet and designed to house 120 employees, in 2008, Ensemble announced that it would close after the release of Halo Wars in 2009. According to multiple independent reports, all staff have been laid off. Microsoft issued a statement on September 10,2008 which was then leaked to the public. The company shut down on January 29,2009 and it was also stated that there are at least two new studios being formed by ES employees. In February 2009, former Ensemble Studios head Tony Goodman started a new independent studio, Robot Entertainment, following the announcement of Robot Entertainment, former Ensemble Studios producer David Rippy started a new independent studio, Bonfire Studios, composed entirely of former Ensemble staff members. Bonfire was later renamed Zynga Dallas through its acquisition by Zynga, in 2008, a third studio called Newtoy, Inc. was created by several developers from Ensemble, which released Chess With Friends for the iPhone in November 2008, and Words With Friends in August 2009. Newtoy was also acquired by Zynga and renamed Zynga With Friends, Newtoy released two games while they were independent. In March 2009, a studio, Windstorm Studios, was founded by ex-staffer Dusty Monk as a one-man company. Dusty Monk later closed this studio on March 21,2012, in June 2013, a fifth studio emerged, Boss Fight Entertainment, founded by previous employees of Ensemble Studios and Zynga Dallas. Boss Fight Entertainment is currently located in McKinney, TX and is developing games for mobile platforms, Ensemble Studios site Ask Sandy threads from Age of Kings Heaven Ensemble Studios profile on MobyGames Remember Ensemble Studios - archived Ensemble material and news
18.
Obsidian Entertainment
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Obsidian Entertainment, Inc. is an independent American video game developer whose corporate headquarters are located in Irvine, California. It was founded in 2003 by ex-Black Isle employees Feargus Urquhart, Chris Avellone, Chris Parker, Darren Monahan, although they have created original intellectual property, many of their games are sequels based on licensed properties. Early projects include Star Wars, Knights of the Old Republic II, The Sith Lords and Neverwinter Nights 2, the team then developed their first original game, Alpha Protocol, in 2010. It was met generally mixed reviews. Other notable works from Obsidian include Fallout, New Vegas, Dungeon Siege III, throughout the studios history, many projects—including Futureblight, Dwarves, Aliens, Crucible, and Stormlands—were cancelled. Due to having so many projects cancelled, the company entered a financial crisis in 2012. The teams focus then changed from developing licensed titles to creating games based on the studios own intellectual property. Obsidian has developed a relationship with another studio that was founded by ex-Interplay Entertainment employees. Obsidian Entertainment was founded by Feargus Urquhart, Chris Avellone, Chris Parker, Darren Monahan, prior to the establishment of Obsidian, they worked for Interplay Entertainments subsidiary Black Isle Studios. Most of these games were critically and commercially successful, but Interplays financial situation was poor and this led to the cancellation of Baldurs Gate III, The Black Hound. Urquhart and most of the members were dissatisfied and frustrated with the cancellation, as the game had already been under development for a year. Urquhart became convinced that staying in Black Isle was no longer an option for the team. He was in his thirties at the time, and thought that if he did not start a new company soon. Urquhart officially left Interplay in 2003 with Avellone, Parker, Monahan, and Jones, at the time of the companys establishment there were seven employees, including the companys five founders. Parker, Urquhart, and Monahan invested $100,000 to $125,000 into their newly founded company, when choosing the name of the company, they had prepared a short list of names for them to choose. The list included Scorched Earth and Three Clown Software, the team eventually chose Obsidian Entertainment, which they thought was strong, memorable, and felt similar to name of their old studio, Black Isle. Upon its establishment, the studio needed more capital in order to keep its operation running and they approached Electronic Arts, but it did not result in a project. The studio also contacted Ubisoft looking to make a Might & Magic game, but Ubisoft instead ended up contracting with Arkane Studios on that project, Obsidian pitched a game to Take-Two Interactive called Futureblight, which was described as a Fallout-style game powered by the Neverwinter Nights engine
19.
The Collective (company)
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The Collective, Inc. was an American video game development company located in Newport Beach, California. The company has created several games based on movies and television shows since its founding in 1997, the Collective, Inc. was founded by three former Virgin Interactive employees, Douglas Hare, Gary Priest, and Richard Hare, in 1997. The companys first projects were to port Men in Black, The Game Windows game to the PlayStation, the developer predominantly worked on titles of licensed movies and TV series. The Collective, Inc. created their own game engine called Slayer, first used in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in 2004, the company had grown to 90 employees. On March 29,2005, The Collective, Inc. merged with Backbone Entertainment to form their parent company, Foundation 9 Entertainment, and remain its subsidiaries. In 2007, however, Foundation 9 Entertainment relocated The Collective, Inc. to Irvine, California and merged it with Shiny Entertainment to form Double Helix Games
20.
Ubisoft Montreal
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Ubisoft Divertissements Inc. doing business as Ubisoft Montreal, is a Canadian subsidiary of the French video game developer Ubisoft, located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1997, initially developing low-profile projects, the studio is now one of the largest in the world, with over 2,700 employees. It is responsible for founding and developing, among others, games in the Prince of Persia, Far Cry and Assassins Creed series, as well as those in the Tom Clancy franchise, the studio was opened in 1997, with government funding. The parent company Ubisoft also cited Quebecs extensive French-speaking population, close relationship with France, martin Tremblay joined the studio as executive vice president in 1999, but was promoted to chief operating officer a year later. The history of Ubisoft Montreal goes back to the early 1990s, at that time, the manufacturing and textiles industries in Montreal were quickly disappearing, and therefore the political party in power at the time — the Parti Québécois — pursued new job creation. By the early 1990s, Ubisoft was trying to expand into North America and they originally planned to open a subsidiary in New Brunswick. When Quebec lobbyist Sylvain Vaugeois heard about this, he proposed to the Quebec government and he decided to have the government invest in the labour force by giving Ubisoft $25,000 per employee they hire in Montreal for the next five years, and called it Plan Mercure. When he proposed the idea to the Quebec government, it received little support because they believed the project was too expensive to fund, Sylvain Vaugeois would then go to France to meet with Ubisofts management to explain his idea. Ubisofts management team loved it, and they flew to Montreal. At that point, the media got hold of it, the PQ then had no choice but to go ahead with Plan Mercure. The Quebec government contributed $15,000 while the federal contributed $10,000 per employee, Ubisoft Montreal opened in 1997 and today employs over 2,700 employees in Montreal. The opening of Ubisoft Montreal was the first major game publisher to set up in Montreal. Other factors that led to Ubisoft to choose Montreal over New Brunswick were Montreals low rent, a highly educated French-speaking workforce, etc. setting up shop in Montreal. Ubisoft Montreals decision to set up in the Peck Building, a textiles factory in the Mile End district. With this decision, Mile End changed from a low rent area devoid of business to a hub with many young professionals. The same thing has happened in Vancouver and Toronto where video game companies moved their offices in low rent areas, initially, the studio developed childrens games such as Donald Duck, Goin Quackers and games based on the Playmobil series of toys. However, in 2000, the studio work on a game called Tom Clancys Splinter Cell. Upon its release in November 2002, Splinter Cell was met with glowing reviews, IGN called the game the best title on Xbox this year and wrote in their review that it was a game that will put the Ubi Soft Montreal development house on the map
21.
Traveller's Tales
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Travellers Tales Ltd. doing business as Travellers Tales, is a British video game developer and a subsidiary of TT Games. Travellers Tales was founded in 1989 by Jon Burton, initially a small company focused on its own content, it grew in profile through developing games with larger companies such as Sega and Disney Interactive Studios. In 1996, the company incorporated under the name Currentclass, but changed its name to Travellers Tales, doing business as Travellers Tales, from that point, Travellers Tales served as the companys development branch, while Giant Interactive Entertainment became TT Games Publishing, the publishing branch. In 2007, the company acquired another developer and an animation studio, on 8 November 2007, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced that they had purchased TT Games for an amount as part of their expansion into the video game industry. Travellers Tales started developing games with Psygnosis, which were most notable for creating 3D effects and their first game was Leander, also known as The Legend of Galahad. With Psygnosis they also did a game adaption of Bram Stokers Dracula. In recent years, they have achieved recognition based on their work on the hugely successful Lego Star Wars, the company was purchased by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment at the end of 8 November 2007, but continued to operate independently with the development of Lego Batman, The Videogame, which was released in September 2008. It was also announced during the Star Wars Celebration VI that a Lego Star Wars IV was in production, a Lego game entitled The Lego Movie Videogame was released on 7 February 2014, together with a Lego movie entitled The Lego Movie. Travellers Tales has won two BAFTAs, one for Gameplay with Lego Star Wars II, The Original Trilogy, and one for Childrens Videogame of the Year for Lego Batman, The Videogame. The company was located in a small office in Southport, Lancashire. Since 2015 the company has for a third time moved, this time to more bigger offices in London
22.
Griptonite Games
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Griptonite Games is an American video game developer located in Kirkland, Washington. It is wholly owned by Glu Mobile, but used to be a part of super-developer Foundation 9 Entertainment, no games have been developed since 2011. Steve Ettinger opened the Seattle division of Realtime Associates in February 1994, after five and a half years developing many console and handheld games, the Seattle division was acquired by KnowWonder, Inc in November 1999. Griptonites initial focus was on Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, in 2005, the Griptonite brand was retired and all games produced by the studio fell under the Amaze Entertainment brand. In 2007, Amaze Entertainment and each of its studio was acquired by Foundation 9 Entertainment. In July,2009 the Amaze Entertainment console studio was merged into Griptonite, J. C. Connors is the current studio head, while Steve Ettinger oversees the studio in his role of Studio VP at Foundation 9. On August 2,2011, Glu Mobile acquired Griptonite Games and its staff of 200 approximately doubles Glus internal development capacity. Amaze Entertainment Foundation 9 Entertainment Griptonite Games MobyGames entry on Griptonite Games
23.
Amaze Entertainment
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Amaze was founded by serial entrepreneur Dan Elenbaas and his business partners Todd Gilbertsen and David Mann. Amaze’s primary focus was licensed games based on movie franchises, comic series, Amaze grew to become one of the worlds largest independent video game developers, with nearly 300 employees in four studios. Amaze was acquired by Foundation 9 Entertainment on November 14,2006, in July 2009, Foundation 9 abandoned the Amaze Entertainment brand and renamed the Kirkland location after the former subsidiary, Griptonite Games. On August 2,2011, Glu Mobile acquired Griptonite Games and its staff of 200 approximately doubles Glus internal development capacity. Aliens Other well-known media franchises Amaze Entertainment has worked on include, raw 2008 Azurik, Rise of Perathia GameSpot. com covers news of acquisition Foundation 9 press release
24.
Petroglyph Games
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Petroglyph Games is a video game publisher and video game developer based in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Petroglyph companys founding members worked on Command & Conquer, Earth & Beyond, on March 16,2013, Petroglyph announced its cancellation of its Kickstarter campaign due to lack of interest. On March 5,2013, Petroglyph announced the launch of its Kickstarter campaign for action-strategy game Victory, Kickstarter page for Victory, Official Victory page On January 18,2013 Petroglyph launched social guessing game Coin a Phrase on Apples App Store. On August 10,2012, Petroglyph announced development of Battle for Graxia, on February 22,2011, Petroglyph announced their free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena game title, Rise of Immortals. On October 20,2010, Petroglyph announced availability of Guardians of Graxia for the PC, direct on STEAM, GamersGate, on August 2,2010, Petroglyph announced availability of all their 2010 produced board game products. On June 17,2010, Trion/Petroglyph for their End of Nations MMORTS won multiple E32010 Awards for Best Booth, Best MMO, Best RTS, on April 26,2010, Trion/Petroglyph revealed that their MMORTS is called End of Nations. On March 29,2010, Petroglyph announced Guardians of Graxia PC & Board Games, on April 27,2009, it was announced that Petroglyph would be working on a massively multiplayer online real-time strategy game with Trion World Network. On December 4,2008, True Games Interactive/Petroglyph revealed their new game is called Mytheon, on April 15,2008, Petroglyph announced that they would be working in partnership with True Games Interactive on a Free-to-Play micro-transaction based online game for the PC. On January 27,2007, Petroglyph announced their second game, Universe at War, Universe at War was released on December 10,2007. On September 12,2005, it was announced that they would be working on an original military/sci-fi RTS franchise with Sega. On November 16,2004, Petroglyph announced a project which they were working on, a new Star Wars real-time strategy game called Star Wars, Empire at War, on June 25,2004, the company moved into their own building. Petroglyph was formed on April 1,2003, Alamo Game Engine is a game engine developed by Petroglyph, used to create Star Wars, Empire at War and its expansion Forces of Corruption. A modified version of the Alamo Game Engine was used for Petroglyphs third title, Universe at War, the Alamo Game Engine features 3D gameplay and a real time strategic view of a map on which the game takes place. Official website Petroglyph Games, Inc. from MobyGames
25.
Krome Studios
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Krome Studios Pty Ltd. is an Australian video game company. Its headquarters were in Brisbane and it previously had offices in Adelaide, Krome Studios is best known for their Ty the Tasmanian Tiger games and for their reboot of the Spyro the Dragon franchise. The company was founded in 1999 by Robert Walsh, who is the current CEO, Steve Stamatiadis, the director and John Passfield. Krome has created games for the Xbox, Nintendo GameCube, Wii, Game Boy Advance, Dreamcast, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Macintosh, Krome has also developed for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation Portable, Windows Phone 7, iOS and Windows 8. Krome Studios are award winning developers, that have created 19 titles on multiple platforms and languages consisting of 40 SKUs, including Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, Krome’s own IP. Also in this year Krome Studios entered into a sharing agreement with Emergent Game Technologies. On 18 August 2010, it was reported that Krome had closed down their Adelaide studios and made significant staff cuts to their Melbourne and Brisbane offices, with as many as 100 staff let go. On 18 October 2010, it was reported that all remaining staff were let go, however, in July 2012, Krome Studios re-opened their website which remained dormant since their fall in 2010, announcing that Ty the Tasmanian Tiger would return. Since then Krome have developed two games based on Ty the Tasmanian Tiger for iOS and PC and they have also developed several other titles for iOS, including Play Maker and Whole Wide World and Toy Soldiers, Boot Camp, on Windows Phone 7
26.
Universomo
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Universomo Ltd. was a Finnish video game developer based in Tampere, Finland. It was founded in 2002, and acquired by THQ on May 9,2007, Universomo also has offices in Helsinki, Finland and San Diego, United States. Universomo is focused on games for mobile phones, the iPhone, on January 12,2010 THQ announced a Nintendo DS game Beat City developed by Universomo, marking the developers first entry to the handheld gaming market. On March 2,2010 the shutdown of the studio was announced while THQ Wireless will continue developing games with external studios, Beat City Star Wars, Cantina Dash WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 Treasure Grab Indiana Jones and the Lost Puzzles Up Prison Tycoon Star Wars, crypto Does Vegas MX vs ATV Untamed Juiced 2 Stuntman Ignition Oceans 13 Emergency Mayhem 300, The Mobile Game Lego Star Wars II Mobile Stones of Khufu Destroy All Humans. 2 Rollercoaster Rush Magic Inlay Bionicle Heroes Juiced Eliminator Bounce Out Gorillaz Entertainment System Habbo Creatures Habbo Dreams Get Rich or Die Tryin Gem Drop PileUp, Star Wars Battle Above Coruscant Stunt Plane Sumo Smash. Trails of Terror - Mutiny Kloner - Together in the Dark Bones - The First Adventure Official THQ Wireless website Official THQ website Pocket Gamers coverage on Universomo
27.
Aspyr
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Aspyr Media, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. Established in 1996, the company specializes in porting video games from Microsoft Windows to macOS, popular franchises ported under Aspyrs banner include Call of Duty, Civilization, Star Wars, The Sims 2 and Borderlands. By 2003, Aspyr owned 60 percent of the Mac entertainment market, apart from macOS and Linux, platforms Aspyr ports to range over Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, iOS, Android and Windows Mobile. In addition to the porting of games, Aspyr also offers publishing services. Aspyr has also produced and distributed several albums and documentaries, gameAgent List of games ported by Aspyr Official website
28.
Rebellion Developments
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Rebellion Developments Ltd. is an English video game developer based in Oxford, England, known for its Sniper Elite series and multiple games in the Alien vs. Predator series. Rebellion has published comic books since the year 2000, in which it purchased 2000 AD, the company launched its own book imprint, Abaddon Books, in 2006. Rebellion was established by brothers Jason and Chris Kingsley in 1991, the team was later expanded to include artists Stuart Wilson, Toby Banfield, and Justin Rae and programmers Mike Beaton, Rob Dibley, and Andrew Whittaker. This expanded team was hired initially in order to work on two Atari Jaguar titles, one of which was the high profile release Alien vs Predator. In June 2000, they bought the comic 2000 AD from Fleetway, the first commercial release, Judge Dredd, Dredd Vs. A second game was released in 2006 based on Rogue Trooper and its 2005 game Sniper Elite was awarded Best PC/Console Game in the TIGA Awards of 2005. In 2004, Rebellion entered a deal with DC Comics to reprint several 2000 AD stories in trade paperback form, including Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, Nikolai Dante, and Sinister Dexter. When DC left the venture, citing poor sales, Rebellion created its own line of American graphic novels, in 2005 Rebellion also created the Judge Dredd, The Complete Case Files series, which has begun reprinting almost every appearance of Judge Dredd in chronological order. In 2006, following the demise of Elixir Studios, Rebellion purchased all IP related to the studio, including Evil Genius and Republic, Rebellion launched their novel imprint Abaddon Books and made a number of publishing purchases. These included buying Clickwheel, which was used to digitally published 2000 AD, with archives, Rebellion was awarded the Develop Industry Excellence Award 2006 for Most Improved Studio. In August 2008, Blackfish Publishing, publisher of Death Ray magazine, in September 2008, Rebellion acquired Mongoose Publishing, who had previously published games like The Judge Dredd Roleplaying Game. In 2009, Rebellions Rogue Warrior game received poor reviews but notable titles have included Star Wars Battlefront, Renegade Squadron for the PlayStation Portable. In 2010, they developed the latest Aliens vs. Predator game, published by Sega, which received a critical reception. As of June 2011, it is the game of 2010 in the UK. Along with developing the characters for video games, Rebellion continues to publish 2000 AD as well as its sister title the Judge Dredd Megazine. In June 2009, it was announced that Rebellion had acquired the role-playing, in September 2009, Rebellion acquired Solaris Books from Games Workshop. Two games from Rebellion are being released in 2012, NeverDead, published by Konami and directed by Shinta Nojiri, and Sniper Elite V2, in July 2013, Rebellion bought the Battlezone and the Moonbase Commander franchises from the Atari bankruptcy proceedings. In 2014, a sequel to Sniper Elite V2, Sniper Elite III was released, in September 2015, Rebellion announced that the Sniper Elite series has now passed 10 million copies sold worldwide and is also celebrates its 10th anniversary this year
29.
TT Fusion
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TT Fusion Ltd. is a British video game developer and a division of TT Games. The company was acquired by TT Games in January 2007 and became TT Fusion, on 8 November 2007, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced that they had purchased TT Games for an amount as part of their expansion into the video game industry
30.
Rovio Entertainment
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Rovio Entertainment Ltd, previously known as Relude and Rovio Mobile, is a Finnish developer, publisher, distributor of video games and is an entertainment company headquartered in Espoo, Finland. The company was founded in 2003 as a game development studio named Relude. The company is best known for creating the Angry Birds franchise, a victory with a multiplayer game called King of the Cabbage World led the trio, along with Niklas Heds cousin Mikael Hed, to set up their own company, Relude. King of the Cabbage World was sold to Sumea, and renamed to Mole War, in January 2005, Relude received its first round of investment from a business angel, and the company changed its name to Rovio Mobile. In 2009, Mikael Hed became the CEO, Angry Birds has since been downloaded over 1 billion times, with paid downloads accounting for more than 25% of total downloads, making it one of the top selling games in the Apple App Store. In March 2011, Rovio raised $42 million in capital funding from Accel Partners, Atomico. In July 2011, the changed its name to Rovio Entertainment Ltd. In June 2011, the company hired David Maisel to lead their Angry Bird movie production, by October 2011, Rovio purchased Kombo, a Helsinki-based animation company. The animation studio was acquired to produce a series of videos released in 2012. In March 2012, Rovio acquired Futuremark Game Studios, the development division of benchmarking company Futuremark. In May 2012, Rovio announced that its game series Angry Birds had reached its one billionth download. In July 2012, Rovio announced a partnership with Activision to bring the first three Angry Birds titles to video game consoles and handhelds, in a collection named Angry Birds Trilogy. The title was released in September 2012, in November 2012, Rovio released Angry Birds Star Wars, an iteration of its popular game licensed from the Star Wars original trilogy, for mobile devices and PC. Rovio partnered with Activision again to port the title to video game consoles and handhelds, a sequel, Angry Birds Star Wars II, based on the Star Wars prequel trilogy, was released in September 2013. In March 2013, Rovio launched its multi-platform ToonsTV channel starting with Angry Birds Toons, as of 2013, Rovio became a video game publisher and is publishing third party games through their Rovio Stars program. In January 2014, Rovio announced that its game series Angry Birds had reached its two billionth download, in addition, it was revealed that their flagship series, Angry Birds, leaked data to third-party companies, possibly to surveillance agencies like the NSA. In retaliation, anti-NSA hackers defaced Rovios website, in May 2014, Rovio launched a new publishing arm, Rovio LVL11, to release experimental games. The first game published under Rovio LVL11 is Retry and the second is Selfie Slam, as of June 2014, Rovio considers themselves an entertainment company, not just a game company
31.
Kabam
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Kabam is an interactive entertainment company founded in 2006 and headquartered in Vancouver, BC. with offices in San Francisco, CA and Austin, Texas. The company creates, develops and publishes massively multiplayer games such as Marvel. Before expanding into gaming, Kabam established itself as an applications developer with entertainment. Kabam markets freemium games for devices, and social networking services. The companys previous investors included Alibaba, Canaan Partners, Google, MGM, Intel, Pinnacle Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Warner Bros. and others. The company has focused on developing games, or games with immersive gameplay mechanics akin to more traditional MMOs with an emphasis on the spending and gambling of virtual currency. In late 2009, Kabam launched Kingdoms of Camelot, one of the first successful strategy games on Facebook, but in June 2010, as of April 2015, Kabam announced a shift in its focus to developing AAA mobile games. In July 2015, Kabam announced that Marvel Contest of Champions hit $100 million in revenue in seven months. As of December 19,2016, Kabams Vancouver Studio was acquired by Netmarble Games, on November 2,2009 Watercooler, launched Kingdoms of Camelot on Facebook. On August 3,2010, Watercooler changed its name to Kabam, in August 2012, Wayne Chan, one of Kabams co-founders, left the company. Then on September 19,2012, CEO Kevin Chou announced that Kabam was considering an IPO, also in June, Kabam shut down servers for The Hobbit, Armies of the Third Age. Alibaba announced in July 2014 that it planned to invest $120 million in Kabam and this allowed its games to be distributed through Alibabas apps, including Mobile Taobao and the Laiwang messaging app. As of April 2015, Kabam is only focused on developing AAA mobile games, as a result, a number of Kabam games were shut down, older Kabam games transferred to other companies and Kabam support for third-party games decreased. On August 13,2015, Machine Zone, maker of Game of War, Fire Age, the conflict was resolved to both companies satisfaction a month later on September 10. In September 2015, Kabam, Disney Interactive, Lucasfilm launch Star Wars, Uprising In September 2015, Nick Earl, president of worldwide studios, mike Verdu was promoted to president of Kabam Studios and chief creative officer in charge of the publisher’s game design and game quality. Aaron Loeb was promoted to president of Kabam Studios and live services in charge of service quality, on January 7,2016, Kabam announced it had sold its legacy games and third party-published games to Chinese publisher GAEA Mobile. As the downsizing in April 2015, Kabam shut down a number of games that were not transferred. On February 22,2016, Kabam laid off 8 percent of its company workforce and that means Kabam will put less emphasis on single-player games such as Fast & Furious
32.
EA DICE
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EA Digital Illusions CE AB is a Swedish video game developer based in Stockholm. The company was founded in 1992 and has been a subsidiary of Electronic Arts since 2006 and its releases include the Battlefield series, Mirrors Edge, and Star Wars Battlefront, and it is also the main developer behind EAs Frostbite engine. DICE was founded as Digital Illusions in May 1992 in Växjö, Sweden by four people, Ulf Mandorff, Olof Gustafsson, Fredrik Liliegren, the Silents work is visible in some DICE games. For example, The Silents used the acronym TSL, this acronym is visible in Motorhead on banners, according to the Motorhead manual, TSL is said to stand for Trans-atlantic Speed League, a case of a backronym. For an extended period of time, while the employees were also students at Växjö University, during those days the company developed popular pinball games for the Amiga computers, such as Pinball Dreams, Pinball Fantasies and Pinball Illusions. The company moved to Gothenburg in 1994 where it was headquartered until 2005, in 1998, the company was registered on the Swedish stock exchange. Although Codename Eagle received a cult following, the biggest break for DICE was the release of Battlefield 1942 and its sequels. The Battlefield series jump-started their popularity, in 2004, the total value of the company was estimated at approximately US$55 million. In January 2000, the company bought Refraction Games and 90% of Synergenix Interactive and this was followed in March 2001 by the acquisition of Sandbox Studios in London, Ontario, Canada. In November 2004, Electronic Arts announced their intent to purchase all outstanding shares in DICE at a price of 61 kr per share, the board of directors of DICE recommended that the companys shareholders accept the offer. Electronic Arts owned 62% of DICE on 31 March 2005, on 2 October 2006, EA completed the acquisition for 67.75 kr per share for 2.6 million shares, for a total of 175.5 million kr. DICE was renamed to EA Digital Illusions CE, and CEO Patrick Söderlund became an EA Studio General Manager, DICE Canada, which at the time was being run by DICE co-founder Fredrik Liliegren, was closed down immediately upon acquisition. In May 2013, DICE Los Angeles was opened as a location to DICE. Several Danger Close employees were transferred to the new studio, while the team including studio manager Fredrik Loving moved from Stockholm. DICE Los Angeles had co-operated with DICE Stockholm in the development of Battlefield 4, the L. A. studio is also working on unannounced projects, built on the Frostbite 3 engine. In May 2013, DICE General Manager Karl-Magnus Troedsson said in an interview, ”There is an extreme talent pool over that we want a part of. ”Official website EA DICE at MobyGames EA DICE at DMOZ
33.
Sinclair Research
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Sinclair Research Ltd is a British consumer electronics company founded by Clive Sinclair in Cambridge. In 1980, Clive Sinclair entered the computer market with the ZX80 at £99.95. In 1982 the ZX Spectrum was released, becoming the UKs best selling computer, Sinclair Research Ltd still exists as a one-man company, continuing to market Clive Sinclairs inventions. On 25 July 1961, Clive Sinclair founded his first company, the company developed hi-fi products, radios, calculators and scientific instruments. When it became clear that Radionics was failing, Sinclair took steps to ensure that he would be able to continue to pursue his commercial goals, in February 1975, he changed the name of Ablesdeal Ltd to Westminster Mail Order Ltd. The name was changed to Sinclair Instrument Ltd in August 1975, the companys first product was a watch-like Wrist Calculator. In July 1977, Sinclair Instrument Ltd was renamed Science of Cambridge Ltd, around the same time, Ian Williamson showed Chris Curry a prototype microcomputer based on a National Semiconductor SC/MP microprocessor and parts from a Sinclair calculator. Curry was impressed and encouraged Sinclair to adopt it as a product, in June 1978, Science of Cambridge launched its MK14 microcomputer in kit form. In May 1979, Jim Westwood, Sinclairs chief engineer, designed a new microcomputer based on the Zilog Z80 microprocessor, Sinclair Instrument Ltd introduced the computer as the ZX80 in February 1980, as both a kit and ready-built. In November 1979, Science of Cambridge Ltd was renamed Sinclair Computers Ltd, in March 1981, Sinclair Computers was renamed Sinclair Research Ltd and the Sinclair ZX81 was launched. In February 1982, Timex Corporation obtained a license to manufacture, in April the ZX Spectrum was launched. In July Timex launched the TS1000 in the United States, in March 1982 Sinclair Research Ltd made an £8. 55m profit on turnover of £27. 17m, including a £383,000 government grant to develop a flat screen. In 1982 Clive Sinclair converted the Barker & Wadsworth mineral water bottling factory at 25 Willis Road, Cambridge, in January 1983 the ZX Spectrum personal computer was presented at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show. In September the Sinclair TV80 pocket television was launched, but was a commercial failure, in 1983 the company bought Milton Hall in the village of Milton, Cambridgeshire, for £2m, establishing its MetaLab research and development facility there. In late 1983 Timex decided to out of the Timex Sinclair venture which. However, Timex computers continued to be produced for years in other countries. Timex Portugal launched improved versions, the TS2048 and 2068, that also developed and launched the FDD3000. The Sinclair QL was announced on 12 January 1984, shortly before the Apple Macintosh went on sale, the QL was nowhere near as successful as Sinclairs earlier computers
34.
Atari, Inc.
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Atari, Inc. was an American video game developer and home computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. In 1966, Nolan Bushnell saw Spacewar. for the first time at the University of Utah, the resulting game, Computer Space, was released by a coin-op game company, Nutting Associates. For the first time at the University of Utah, Computer Space did not fare well commercially when it was placed in Nuttings customary market, bars. Feeling that the game was too complex for the average customer unfamiliar and unsure with the new technology. Bushnell and Ted Dabney left Nutting to form their own engineering firm, Syzygy Engineering, initially wanting to start Syzygy off with a driving game, Bushnell had concerns that it might be too complicated for the young Alcorns first game. In May 1972, Bushnell had seen a demonstration of the Magnavox Odyssey, according to Alcorn, Bushnell decided to have him produce an arcade version of the Odysseys Tennis game, which would go on to be named Pong. Atari later had to pay Magnavox a licensing fee after the latter sued Atari because of this, when they went to incorporate their firm that June, they soon found that Syzygy already existed in California. Atari was incorporated in the state of California on June 27,1972, by August 1972, the first Pong was completed. It consisted of a black and white television from Walgreens, the game hardware. It was placed in a Sunnyvale tavern by the name of Andy Capps to test its viability. When the game begun malfunctioning a few days later and Alcorn returned to fix the machine, he was met by a lineup of people waiting for the bar to open so they could play the game. On examination, the turned out to be mundane, the coin collector was filled to overflowing with quarters, and when customers tried to jam them in anyway. Though Kees relationship to Atari was discovered in 1974, Joe Keenan did such a job managing the subsidiary that he was promoted to president of Atari that same year. In 1975, Bushnell started an effort to produce a video game console that was capable of playing all four of Ataris then-current games. Development took place at an engineering lab, which initially had serious difficulties trying to produce such a machine. However, in early 1976 the now-famous MOS Technology 6502 was released, the result was the Atari 2600, released in October 1977 as the Video Computer System, one of the most successful consoles in history. Bushnell knew he had another hit on his hands. In 1976 Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications for $28 million and he departed from the division in 1979
35.
JVC
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Victor Company of Japan, Ltd, TYO,6792, usually referred to as JVC, is a Japanese international professional and consumer electronics corporation based in Yokohama. Founded in 1927, the company is best known for introducing Japans first televisions, from 1953 to 2008, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. was the majority stockholder in JVC. In 2008, JVC merged with Kenwood Corporation to create JVC Kenwood Holdings, JVC was founded in 1927 as The Victor Talking Machine Company of Japan, Limited, a subsidiary of the United States leading phonograph and record company, the Victor Talking Machine Company. In 1929 majority ownership was transferred to RCA-Victor, in the 1930s JVC produced phonographs and records. In 1932, JVC started producing radios, and in 1939 Japans first locally-made television, JVC severed relations with its foreign partners during World War II. Today the record company in Japan is known as Victor Entertainment, in 1953, JVC became majority-owned by the Panasonic Corporation. Panasonic released its ownership in 2007, in the 1960s, JVC established the Nivico brand for Delmonicos line of console televisions and stereos. In 1970, JVC marketed the Videosphere, a cathode ray tube television inside a space-helmet-shaped casing with an alarm clock at the base. In 1971, JVC introduced the first discrete system for four channel quadraphonic sound on vinyl records - CD-4 or Quadradisc, in 1975, JVC introduced the first combined portable battery-operated radio with inbuilt TV, as the model 3050. The TV was a 3-inch black-and-white cathode ray tube, one year later, JVC expanded the model to add a cassette-recorder, as the 3060, creating the worlds first boombox with radio, cassette and TV. In 1976, the first VCR to use VHS was the Victor HR-3300, JVC started selling the HR-3300 in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan on October 31,1976. Region-specific versions of the JVC HR-3300 were also distributed later on, such as the HR-3300U in the United States, in the late 1970s, JVC developed the VHS format, introducing the first VHS recorders to the consumer market in 1976 for the equivalent of US $1060. Sony, which had introduced the Betamax home videocassette tape a year earlier, became the competitor for JVCs VHS format into the 1980s. The Betamax cassette was smaller, with slightly superior quality to the VHS cassette. The two companies competed fiercely to encourage others to adopt their format, but by 1984 forty companies were using JVCs VHS format, Sony began producing VHS recorders in 1988 and after 1993 stopped making Betamax recorders for the US market. In 1979, JVC demonstrated a prototype of its high density disc system. This system was capacitance-based, like capacitance electronic disc, but the discs were grooveless with the stylus being guided by signals in the disc surface. The VHD discs were initially handled by the operator and played on a machine that looked like an audio LP turntable, development suffered numerous delays, and the product was launched in 1983 in Japan, followed by the United Kingdom in 1984, to a limited industrial market
36.
Capcom
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Capcom Co. Ltd. or Capcom, is a Japanese video game developer and publisher. Originally established in 1979, it has become an international enterprise with subsidiaries in North America, Europe. Capcoms first predecessor, I. R. M Corporation, was founded on May 30,1979 by Kenzo Tsujimoto, Tsujimoto named I. R. M after his other company Irem Corporation which he founded earlier in 1974 and remained with until 1983. In January 1989, the old affiliate company Capcom Co. Ltd. merged with Sambi Co. Ltd. resulting in the current Japanese branch. While Capcoms first product was the coin-operated Little League from July 1983, its first real video game, since then, Capcom has created 15 multi-million-selling game series, the most successful of which is Resident Evil. Capcom has been noted as the last major publisher to be committed to 2D games, the companys continued commitment to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as its platform of choice caused them to lag behind other leading publishers in developing 3D-capable arcade boards. In 1994, Capcom adapted its Street Fighter series of fighting games into a film of the same name, while commercially successful, the production received almost universal criticism. A2002 adaptation of its Resident Evil series faced similar criticism but was successful in theaters. The company sees films as a way to build sales for its video games, Capcom partnered with Nyu Media in 2011 to publish and distribute the Japanese independent games that Nyu localized into the English language. In August 27,2014, Capcom filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Koei Tecmo Games at the Osaka District Court for 980 million yen in damage, Capcom claimed Koei Tecmo Games infringed a patent it obtained in 2002 regarding play feature of the video games. Later, games developed internally used to be created by several numbered Production Studios, in addition to these internal teams, Capcom also commissions outside development studios to ensure a steady output of titles. It also has the Ueno Facility, an office in Iga. The international Capcom Group currently encompasses 15 subsidiaries in Japan, North America, Europe, affiliated companies include Koko Capcom Co. Ltd. in South Korea, Street Fighter Film, LLC in the United States, and Dellgamadas Co. Ltd. Suleputer, a marketing and music label established in cooperation with Sony Music Entertainment Intermedia in 1998, publishes CDs, DVDs. Capcom also owns numerous arcade game known as Plaza Capcom, including one in Narita, Futtsu. An annual private media summit called Captivate, renamed from Gamers Day in 2008, is used as a platform for new game. Capcom launched its Street Fighter franchise in 1987, the series of fighting games are among the most popular in their genre, and have sold over 30 million units. That same year,1987, the company introduced its Mega Man series, selling nearly 30 million units, the series serves as Capcoms flagship franchise
37.
Nintendo
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Nintendo Co. Ltd. is a Japanese multinational consumer electronics and video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. Nintendo is one of the worlds largest video game companies by market capitalization, founded on 23 September 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it originally produced handmade hanafuda playing cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small businesses, such as cab services. The word Nintendo can be translated from Japanese to English as leave luck to heaven. From 1992 until 2016, Nintendo was also the majority shareholder of Major League Baseballs Seattle Mariners, as of 31 March 2014, Nintendo has cumulative sales of over 670.43 million hardware units and 4.23 billion software units. The company has created and released some of the best-known and top-selling video game franchises, such as Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Nintendo was founded as a card company in late 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi. Based in Kyoto, Japan, the produced and marketed a playing card game called Hanafuda. The handmade cards soon became popular, and Yamauchi hired assistants to mass-produce cards to satisfy demand, in 1949, the company adopted the name Nintendo Karuta Co. Ltd. doing business as The Nintendo Playing Card Co. outside Japan. Nintendo continues to manufacture playing cards in Japan and organizes its own contract bridge tournament called the Nintendo Cup. In 1956, Hiroshi Yamauchi, grandson of Fusajiro Yamauchi, visited the U. S. to talk with the United States Playing Card Company and he found that the biggest playing card company in the world was using only a small office. Yamauchis realization that the card business had limited potential was a turning point. He then acquired the license to use Disney characters on playing cards to drive sales, in 1963, Yamauchi renamed Nintendo Playing Card Co. Ltd. to Nintendo Co. Ltd. The company then began to experiment in other areas of business using newly injected capital during the period of time between 1963 and 1968, Nintendo set up a taxi company called Daiya. However, Nintendo was forced to sell it because problems with the unions were making it too expensive to run the service. It also set up a hotel chain, a TV network. All of these ventures failed, and after the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, playing card sales dropped. In 1966, Nintendo moved into the Japanese toy industry with the Ultra Hand, Yokoi was moved from maintenance to the new Nintendo Games department as a product developer. Nintendo continued to produce toys, including the Ultra Machine, Love Tester
38.
U.S. Gold
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Gold was a British video game publisher and developer from the early 1980s through the mid-1990s, producing numerous titles on a variety of 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit platforms. They also published various reissues using the Kixx budget label, Gold was founded in Birmingham in spring 1984 by Geoff and Anne Brown as the publishing division of their software-distribution company Centresoft. Its primary purpose was to republish popular American computer games—which, the company claimed, usually had larger budgets and longer time than British games—in the UK. Brown sold them for £9.99, much lower prices than in the United States, by 1985 the company claimed to expect $6 million in annual sales. It planned to release 150 games that year from 24 American software companies, US Gold teamed up with a UK publisher, Ocean Software, based in Manchester, who were also very prolific at the time and they were responsible for the first US Gold conversions to UK formats. This arrangement proved difficult to continue as Ocean became more and more involved with their own development for their own games, Brown then decided to farm out his US Gold Development to independent UK developers and also founded his own development studios. This business plan proved to be an instant success, prompting U. S, Gold to expand by acquiring smaller developers and seeking out licences that they could commercialise. At the same time Centresoft became the largest UK games distributor with key High Street retail accounts such as Boots, the company was voted Best Software House Of The Year at the Golden Joystick Awards. The publisher continued to expand their operation well into the 1990s, however, a number of their more lucrative licensing deals, particularly one with LucasArts, fell through, threatening to affect their income. In order to consolidate their finances, they joined forces with Browns UK software distributor CentreSoft to form the CentreGold Plc Group. Internal game development studios owned by U. S, Gold were the internally formed Silicon Dreams Studio and acquired Core Design in 1994. While Core Design was wholly owned by CentreGold Plc Brown developed Tomb Raider within the US Gold publishing group at Core Design, the three-way partnership at the heart of CentreGold didnt last long, however, as the group was acquired by Eidos Interactive in April 1996. Eidos sold off CentreSoft and maintained Core Design as a developer, Silicon Dreams Studio was sold back to U. S. Gold founder Geoff Brown and became the keystone for his new development venture Geoff Brown Holdings, the last retail game to bear the U. S. Gold logo was Olympic Games, Atlanta 1996, released in June 1996 for the Sega Saturn, PlayStation, PC, Gold games awaiting publication at the time of their acquisition by Eidos were released in August 1996 with the exception of Dream Team Basketball. Dream Team Basketball was to be released on the Sony PlayStation but was cancelled, U. S. Golds release of World Cup Carnival on the C64, ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC came in 1986. The company had acquired the rights to produce the computer game of the Mexico 86 World Cup football competition well in advance of the planned release date. The game was to be developed in-house, but programming and marketing problems arose that were unable to be overcome in time for the games release, Gold acquired the rights to Artics World Cup Football, a football game that had been released a couple of years earlier
39.
Ubisoft
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Ubisoft Entertainment SA is a French multinational video game publisher, headquartered in Rennes, France. In March 1986, five brothers of the Guillemot family founded the game publisher, Ubisoft, in Carentoir. Yves Guillemot soon made deals with Electronic Arts, Sierra On-Line, by the end of the decade, Ubisoft began expanding to other markets, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. They entered the game distribution and wholesale markets, and by 1993 they had become the largest distributor of video games in France. In the early 1990s, Ubisoft initiated its in-house game development program and it later became their administrative and commercial head office, even as the company continues to register its headquarters in Rennes. Ubisoft became a traded company in 1996 and continued its expansion around the globe, opening locations in Annecy, Shanghai, Montreal. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Ubisoft committed itself to online games by supporting Uru, Ages Beyond Myst, The Matrix Online, the publisher established an online division. However, in February 2004, Ubisoft cancelled the portion of Uru. The company is noted for its teams of female game developers/testers, in March 2001, Gores Technology Group sold The Learning Companys entertainment division to them. The sale included the rights to properties such as the Myst. In July 2006, Ubisoft bought the Driver franchise from Atari for a sum of €19 million in cash for the franchise, technology rights, and most assets. In July 2008, Ubisoft made the acquisition of Hybride Technologies, in November 2008, Ubisoft acquired Massive Entertainment from Activision. In January 2013, Ubisoft acquired South Park, The Stick of Truth from THQ for $3.265 million, in December 2004, rival gaming corporation Electronic Arts purchased a 19. 9% stake in the firm, an action Ubisoft referred to as hostile on EAs part. Ubisoft announced plans in 2013 to invest $373 million into its Quebec operations over seven years, the publisher is investing in the expansion of its motion capture technologies, and consolidating its online games operations and infrastructure in Montreal. The significant investment is expected to generate 500 jobs in Quebec over a seven-year period, by 2020, the company will employ more than 3,500 staff at its studios in Montreal and Quebec City. In March 2015, the set up a Consumer Relationship Centre in Newcastle upon Tyne. The centre is intended to integrate consumer support teams and community managers, Consumer Support and Community Management teams at the CRC are operational seven days a week. In October 2015, French mass media company Vivendi bought a 6% stake in Ubisoft, in February 2016, Ubisofts Yves Guillemot and his brother asked for more Canadian investors, to help prevent a hostile takeover by Vivendi
