Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment is a PC game developer and publisher. Since its release of Warcraft in 1994, it has been one of the most successful game development studios in the world. Its headquarters are based in Irvine, California. The company has a history of largely overshooting release dates. However, many Blizzard fans see this as somewhat of a blessing in disguise, as Blizzard has a reputation for producing classic games that are played for years to come. Blizzard also has a reputation for taking fierce legal action against anyone who reverse engineers their software, copies their game concepts, or publishes third-party server software that is compatible with their games.

Overview

Blizzard Entertainment was founded in February, 1991 as Silicon & Synapse by Mike Morhaime, Allen Adham and Frank Pearce. The company developed games like Rock & Roll Racing and The Lost Vikings (published by Interplay Productions). In 1994, the company briefly changed its name to Chaos Studios, before finally settling on Blizzard Entertainment after it was discovered that another company with the Chaos name already existed. That same year, they were acquired by distributor Davidson & Associates for under $10 million. Shortly thereafter, Blizzard shipped their breakthrough hit Warcraft.

Blizzard has changed hands several times since then: Davidson was acquired by a timeshare company called CUC International in 1996; CUC then merged with a hotel, real-estate, and car-rental franchiser called HFS Corporation to form Cendant Software, in 1997. In 1998 it became apparent that CUC had engaged in accounting fraud for years before the merger; Cendant's stock lost 80% of its value over the next six months in the ensuing widely discussed accounting scandal. The company sold its consumer software operations, including Blizzard, to French publisher Havas in 1998, the same year Havas was purchased by Vivendi. Blizzard is now part of the VU Games group of Vivendi Universal.

In 1996, Blizzard acquired Condor Games, which had been working on the game Diablo for Blizzard at the time. Condor was renamed Blizzard North, and has since developed hit games Diablo, Diablo II, and its expansion pack Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. Blizzard North is located in San Mateo, California.

Blizzard launched their online gaming service Battle.net in January of 1997 with the release of their action-RPG Diablo.

On November 23, 2004, Blizzard released World of Warcraft, which has quickly grown to become one of the most popular MMORPGs in history.

On May 16, 2005, Blizzard announced the acquisition of Swingin' Ape, a console game maker, which is now Blizzard Console, currently working on Starcraft: Ghost.

On August 1, 2005, Blizzard announced the consolidation of Blizzard North into the headquarters in Irvine, California.

Titles

* The Lord of the Rings (1990) - RPG
* The Lost Vikings (1992) - platform game
* Rock & Roll Racing (1993) - racing game
* Blackthorne (1994) - fantasy platform game
* The Death and Return of Superman (1994) - side-scrolling beat 'em up
* Warcraft (1994) - fantasy real-time strategy game
* Justice League Task Force (1995) - one-on-one fighting game
* The Lost Vikings II (1995) - platform game
* Warcraft II (1995) - fantasy real-time strategy game
* Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal (1996) - expansion pack
* Diablo (1996) - action-oriented computer role-playing game
* Diablo: Hellfire (1997) - expansion pack (co-created by Sierra Studios)
* StarCraft (1998) - science fiction real-time strategy game
* StarCraft: Brood War (1998) - expansion pack
* Diablo II (2000) - action-oriented RPG
* Diablo II: Lord of Destruction (2001) - expansion pack
* Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (2002) - fantasy real-time strategy game
* Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne (2003) - expansion pack
* World of Warcraft (2004) - MMORPG set in the Warcraft universe

As of 2006, Blizzard is currently overseeing development on a stealth action game called StarCraft: Ghost, by Blizzard Console. It is also working on an expansion to the highly successful World of Warcraft called World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. Both games are expected to be released in December 2006.


Trivia

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

* The phrase "There is no cow level" is a running joke started by the company's game designers stemming from repeated rumors on Battle.net that a "secret cow level" existed in Diablo. The phrase "There is no cow level" was a cheat code in the original Starcraft game. In Diablo II, a cow level was made as a secret level. "There is no cow level" now also appears as a 'tip of the day' on the loading screen of World of Warcraft.
* In Blizzard's real-time strategy games (the Starcraft and Warcraft series), clicking on a character repeatedly will invoke humorous sound bites, with the most famous being the Orc Grunt's "Stop poking me!" or the Human Footman's "Are you still touching me?". Blizzard most likely took note of this, because in Warcraft III the same units said similar things such as "Why are you poking me again?" and "Poke poke poke, is that all you do?"
* In the Starcraft and Warcraft series, clicking on a "critter" repeatedly about 20 times will make it explode semi-violently.
* In Blizzard's MMORPG game (World of Warcraft), clicking on a friendly NPC repeatedly will invoke humorous sound bites, with the most famous being the gnome's "Blah blah blah blah blah."
* The Starcraft cheat "operation cwal" was formed after a group, who looked forward to the release of Starcraft and did many things to prove how much they loved Starcraft. Blizzard, noticing this group, named a cheat after them which stands for "can't wait any longer." Primarily the group wrote fan fiction about special operatives raiding the Blizzard headquarters in order to free the game.
* The games Starcraft and Warcraft are rumored to be based on the table top game "Warhammer" and "Warhammer 40,000", it is rumored that Warcraft was supposed to be a Warhammer PC game in development but a fall out between Gamesworkshop and Blizzard occured. One link to this rumor can be found in Warcraft III; if a griffon rider is repeatedly clicked, he would eventually say "This Warhammer cost me 40K."
* The three founders of the company are UCLA graduates. This is likely the reason why typing in "UCLA" as a cheat code in Warcraft II causes the words "Go Bruins!" to be displayed on the screen.

Bitmap Brothers

Bitmap Brothers is a UK based video game developer. It was founded in 1987 and entered the industry in 1988 with the scrolling shooter Xenon. They quickly followed with the classic Speedball. Bitmap Brothers released several games on the Amiga and was one of the most successful companies on that platform. Their PC games have never matched the sales of their previous Amiga titles. Since 2002, the company has released ports of several of its most popular games for both the Gameboy Advance and Pocket PC platforms.

Bitmap Brothers is based in Wapping, East London and is privately owned. Its current MD is Mike Montgomery.

Before becoming publisher of its own games, early Bitmap Brothers titles were distributed by Image Works and Konami.

itles
Screenshot Cadaver: "The last supper"
Enlarge
Screenshot Cadaver: "The last supper"
Xenon II (Atari ST)
Enlarge
Xenon II (Atari ST)

(in chronological order)

* Xenon (1988)
* Speedball (1988)
* Xenon II: Megablast (1989)
* Cadaver
* Gods
* Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe
* Magic Pockets
* The Chaos Engine
* The Chaos Engine 2
* Z (1996)
* Z: Steel Soldiers (2001)
* Speedball Arena (cancelled)
* World War II: Frontline Command (2003)

Big Huge Games

Big Huge Games is a computer game developer founded in February of 2000 by four veteran game industry developers: Tim Train, David Inscore, Jason Coleman, and Brian Reynolds. These founding partners, who together have brought strategy gamers such classic hits as Civilization II, Colonization, and Alpha Centauri, share a common vision which they believe will enable them to surpass even these outstanding achievements.

Organized to create top quality strategy games, Big Huge Games emphasizes excellence in all aspects of game development: game design, artwork, technology, and production values alike.

Dedicated to the principle that truly fun and successful games can be created only by talented individuals who not only excel in their specialty but who truly love their product, Big Huge Games employs a staff of 35 designers, artists, programmers and other professionals with a mission to aim always for the brass ring.

Big Huge Games' first release, Rise of Nations, was released in May of 2003 to widespread critical and commercial acclaim. Their next game, Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends is currently in development and slated for release in Spring of 2006.

Atari

Atari, Inc. NASDAQ: ATAR is a majority owned subsidiary of Infogrames Entertainment SA (IESA), encompassing its North American operations. Atari develops, publishes and distributes games for all major video game consoles, as well as for the personal computer, and is currently one of the largest third-party publishers of video games in the United States.

The company that currently bears the Atari name was founded in 1993 under the name GT Interactive. GT Interactive was acquired by IESA in 1999 and renamed Infogrames, Inc. Infogrames acquired the Atari brand name from its purchase of Hasbro Interactive, which in turn had acquired it from JTS Corporation, which the original Atari had merged with in 1996. Infogrames, Inc. intermittently used the Atari name as a brand name for selected titles before IESA official changed the subsidiary's name to Atari, Inc. in 2003.

The original Atari was a pioneer in arcade games, home video game consoles, and personal computers, and its dominance in those areas made it the major force in the computer entertainment industry in the early to mid-1980s. The brand has also been used at various times by Atari Games, a separate company split off in 1984.

The name of the three-pronged Atari logo is "Fuji".

Activision

Activision, Inc. NASDAQ: ATVI was the first independent developer and distributor of computer and video games, founded on October 1, 1979. Its first products were cartridges for the Atari 2600 video console system, and it is now one of the largest, third party video game publishers in the world, second only to Electronic Arts.

History

Prior to the formation of Activision, video games were published exclusively by the makers of the systems the games were designed for. For example, Atari was the only publisher of games for the Atari 2600. This was particularly galling to the developers of the games, as they received no financial rewards for games that did well, and didn't even receive credit in the manuals. After watching a number of games turn into multi-million-dollar best sellers, a number of programmers decided they had enough and left.

Activision was the first third-party game publisher for the 2600. The company was founded by former music industry executive Jim Levy and former Atari programmers David Crane, Larry Kaplan, Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead. Atari did not credit its programmers when it released software titles, which is commonly cited as a reason the developers left. Levy took the approach of promoting game creators along with the games themselves.

The departure of the four programmers, whose titles made up more than half of Atari's cartridge sales at the time, caused legal action between the two companies which was not ultimately settled until 1982. As the market for game consoles started to decline, Activision branched out, producing game titles for home computers as well, and acquiring smaller publishers.

In 1982, Activision released Pitfall!, which is considered by many to be the first platform game as well as the best selling title on the 2600. Although the team's technical prowess had already been proven, it was Pitfall! that turned them into a huge success. This not only resulted in a legion of clones, including stand-up arcade games, but can be said to have launched the entire platform genre which became a major part of video games through the 1980s.

In 1985, Activision merged with struggling text adventure pioneer Infocom. Jim Levy was a big fan of Infocom's titles and wanted Infocom to remain solvent. However, about six months after the "InfoWedding", Bruce Davis took over as CEO of Activision. Davis was against the merger from the start and was heavy-handed in management of them. He also forced marketing changes on Infocom which caused sales of their games to plummet. Eventually, in 1989, after several years of losses, Activision closed down the Infocom studios in Cambridge, Massachusetts extending to only 11 of the 26 employees an offer to relocate to Activision's headquarters in Silicon Valley; five did.

In 1988 Activision started to get involved in other types of software besides video games, such as business applications. As a result, Activision changed its corporate name to Mediagenic in order to have a name that would globally represent all its fields of activities.(Mediagenic is often mistaken to be a company that purchased Activision but in reality it was only Activision with a different name). Despite this change, Mediagenic continued to largely use the Activision brand on its video games of the various platforms it was publishing for, notably the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Sega Master System, the Atari 7800, Commodore 64 and Amiga. The decision of the company to get involved in various fields at the expense of video gaming proved to be a move so bad that in 1992 Mediagenic filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The first Activision was "dead".


The new Activision

The failure of Mediagenic resulted in a reorganization and merger with The Disc Company with Mediagenic again being the acquirer. After emerging from bankruptcy, Mediagenic officially changed its entity name back to Activision in the state of Delaware on December 1992. At that point Activision moved its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Southern California. While emerging from bankruptcy, it continued to develop games for PCs and video game consoles and resumed making strategic acquisitions. Activision chose from then on to only concentrate itself in video gaming and nothing else.

In 1991 Activision packaged 20 of Infocom's past games into a CD-ROM collection called The Lost Treasures of Infocom sans most of the "feelies" Infocom was famous for. The success of this compilation led to the 1992 release of 11 more Infocom titles in The Lost Treasures of Infocom II.

In 2003, Activision, along with several other game software publishers, was investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for its accounting practices, namely the use of the "return reserve" to allegedly smooth quarterly results.

In 2004, the company marked its 25th anniversary, and stated that it had posted record earnings and the twelfth consecutive year of revenue growth.


Notable published titles

* The Movies
* Apocalypse
* Asteroids (1998 version based on the classic)
* Battlezone (computer game)
* Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing
* Call of Duty
* Call of Duty: United Offensive
* Call of Duty: Finest Hour
* Call of Duty 2
* Call of Duty 2: Big Red One
* Civilization: Call to Power
* Call to Power II
* Draw Plus (for the Apple IIGS)
* Dark Reign
* Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX
* Doom 3
* GBA Championship Basketball: Two on Two
* Ghostbusters
* Grand Prix (for the Atari 2600)
* Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball
* Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball MAX'D
* GUN (2005)
* Hacker
* Hacker II: The Doomsday Papers
* Heretic II
* HeXen II
* Intellivision Classic Games
* Interstate '76
* Interstate '82
* Kaboom! (for the Atari 2600)
* Keystone Kapers (for the Atari 2600)
* List Plus (for the Apple IIGS)
* Little Computer People
* Lost Kingdoms
* Lost Kingdoms II
* Madagascar
* Manhole, The (1992 re-release)
* Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX
* Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2
* MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat
* MechWarrior 2: Ghost Bear's Legacy
* Music Studio
* Minority Report: Everybody Runs
* Nightmare Creatures
* Nightmare Creatures II
* Paintworks Plus (for the Apple IIGS)
* Paintworks Gold (for the Apple IIGS)
* Pitfall! (for the Atari 2600)
* Pitfall II: Lost Caverns
* Plaque Attack (for the Atari 2600)
* Power Move Pro Wrestling
* Quake
* Quake II
* Quake III Arena
* Quake 4
* Return to Castle Wolfenstein
* River Raid (1982)
* Rome: Total War
* Shanghai
* Shrek 2
* Soldier of Fortune
* Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix
* Spider-Man: The Movie
* Spider-Man 2: The Movie
* Spycraft: The Great Game
* Star Trek: Armada
* Star Trek: Armada II
* Star Trek: Away Team
* Star Trek: Bridge Commander
* Star Trek: Voyager Elite Force
* Star Trek: Elite Force II
* Star Trek: Starfleet Command 3
* Tass Times In Tonetown
* Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
* Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
* Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
* Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4
* Tony Hawk's Underground
* Tony Hawk's Underground 2
* Tony Hawk's American Wasteland
* True Crime: Streets of LA
* True Crime: New York City
* Vigilante 8
* Vigilante_8:_Second_Offense
* Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
* Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption
* Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
* World Series of Poker (2005)
* Writer's Choice Elite (for the Apple IIGS)
* Zork Grand Inquisitor (1997)
* Zork: Nemesis (1996)

Acclaim Entertainment

Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. was a video game developer and publisher. It developed, published, marketed and distributed interactive entertainment software for a variety of hardware platforms, including Nintendo's Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Sony's PlayStation 2, Microsoft's Xbox, and Nintendo's GameCube and Game Boy Advance and, to a lesser extent, personal computer systems.

History

Acclaim was founded in 1987 as a Delaware corporation, and maintained operations in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Australia and Japan. As they grew they purchased some independent studios, including Iguana Entertainment of Austin, Texas, and Sculptured Software of Salt Lake City, Utah

Many of Acclaim's products were licensed titles: games based on comics, television series (including wrestling shows) and movies. They were also responsible for the ports of many of Midway Games' arcade games in the early-to-mid 1990s, including the Mortal Kombat series. They also published some games from other companies that at the time of publishment didn't have an American branch, such as Rare's Wizards and Warriors, Technos Japan's Double Dragon II and Taito's Bust-A-Move series.

The waning of the arcade game industry, coupled with some poor sales from several key titles led to the eventual loss of many of their licenses. One result of this was their late refactoring of the Dave Mirra's Freestyle BMX series. Late into development, nude and semi-nude content (e.g. full motion video of strippers and nude female riders) was added in hopes of boosting sales. However, like most of their other contemporary titles, BMX XXX sold poorly and was derided for its trashy content and poor gameplay.

A less significant aspect of Acclaim's business was the development and publication of strategy guides relating to their software products and the issuance of "special edition" comic magazines, via Acclaim Comics, to support the more lucrative brand names.

Acclaim suffered severe financial problems in 2004, the result of most of their video and computer game titles selling very poorly. This resulted in the closure of Acclaim Studios Cheltenham and Acclaim Studios Manchester in England and other places and their filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, leaving many employees unpaid.

On 1 September 2004, Acclaim filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of New York, which will virtually annihilate their company in liquidating all possible assets to pay off their enormous debt which reportedly tops $100 million.

An attempt to rescue the Cheltenham and Manchester studios (under the working name of Exclaim) failed due to legal wrangling over IP, with both the US and UK administrators claiming rights.

Amongst the titles under development at the UK studios were Emergency Mayhem, Made Man and 100 Bullets.

In December 2005, GameSpot reported that former Activision executive Howard Marks has purchased the name "Acclaim Games" for a reported $100,000 back when Acclaim filed for bankruptcy and will form a new gaming company. According to a job listing for the company, Acclaim Games will "be the first US major brand to bring some of the most successful online games in the world, specifically designed to meet the community and multiplayer experience that the 36 million U.S. tweens and the 41 million European tweens want."


Acclaim's labels

* Acclaim
* LJN (used since the late '80s until 1994, revived briefly in 2000)
* Flying Edge (distributed Acclaim's games for Sega's systems until 1994)
* Arena Entertainment (acquired from Mirrorsoft in 1991, they also distributed Acclaim's games for Sega's systems until 1994)
* Acclaim Sports
* AKA Acclaim (Athletes Kick Ass)



Game titles

* Armorines: Project Swarm PS, N64, GBC
* Aggressive Inline PS2, Xbox, GameCube
* BMX XXX Xbox, GameCube
* Burnout PS2, Xbox, GameCube
* Constructor PC
* D PS, Saturn, 3D0, PC
* ECW Anarchy Rulz Dreamcast, PS
* ECW Hardcore Revolution Dreamcast, PS, N64, GBC
* Fantastic Four PS
* Juiced PS2, Xbox, GameCube
* Jupiter Strike PS
* Legends of Wrestling PS2, Xbox, GameCube
* Legends of Wrestling II PS2, Xbox, GameCube
* Marvel's X-Men NES
* Machines PC
* Re-volt Dreamcast, PS, N64, PC
* Shadowman Dreamcast, N64, PS, PC
* Shadowman: 2econd Coming PS2
* Showdown: Legends of Wrestling PS2, Xbox
* South Park PS, N64, PC
* South Park Rally PS, N64, PC, Dreamcast
* South Park: Chef's Luv Shack PS, N64, PC, Dreamcast
* Space Jam PS, Saturn, PC
* Summer Heat Beach Volleyball PS2
* The Simpsons: Bart and the Beanstalk GB
* The Simpsons: Bart Meets Radioactive Man NES
* The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants NES, Master System
* The Simpsons: Bart vs. the World NES
* The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Juggernauts GB
* The Simpsons: Bart's Nightmare SNES, Genesis
* The Simpsons: Virutal Bart SNES, Genesis
* Turok: Dinosaur Hunter N64, PC
* Turok 2: Seeds of Evil N64, GBC
* Turok 3: Shadows of Oblivion N64
* Turok: Rage Wars N64, GBC
* Turok: Evolution PS2, Xbox, GameCube
* WWF In Your House PS
* WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game SNES, Genesis, Saturn, Arcade, PS
* WWF War Zone PS, N64
* WWF Attitude PS, N64
* Vexx PS2, Xbox, GameCube