History of video game companies

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This is a list of former computer and video game companies, most of whose rights and assets presently belong to a specific company. The companies listed here are organized based on acquisition history.

Contents 1 Atari, Inc. 2 Activision 3 Electronic Arts 4 Konami 5 Ubi Soft 6 Nintendo

[edit] Atari, Inc.

• Infogrames, Inc. - The game development and publishing section of Infogrames, not the holding company. Formally known as GT Interactive before being renamed.
  • Ocean Software - Former British developer and publisher famous for their licensed movie games. (Acquired by Infogrames in 1998)
    • Imagine Software - Former minor British developer, many of whose employees went on to found Psygnosis once purchased by Ocean. (Acquired by Ocean in 1984)
  • Accolade - Former developer and publisher founded by Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead. (Acquired by Infogrames in 1999)
  • Gremlin Interactive - Former British developer famous for their sports games. For a few years they owned DMA Design, most famous for their GTA and Lemmings series, but Infogrames later sold this company to Take Two. (Acquired by Infogrames in 1999)
  • GT Interactive - Former developer based in New York that formed into the current Atari, Inc. (Acquired by Infogrames in 1999)
  • Hasbro Interactive - Former developer and publisher of Hasbro, with most of the licenses and rights to produce Hasbro based games, such as Monopoly. (Acquired by Infogrames in January 2001)
    • Atari Corporation - This was purchased from JTS Corporation after a merger with Atari Corporation. (Acquired by Hasbro on February 23, 1998 and used to form Atari Interactive under Hasbro Interactive.)
      • Atari Inc. Formerly independent Atari Inc., which was owned by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, purchased by Warner in 1976. (Warner sold the Consumer Division to Tramel Technology Ltd. in 1984 who used it to form Atari Corporation).
    • Avalon Hill - Hasbro Interactive had the rights to produce video games based on the Avalon Hill and Wizards of the Coast board games once these companies had been purchased by Hasbro. (Acquired by Hasbro in 1998)
    • Spectrum HoloByte - Former developer most famous for its simulation games. It had previously bought MicroProse and then later merged the two brands together as MicroProse. (Acquired by Hasbro Interactive in 1998)
      • MicroProse - Former game developer with world famous games, such as Pirates, Civilization, and Railroad Tycoon. (Acquired by Spectrum HoloByte in 1993)
    • Wizards of the Coast - A company also owned by Hasbro that Hasbro Interactive produced games for. (Acquired by Hasbro in September 1999)
    • Game.com -
  • Shiny Entertainment - Developer of the Matrix games and Earthworm Jim, Shiny Entertainment was recently sold to Foundation 9 Entertainment (Acquired by Infogrames in 2002)

[edit] Activision

• The Disc Company - Merged in 1992, when Activision was known as Mediagenic.
• Infocom - Acquired in 1985, now defunct.
• Raven Software - Made an exclusive publishing deal in 1997 and was subsequently acquired by them.
• CentreSoft Ltd. - An independent distributor in the United Kingdom (1997).
• NBG Distribution - A German distributor (1997).
• Neversoft Entertainment - Best know for their Tony Hawk Pro Skater games (1999).
• Expert Software - Maker of Home Design 3D (1999).
• Gray Matter Interactive Studios - Partnership to develop id Software Return To Castle Wolfeinstein (2000)
• Treyarch Invention LLC (2001)
• Z-Axis -the studio behind Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX (2002)
• Luxoflux Corporation (2002)
• Infinity Ward - Formed by 22 of those who worked on Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault. (2003)
• Shaba Games LLC (2003)
• Vicarious Visions (2005)
• Toys for Bob (2005)
• Beenox (2005)
• RedOctane - The publisher of the Guitar Hero franchise (2006).

[edit] Electronic Arts

• Electronic Arts
  • Maxis - founded by Jeff Braun and Will Wright - best known for their "sim" games
  • Pogo.com
  • Origin - Former Game studio/publishing company founded by Richard Garriott and Robert Garriott in order to publish the Ultima series of games
  • Westwood Studios
  • Bullfrog
  • Phenomic - Former German developer known for the Spellforce games. (Acquired by Electronic Arts in 2006)
  • Headgate Studios - Wii only development studio
  • VG Holding Corp - Was sold by Elevation Partners to Electronic Arts in January 2008
    • Pandemic Studios
    • Bioware

[edit] Konami

• Hudson Soft

[edit] Ubi Soft

• Ubi Soft
  • Red Storm Entertainment - Founded in 1996 by Tom Clancy and Doug Littlejohns. (Acquired n 2000)
  • Blue Byte
  • Wolfpack Studios -Developers of fantasy MMORPG Shadowbane. Bought in February 2004 and shut down in 2006. It then reopended independently as Stray Bullet Games, no longer attached to UbiSoft.
  • Part of MC2-Microïds (Canada) (March 2005)
  • 80 members of Driver developer Reflections Interactive (2006)
  • Sunflowers Interactive Entertainment Software (2007)

[edit] Nintendo

• Intelligent Systems - founded by former members of Nintendo's Research and Development 1 team in 1986, but they are still a first party developer for Nintendo. Known for the Fire Emblem and Paper Mario series' of games
• Rare, Ltd - former second party developer (1994 - 2002), now a first party developer for Microsoft.
• HAL Laboratory - Founded in 1980 - now a second party developer for Nintendo, responsible for the Kirby Series of games and the Super Smash Bros. Series of games
• Retro Studios - founded in 1998, now a first party developer for Nintendo
• Camelot Software Planning - split from Sega in 1993, but maintained its financing from them. Sega dropped their financing arrangements after the failure of the Sega Saturn, they are now a second party developer for Nintendo.
• Brownie Brown - Founded by former members of Square in 2000.
• Monolith Soft - Founded by former members of Square in 1998, initially financed by Namco, but Namco sold their interests to Nintendo, making Monolith soft a first party developer to Nintendo.