Empire Interactive
| Empire Interactive | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Limited |
| founding | 1987 |
| resolution | 2009 |
| Reason for dissolution | insolvency |
| Seat | London , UK |
| management | Ian Higgins |
| Website | www.empireinteractive.com ( Memento from February 7, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) |
Empire Interactive was a British developer and publisher of video games. The company was founded in 1987. In the course of its history it acted as a publisher for numerous smaller studios and took over quite a few of them. Some of the more well-known titles that Empire released include the early FlatOut titles.
Due to severe financial problems, the company was dissolved on May 4, 2009 and large parts of the company's inventory were sold to the American company Zoo Games .
history
Empire Interactive was founded in 1987 by Ian Higgins and Simon Jeffrey in the UK under the name Empire Software . The company initially focused on MS-DOS and Windows games. In 1989 the company developed the Empire Interactive brand , under which most of the new titles were published. Until 1994, however, the old name was still used in some cases.
The company had offices in every major region for the video game market. Countries in which a studio or a sales office was located were, for example, Germany, Spain, Italy, Australia and South Africa. In the USA a subsidiary operated under the name Empire Interactive Inc. However, research and development took place in the central studio in London. However, the company also bought numerous studios, such as the British Razorworks .
To reissue older titles, Empire launched several brands. The first of its kind was called Fair Games and was used in the 1990s. From 2000 the company used the label Xplosiv .
In 2006 Empire was bought by Silverstar Holdings, a UK finance company. In 2008 founder Ian Higgins, who served as CEO of Empire, left the company. In the same year, the company announced cost-cutting measures in which around 30% of employees were to be laid off. A year later, the company filed for bankruptcy and was closed. The British studio was dissolved and the rights to all brands were acquired by the American company New World IP. New World IP then bequeathed the rights to the titles to the publisher Zoo Games.
Games
Empire Interactive was involved in the following titles, among others, mainly in the role of editor.
- Campaign
- Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller
- Double dragon
- Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
- Dreamweb
- FlatOut
- FlatOut 2
- FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage
- Ford Street Racing
- Gabriel Knight 3
- Ghost master
- Go go copter
- Hanna Barbera's Turbo Toons
- Jackass: The Game
- Harvest Moon Online
- Mashed
- Pro pinball
- Starsky & Hutch
- Starship Troopers
- Stars!
- Speedball
- Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe
- Sudden Strike 3: Arms for Victory
- The Longest Journey
- Total immersion racing
- Volfied
- Warrior Kings Battles
Web links
- Xplosiv website ( Memento from February 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ^ Trey Walker: Empire Interactive Acquires Razorworks. GameSpot, November 21, 2000, accessed October 6, 2014 .
- ↑ a b Company Brief. giantbomb.com, accessed October 6, 2014 .
- ↑ Johannes Jöcker: Empire Interactive closes the gates. In: www.computerbild.de. Computer image, accessed October 6, 2014 .
- ^ Kris Graft: Zoo Publishing Picks Up Empire Slate. In: www.gamasutra.com. gamasutra.com, May 7, 2009, accessed October 3, 2014 .
- ^ Game Publisher - Empire Interactive. GameStar, accessed October 6, 2014 .