Oddworld Inhabitants

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Oddworld Inhabitants

logo
legal form Incorporated
founding 1994
Seat Berkeley , California , United StatesUnited StatesUnited States 
management Sherry McKenna ( CEO )
Lorne Lanning (President)
Branch Software development
Website www.oddworld.com

Oddworld Inhabitants is an American game developer best known for the Oddworld series. The company is currently based in Berkeley , California .

history

1994–1999: early years

The Oddworld Inhabitants (German: Oddworld residents ) were founded in October 1994 as OffWorld Entertainment, Inc. by Sherry McKenna and Lorne Lanning . McKenna and Lanning previously worked as visual effects specialists for the Rhythm & Hues film studio . The reason for founding the studio was Lanning's wish to be able to create his own stories with the help of computer-generated graphics and at the same time be able to retain full creative control over the product and the brand. When he came to the conclusion in the early 1990s that both were not possible in the film industry at that time, he decided to gain a foothold in the emerging games industry. He convinced McKenna to join him after he was able to raise the necessary start-up capital of 3.5 million US dollars to set up the company with the help of investor Gary Vickers, then managing director of Creative Programming and Technology Ventures (CPTV). At Vickers' request, the company settled in San Luis Obispo (California), where the CPTV company Alexandria was also based.

Lorne Lanning and his development team set out to publish a five-part series called Quintology , which deals with the Oddworld world and its characters. The team's first game was Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee , development work began in January 1995. On September 17, 1996, investor Creative Programming and Technology Ventures, Inc. sold its 50% stake in Oddworld Inhabitants to US publisher GT Interactive , which also acquired the exclusive worldwide publishing rights for the game. Under GT Interactive, the title of the game was changed from Soul Storm to Abe's Oddysee . In 1997 the first work was finally released for PlayStation and Windows . Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee caused positive reviews from buyers due to its render optics and the innovative gameplay. The player controls the character Abe through a bizarre game world, which is inhabited by different creatures. The bizarre and at the same time innovative game principle was successful worldwide. As part of its quarterly report on February 17, 1998, GT Interactive announced the sale of one million copies of the game. In total, Abe's Oddysee has been sold 3.5 million times.

Due to the surprising sales success, a quick sequel was decided, but it was not counted to the originally planned Quintology and again included the character Abe in the lead role. The sequel Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus was released in November 1998 in Germany and, apart from a quick save function, offered only a few innovations compared to its predecessor. In the same month, on November 27, 1998, Oddworld Inhabitants also released a nearly 15-minute animated film entitled Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus: The Movie . It was put together from cutscenes from the game and some scenes specially designed for the film. This was performed by GT Interactive at the Laemmle Theaters in Los Angeles and was submitted as a nominee for Oscar nominations , but was not considered.

2000–2005: Xbox years and withdrawal from the game market

Logo for Munch's Oddysee

After Abe's Exoddus , the Oddworld Inhabitants worked on the continuation of the Quintology , which, in addition to a new 3D graphics engine, should also offer new ideas. In April 1999 Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee was announced for the PlayStation 2 . In October 2000, however, the development of the game was interrupted and continued for Microsoft's upcoming Xbox console. The abrupt platform change triggered sometimes violent reactions from customers to death threats. Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee was finally released in November 2001 as the starting title for the Xbox. With the title, Microsoft hoped to position itself as a family-friendly console and to position Munch's Oddysee as a competitor to Nintendo's Super Mario . The lack of scope for extended development due to the start of sales forced the company to cut back on game content. When it was released, the game looked partially unfinished, received muted reviews and only sold around 500,000 times. In addition, Microsoft's marketing focus shifted increasingly due to the great success of Halo . Although Microsoft ended its cooperation with Oddworld Inhabitants after the publication of Munch's Oddysee and no longer acted as publisher for the announced successor, on June 15, 2004, the group acquired the 50% stake in the company from the shareholder GT Interactive, now trading under the name Atari. At the same time, Electronic Arts acquired the publishing rights for the fourth Oddworld title.

Stranger's retaliation logo

After Munch's Oddysee left an ambivalent impression on both buyers and critics, Oddworld Inhabitants decided to invest more time in their next game. In January 2005, Oddworld: Stranger's Retribution was released for the Xbox. The game deviated from the previous game principle of the previous titles and marked a clear departure from the childish, silly atmosphere of the previous games. So you steer a nameless bounty hunter in Western style through typical Oddworld landscapes, have to fulfill orders and have weapons with live ammunition. The development was overshadowed by quarrels between Oddworld Inhabitants and Publisher Electronic Arts , among other things, the planned port to PlayStation 2 was canceled. Despite positive reviews, the game was not a financial success, instead of for reaching the breakeven necessary 1.6 million copies, only 600,000 were sold, Oddworld Inhabitants wrote losses. The development of the successor game Oddworld: The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot , announced in cooperation with Majesco Entertainment , was therefore canceled. In April 2005, Lorne Lanning announced that Oddworld Inhabitants had moved its headquarters to Berkeley and at the same time stopped working as a game developer. Instead, they want to limit themselves to the development of narrative and plot concepts and concentrate on the cinema and television sector. The reason given by Lanning was the dissatisfaction with the publisher's financing model. In October 2006, the film project Citizen Siege was announced, but it was not completed.

2010: return to the game market

In July 2010 the British development studio Just Add Water announced that it would work in close collaboration with Sherry McKenna and Lorne Lanning on new games from the Oddworld universe, on "various projects on various platforms". With Oddworld Inhabitants' return to the gaming sector, the company initially focused on re-releasing its titles via digital distribution in order to potentially use these revenues to develop a new title. After the dispute with Electronic Arts, the company has since released its own publications in order to retain full control over the brand. The first release since 2005 was the OddBoxx, a collection of all four Oddworld games, released on December 20, 2010 on the online distribution platform Steam for Windows. This represented also the first release of Munch's Oddysee and Stranger's Wrath on the PC platform. The next step was, which was acquired by Just Add Water revision of all previous titles and republishing on other platforms represents. It began with Stranger's Wrath , as it on the one hand was the youngest and, according to the company, the fastest realizable title, on the other hand because the game was based entirely on Oddworld Inhabitants' own technology. In December 2011, the HD remake of Oddworld: Stranger's Retribution was released for PlayStation 3 and on December 19, 2012 for PlayStation Vita , each as a download title on the PlayStation Network . The PC version was released on September 14, 2012 as a free upgrade to the downloadable version of the game. Also on December 19, 2012, Munch's Oddysee HD was released for PlayStation 3 via PlayStation Network .

Games

literature

  • Cathy Johnson, Daniel Wade (Eds.): The Art of Oddworld Inhabitants: The First Ten Years 1994-2004 . Ballistic Media, Mylor, South Australia 2004, ISBN 1-921002-02-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Creative Programming & Technology Ventures : CPTV Reports Second Quarter Revenues Up 129 Percent; Higher Expenses Lead to Loss Minor ( English ) In: Press Release . The Free Library. April 19, 1995. Retrieved December 25, 2012.
  2. ^ Morgan Ramsay: Gamers at Work: Stories Behind the Games People Play . Apress, New York City 2012, ISBN 978-1-4302-3351-0 .
  3. ↑ a b c Colin Rigley: The Oddysee, Exoddus, and wrath of Oddworld Inhabitants . In: New Times. San Luis Obispo County's News & Entertainment Weekly . 26, No. 20, December 15, 2011. Retrieved December 25, 2012.
  4. ↑ GT Interactive : GT Interactive enters agreement to acquire 50 percent of Offworld Entertainment; company to obtain exclusive global rights to Oddworld Inhabitants titles for all media. ( English ) In: Press release . The Free Library. September 17, 1996. Retrieved December 25, 2012.
  5. ^ The Art of Oddworld, p. 99.
  6. ^ GT Interactive : GT Interactive Reports Record Revenues For Fourth Quarter and Year. ( English ) In: Press release . The Free Library. February 17, 1998. Retrieved December 26, 2012.
  7. ↑ a b Nathan interviews Lorne Lanning again ( English ) In: OddBlog . August 2011. Retrieved December 24, 2012.
  8. ^ Greg Sewart: Interview with Lorne Lanning ( English ) In: Gaming Age . Archived from the original on January 29, 1999. Retrieved on December 24, 2012.
  9. ↑ IGN editors: Oddworld Tries for Oscars ( English ) In: IGN . News Corp . October 15, 1998. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
  10. ^ GT Interactive : For First Time, Video Games And Film Converge As Software Developer Enters `Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus' For Academy Award Consideration. ( English ) In: Press release . The Free Library. October 13, 1998. Retrieved December 17, 2012.
  11. ↑ IGN editors: Munch's Oddysee Confirmed ( English ) In: IGN . News Corp . April 20, 1999. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
  12. ↑ IGN editors: Munch and Abe Wave Goodbye to PS2 ( English ) In: IGN . News Corp . October 19, 2000. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
  13. ↑ Juan Castro: Atari Dumps Oddworld Inhabitants ( English ) In: IGN . News Corp . June 15, 2004. Retrieved December 26, 2012.
  14. ^ Douglass C. Perry: EA Signs Oddworld ( English ) In: IGN . News Corp . June 17, 2004. Retrieved December 26, 2012.
  15. ↑ a b Matt Martin: Oddworld: Spending $ 30m on games, not Ferraris and private jets ( English ) In: Gamesindustry.biz . Eurogamer Network . October 1, 2012. Retrieved December 17, 2012.
  16. ↑ David Jenkins: Oddworld Inhabitants Confirms Game Industry Exit ( English ) In: Gamasutra . UBM, plc . April 18, 2005. Retrieved December 26, 2012.
  17. ↑ Nich Maragos: Oddworld Inhabitants Downsizes For Bay Area Move ( English ) In: Gamasutra . UBM, plc . March 30, 2005. Retrieved December 26, 2012.
  18. ↑ David Jenkins: Oddworld Inhabitants Announce First Feature Film ( English ) In: Gamasutra . UBM, plc . October 30, 2006. Retrieved December 26, 2012.
  19. ^ Andrew Yoon: New Oddworld games in the works at Just Add Water ( English ) In: Joystiq . AOL . July 15, 2010. Archived from the original on November 7, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 17, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.joystiq.com
  20. ↑ Oddworld Inhabitants: Oddworld Inhabitants' OddBoxx: Steam Release Date Confirmation Aan Holiday Sale Participation ( English ) In: Press release . December 17, 2010. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
  21. ↑ Thomas Held: Oddboxx - Price of the game collection known . In: Gamona . Webguidez Entertainment. December 16, 2010. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
  22. ↑ Kris Graft: Interview: Going Back To Oddworld ( English ) In: Gamasutra . UBM, plc . September 13, 2010. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
  23. ↑ Michael Krosta: When is the remake coming? . In: 4Players . freenet AG . December 8, 2011. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
  24. ↑ Tom Sauer: Oddworld - Stranger's Retaliation HD: PS Vita version will be released in mid-December . In: Games Aktuell . Computec Media Group . December 2, 2012. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
  25. ↑ Thomas Held: HD update for PC version released . In: Gamona . Webguidez Entertainment. September 14, 2012. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
  26. ↑ Maximilian Walter: Oddworld - Munch's Oddysee HD and Stranger's Vergeltung HD appear on PSN . In: GamePro . IDG . December 14, 2012. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
Oddworld
Computer games from the Oddworld game series by Oddworld Inhabitants
Main series

Abe's Oddysee • Abe's Exoddus • Munch's Oddysee • Stranger's Retribution

Handheld offshoot

Adventures • Adventures 2 • Munch's Oddysee (GBA)