Psygnosis

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Psygnosis
legal form Limited Company
founding 1984
resolution 1993 (bought by Sony)
Seat Wavertree Technology Park in Liverpool , United KingdomUnited KingdomUnited Kingdom 
management Ian Hetherington, Jonathan Ellis (Founders)
Website www.worldwidestudios.net

Psygnosis Limited was established in 1984 publishers and developers of computer games . The first publications were from 1985 for the 16-bit home computers Atari ST and Amiga, which had just come onto the market . Later it was also developed for PCs and the Playstation . In 1993, Psygnosis was bought by Sony for US $ 48 million. From 2001 the company operated under the name Sony Computer Entertainment Studio Liverpool . As a developer, you have achieved your greatest success with the futuristic racing game series WipEout . In August 2012, the Sony studio was closed.

history

The beginnings

The founders of Psygnosis were Ian Hetherington and Dave Lawson , who previously worked in executive positions for the Liverpool developer imagine , which ceased operations in July 1984 due to bankruptcy. Together with investor Robert Smith , they acquired parts of the bankrupt imagine and hired some of the former imagine employees.

Jonathan Ellis was in charge of business affairs. He commissioned the artist Roger Dean , who had previously designed LP covers for Asia and Yes , to design a company logo. In addition to a lettering, Dean designed a silver owl, whose spread wings leave a circular frame and a circular, stylized owl head. The latter is one of the most famous logos in the computer game industry.

successes

The release of Shadow of the Beast in 1989 became one of the first great hits as a publisher. The game developed by Reflections Interactive had excellent graphic quality with parallax scrolling and received two successors and ports for various platforms.

With the publication of Lemmings in 1991, Psygnosis rose to the top tier of publishers. Lemmings was developed by David Jones at DMA Design and became the studio's first major success.

As a developer, Psygnosis was also very successful with Wipeout for PlayStation , Windows and Sega Saturn in 1995. The principle of the futuristic racing game went into series production and, after Psygnosi's takeover by Sony, was to be published on all future Sony video game platforms and become one of the flagships of Sony's video game consoles.

CD-ROM pioneers

Psygnosis took on a pioneering role in the production of games on CD-ROM. Substantial investments were made in this area. The results were initially only published in Japan for the multimedia computer FM-Towns introduced in 1989 , which had a CD-ROM drive as standard. After Sega supported CD-ROMs as a storage medium with the introduction of the Mega-CD extension for the 16-bit console Mega-Drive (1991, first in Japan, worldwide from 1992), a cooperation was also established here. The first titles developed for Mega-CD included Bram Stoker's Dracula , released in 1993, and the unreleased Last Action Hero .

Takeover by Sony

On May 23, 1993, Sony's New York-based Sony Electronic Publishing division announced the acquisition of Psygnosis. Sony Electronic Publishing, founded in 1991, was in charge of the market launch of Sony's first PlayStation console in the western sales regions in autumn 1995. With the takeover of Psygnosis, Sony was able to expand the in-house capacities for the development of PlayStation games and thus secure the software offer that was important at the start of sales. Psygnosis was also attractive because of the expertise they had with the CD-Rom medium. Since 2001 the studio has been run under the name Sony Computer Entertainment Studio Liverpool. In August 2012, Sony announced the closure of its development studio.

Games (selection)

As a developer

As a publisher

literature

  • Psygnosis. In: Rusel DeMaria, Johnny L. Wilson: High Score. 2nd edition, McGraw-Hill / Osborne: Emeryville, California 2004. pp. 335–336. ISBN 0-07-223172-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Steven L. Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games. Three Rivers Press / Random House 2001. p. 505. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4 .
  2. ↑ http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-03-22-wipeout-the-rise-and-fall-of-sony-studio-liverpool
  3. ↑ Konrad Lischka: Sony closes the “Lemmings” studio , spiegel.de, 23 August 2012
  4. ↑ Rusel DeMaria, Johnny L. Wilson; "High Score." 2nd edition, McGraw-Hill / Osborne: Emeryville, California, 2004. p. 335. ISBN 0-07-223172-6 . In the wording: “… The resultant owl logo became famous throughout the industry, and may, in fact, be the most appealing of any of the game company logos.”
  5. ↑ a b c Psygnosis. In: Rusel DeMaria, Johnny L. Wilson: High Score. 2nd edition, McGraw-Hill / Osborne: Emeryville, California, 2004. pp. 335–336. ISBN 0-07-223172-6 .
  6. ↑ a b Jack Schofield: Microfile. In: The Guardian, May 27, 1993, p. 17.
  7. ↑ Last Action Hero - Sega Mega CD. On: unseen64.net (accessed August 14, 2010)
  8. ↑ Notebooks. In: Consumer Electronics, Vol. 33, No. 21, May 24, 1993, page 19. - In the wording: "... Psygnosis [...] has developed 2 titles -" Bram Stoker's Dracula "and" Last Action Hero "- for Sega CD."
  9. ^ Sony Electronic Publishing Company Acquires Psygnosis. PR Newswire Association, May 23, 1993. (English)
  10. ^ Charles WL Hill, Gareth R Jones: Strategic Management. An integrated approach. 7th edition, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, New York 2007, ISBN 0-618-73166-0 . Page C131. (English) - In the wording: … [Sony Electronic Publishing] ultimately took the lead role in both the market launch of PlayStation and in developing game titles. In 1993, as part of this effort, Sony purchased a well-respected British game developer, Psygnosis.
  11. ↑ http://www.golem.de/news/psygnosis-sony-schliesst-wipeout-entwickler-1208-94013.html
  12. ↑ Commdore Horizons: Brataccas. March, 1986, p. 36 f.
  13. ↑ The Book of Games Volume 2: The Ultimate Reference on PC & Video Games. P. 59
  14. ↑ a b Psygnosis Co-Founder Speaks. Part Two. ( Memento of the original from January 3, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / uk.psx.ign.com archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. On: ign.com , June 18, 1997.