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Industry | Video games |
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Founded | 1986 |
Defunct | 2005 |
Headquarters | , |
Davilex Software BV, trading as Davilex Games, was a video game developer and publisher located in Houten, Utrecht, Netherlands. A subsidiary of Davilex International, they are most well known for their Racer franchise of Racing video games.
Davilex Games was formed in 1986. The company initially released PC software including accounting and edutainment programs [1] before expanding to the video game market. Their Racer series of racing games were sold as budget titles and were top-sellers in the countries where they were sold. Autobahn Raser's sales in the German market totaled 103,000 units from January through September 1998, which made it the region's sixth-best-selling computer game during that period. [2] In February 1999, Autobahn Raser's computer version received a "Gold" award from the Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland (VUD), [3] indicating sales of at least 100,000 units across Germany, Austria and Switzerland. [4] London Racer and London Racer II, released in the United Kingdom, sold over 600,000 copies in the UK.[ citation needed ]
In April 2001, the company signed a pan-European distribution deal with Infogrames for Europe Racer. This followed an existing distribution deal the two companies held for France and Belgium. [5] A distribution deal for North America followed in November. [6]
In May 2002, the company signed a licensing deal with Universal Studios Licensing to develop and publish games based on Knight Rider , forming Devilex's debut in the licensed game realm. [7] The company expanded its licensing agreement with Universal to publish a game based on Miami Vice in January 2004. [8]
In January 2003, the company announced that it would restructure to become a publisher only and close down its internal development studio. [9]
Davilex Games ceased operations after 2005 following a string of unprofitable games and poor reception. [10] [11] [12]