 | |
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games Poker |
| Founded | November 1994 |
| Defunct | 2011 |
| Headquarters | Umeå, Sweden |
Key people |
|
Daydream Software was a Swedish video game developer and publisher founded in 1994. In July 2006, they renamed to 24hPoker Holding AB, [1] and in 2007, to Entraction Holding AB and changed their operation to poker. [2] [3] In May 2011, they were taken over by International Game Technology. [4]
Daydream Software was established in November 1994 in Umeå, Sweden. [5] Its founding members were Jan Phersson-Broburg, Erik Phersson, Jörgen Isaksson, Nigel Papworth and Leif Holm. All but Papworth were employees of Sombrero AB, [6] a local computer services company co-founded by Isaksson and the Phersson brothers in 1993. [7] Daydream initially formed for the purpose of making Safecracker , a project conceived earlier in 1994 by Papworth and Isaksson, influenced by Myst and the board game Mastermind . The company's founders chose to make nonviolent gameplay their guiding principle in Safecracker and all future titles. Daydream soon obtained a handshake deal with publisher Warner Music Sweden for Safecracker, but this arrangement fell through shortly after. However, the Safecracker plan was revived during the 1994 Christmas party at Daydream's new office space, when the team was contacted by Warner Interactive Entertainment (WIE) about the game. [6]
Following a period of negotiations, [8] Daydream signed with WIE in March 1995, [5] [7] as part of a three-year, multi-title deal set to run until March 1998. [6] [5] Funding was provided via an advance against royalties of 2.5 million kr; Daydream was set to earn 50 kr per unit sold, while Warner retained all revenues for the first 50,000 sales of the game. [5] [9] In retrospect, Papworth felt that Daydream was "lucky" to have joined the game industry when it did, as many of "the big record companies" were entering the computer game business with low standards as to the content they financed. [10] Safecracker had a tumultuous production, starting when GT Interactive bought initial publisher Warner Interactive Europe. [8]
Daydream Software went public in late 1996. [6] [9] The company's goal was to increase its economic and decision-making freedom, and to secure the ability to select a publisher at the end of each game's development rather than at the beginning. [9] President Jans Phersson-Broburg argued that self-financing Daydream's future games with money from Swedish investors, instead of obtaining "funding linked to specific projects" from publishers, would offer the developer more stability, flexibility and room for growth. [5] For Daydream's public launch, roughly 20 million kr worth of shares, or 45.5% of the company, were offered to investors in Sweden. [9] The initial public offering was a success, [11] and Daydream opened on the Stockholm Stock Exchange's Stockholm Börsinformation (SBI) list in January 1997. [12] Daydream was eventually able to buy back the rights to Safecracker.[ citation needed ]
Their next title would be Traitors Gate (a game initially pitched to GT Interactive in 1996), an adventure game using an interface similar to Safecracker but with an espionage theme. The game was released in 1999 and (as with Safecracker) was published by DreamCatcher Interactive. The game received mostly positive reviews, [13] and proved a financial success for the company, selling over 300,000 copies. [8]
Daydream's next game was a more ambitious title called Clusterball , a futuristic sports game released in late 2000 for PC computers after a successful run as a downloadable title on Real.com. The game garnered mixed to positive reviews [14] but low sales for the company. [15]
Their next project was Ski-Doo: X-Team Racing, a snowmobile racing game. The title was released by Simon & Schuster Interactive in 2001 for PC computers. The game received little media attention.
In 2003, the company announced Campfire: Become Your Nightmare, for the Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation 2 consoles. It was dubbed as a "reverse survival horror game" (similar to Rockstar's Manhunt and 505 Games' Naughty Bear ) that put the player in the role of a serial killer on a campground. [16] The game was inspired by slasher films of the 1970s and 1980s. However, the game received little press other than a live-action trailer and concept artwork. It was cancelled in 2004 for unknown reasons. [17] The rights to Campfire were eventually sold first to Gamefederation and then to Nordic VFX Company AB in 2007 with a planned release around Halloween 2009 for mobile phones, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. [18] [19] That version was also never heared of again.
Up to 2006 Daydream Software developed and published different mobile games. In 2006 they renamed themself to 24hPoker Holding AB. [1] They moved their operations to online gambling. One year later they announced another renaming to Entraction Holding AB. [2] [3] In May 2011 they were taken over by International Game Technology. [4]
Most employees moving on to form a new development company: Resolution Interactive, which focused on iPhone games. [20] The company filed for bankruptcy in 2012. [21]
Most of Daydream Software's games were continued by other companies later.
DreamCatcher Interactive Inc. was a Canadian video game publisher founded in 1996 by Richard Wah Kan. It was best known for its adventure games. In 2006, the company became a subsidiary of JoWooD Entertainment. In 2011, the company went into administration along with its parent JoWooD and all assets were purchased by Nordic Games Holding. The DreamCatcher Interactive brand is currently being used as a publishing label for THQ Nordic.
Kinnevik AB is a Swedish investment company that was founded in 1936 by the Stenbeck, Klingspor and von Horn families.
Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment was an online gambling company, formed by the March 2011 merger of PartyGaming plc and Bwin Interactive Entertainment AG. Formerly the world's largest publicly traded online gambling firm, it was best known for its online poker room PartyPoker, World Poker Tour and its sports betting brand Bwin.
Evoke plc, formerly 888 Holdings Limited, is an international sports betting and gambling company. It owns brands such as 888casino, 888poker, 888sport, Mr Green, and William Hill. Business operations are led from its headquarters in London, alongside satellite offices in Bucharest, Ceuta, Gibraltar, Leeds, Malta, Sofia, and Tel Aviv. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Sportingbet is a British online gambling operator, owned by Entain plc. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index prior to its acquisition by GVC holdings.
Playtech plc is a gambling software development company founded in 1999. The company provides software for online casinos, online poker rooms, online bingo games, online sports betting, scratch games, mobile gaming, live dealer games and fixed-odds arcade games online. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
Urban Runner is a French produced computer game developed by Coktel Vision and published by Sierra On-line.
bwin Interactive Entertainment AG, formerly known as Betandwin, is an Austrian online betting brand acquired by Entain PLC. The group operated under international and regional licences in countries like Gibraltar, the Amerindian reserve of Kahnawake (Canada), and Belize; and Germany, Italy, Mexico, Croatia, Austria, France, and the United Kingdom in Europe. Bwin offered sports betting, poker, casino games, and soft and skill games, with most revenue coming from poker and sports betting. Bwin had over 20 million registered customers in more than 25 core markets. Competence centres were located in Vienna, Stockholm, and Gibraltar.
Clusterball is a 2000 video game featuring futuristic sport gameplay created by the Swedish Company Daydream Software and published by Strategy First, RealNetworks and Daydream Software itself.
The Agatha Christie series is a series of adventure games developed by AWE Games and published by The Adventure Company and DreamCatcher Interactive, based on the works of the English mystery writer Agatha Christie.
Boss Media AB, with its main headquarters in Växjö, Sweden, was a developer of software and systems for digitally distributed gambling entertainment. Boss Media was publicly traded on the Stockholm Stock Exchange from 1999 to 2008, when GEMed bought the company and rebranded it to GTECH Gaming.
Safecracker: The Ultimate Puzzle Adventure is a 2006 puzzle adventure game developed by Kheops Studio and published by The Adventure Company. It is the spiritual successor to Daydream Software's 1997 title Safecracker.
PokerTracker Software, LLC is the name of a poker tool software company that produces the PokerTracker line of poker tracking and analysis software. PokerTracker's software imports and parses the hand histories that poker sites create during online play and stores the resulting statistics/information about historical play into a local database library for self-analysis, and for in-game opponent analysis using a real-time Head-up display.
THQ Nordic GmbH is an Austrian video game publisher based in Vienna. Formed in 2011, it is a publishing subsidiary of Embracer Group. Originally named Nordic Games, as was the parent company, both companies were renamed THQ Nordic in August 2016 after the parent company had acquired the "THQ" trademark in 2014.
Safecracker is a 1997 puzzle adventure game developed by Daydream Software and published by GT Interactive. It casts the player as a security professional, whose goal is to infiltrate the mansion headquarters of a safe manufacturer and break into 35 of its unusual models. Each safe is guarded by a different type of puzzle, including sliding tiles, anagram codes and translations from braille. The player's progression is nonlinear: the mansion can be explored, and its safes unlocked, in multiple orders. However, the game must be completed within a 12-hour time limit.
Jonas Ödman is the Managing Member of Brown Marlin Gaming Technologies, Ltd Liability Co., a business-to-business software provider for the regulated US gambling market.
Traitors Gate is a 1999 graphic adventure game developed by Daydream Software. Set in a reproduction of the Tower of London, it follows the story of Raven, an American special agent trying to steal and replace the Crown Jewels of England to safeguard them from a rogue operative. The player assumes the role of Raven and solves puzzles within the Tower while evading the guards. Progression through the game is nonlinear and under a time limit: the player may solve certain challenges in multiple ways, but must win before 12 hours elapse.
Traitors Gate 2: Cypher is a 2003 graphic adventure game developed by Swedish studios 258 Productions AB and Data Ductus AB and published by The Adventure Company. It is the sequel to Daydream Software's game Traitors Gate.
Embracer Group AB is a Swedish video game and media holding company based in Karlstad. The company comprises 10 operative groups: Amplifier Game Invest, Asmodee, CDE Entertainment, Coffee Stain, Dark Horse Media, Deca Games, Easybrain, Freemode, Plaion, and THQ Nordic.
{{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)