Formerly | Mastertronic International Inc. (1986–1989) Virgin Mastertronic International (1989–1991) Virgin Games, Inc. (1991–1993) Virgin Interactive Entertainment, Inc. (1993–1995) Burst Studios (1995–1998) Westwood Pacific (1998–2003) |
---|---|
Company type | Subsidiary |
Industry | Video games |
Founded | 1995 |
Defunct | 2003 |
Fate | Dissolved, operation merged into EA Los Angeles |
Successor | Danger Close Games |
Headquarters | Irvine, California |
Parent | Mastertronic (1986–1988) Virgin Mastertronic (1989–1991 Virgin Interactive North America (1991–1998) Westwood Studios (1998–2003) |
EA Pacific (formerly known as first the internal American development divisions of Mastertronic and Virgin Games, then Burst Studios and Westwood Pacific) was a developer formally owned by Virgin Interactive's North American operations, and was based in Irvine, California.
The company was initially founded in 1986 as a subsidiary of Mastertronic, and Randall Masteller was the first programmer hired at the studio. [1] Masteller was later hired by Graeme Devine, who was a close friend of Masteller. [2] Over time, the company hired more employers like Darren Bartlett, David Perry and John Botti, all of these Virgin development executives had left to form their own studios. [3] [4] The development division then adopted the Burst name in 1995 as recommended by producer Neil Young. [5]
Burst Studios was beset by production problems during its early years; Virgin Interactive's president of worldwide publishing, Brett W. Sperry, commented in 1997, "The way the Burst studio was structured made a lot of sense on paper, but for a variety of reasons, it wasn't delivering product at the end of the day." [6] Burst Studios was acquired by Electronic Arts together with Westwood Studios and Virgin's North American publishing operations in August 1998. [7] The company was later renamed to Westwood Pacific, under that name, the company developed or co-developed games like Nox and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 .
It was later renamed to EA Pacific. Some actual Westwood Studios employees were still working with the studio. One of the senior modelers, who worked on Command & Conquer (1995), was part of the Command & Conquer: Generals (2003) team. [8]
EA Pacific was absorbed into EA Los Angeles in 2003. Some employees then went to Petroglyph Games.
Westwood Studios, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was founded by Brett Sperry and Louis Castle in 1985 as Brelous Software, but got changed after 2 months into Westwood Associates and was renamed to Westwood Studios when Virgin Games bought the company in 1992. The company was bought by Electronic Arts alongside Virgin Interactive's North American operations in 1998. In January 2003, it was announced that Westwood, alongside Westwood Pacific, would be merged into EA Los Angeles. The main studio location closed in March of that year.
Command & Conquer (C&C) is a real-time strategy (RTS) video game franchise created and originally developed by Westwood Studios and currently owned by Electronic Arts. The first game was one of the earliest of the RTS genre, itself based on Westwood Studios' influential strategy game Dune II and introducing trademarks followed in the rest of the series. This includes full-motion video cutscenes with an ensemble cast to progress the story, as opposed to digitally in-game rendered cutscenes. Westwood Studios was purchased by Electronic Arts in 1998 and closed down in 2003. The studio and some of its members were absorbed into EA Los Angeles, which continued development on the series.
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the designers and programmers responsible for its games as "software artists". EA published numerous games and some productivity software for personal computers, all of which were developed by external individuals or groups until 1987's Skate or Die! The company shifted toward internal game studios, often through acquisitions, such as Distinctive Software becoming EA Canada in 1991.
James Hannigan is a BAFTA Award winning composer and producer. His credits include entries in the Harry Potter, Command & Conquer, Dead Space, RuneScape, Evil Genius,EA Sports and Theme Park video game series, among numerous others. He has also scored full-cast adaptations of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman and the Audie Award winning Alien dramas (2016–2019).
Frank Klepacki is an American musician and video game composer, best known for his work on the Command & Conquer series. Having learned to play drums as a child, he joined Westwood Studios as a composer when he was 17 years old. He has scored several games there, including the Lands of Lore series, Westwood Studios' Dune games, The Legend of Kyrandia series, Blade Runner, and the Command & Conquer series. His work in Command & Conquer: Red Alert won two awards.
Avalon Interactive Group, Ltd., formerly known as Virgin Interactive Entertainment, was a British video game distributor based within Europe that formerly traded as the video game publishing and distributing division of British conglomerate the Virgin Group.
Command & Conquer: Red Alert is a real-time strategy video game in the Command & Conquer franchise, developed and published by Westwood Studios in 1996. The second game to bear the Command & Conquer title, Red Alert is the prequel to the original Command & Conquer of 1995, and takes place in the alternate early history of Command & Conquer when Allied Forces battle an aggressive Soviet Union for control over the European mainland.
Command & Conquer is a real-time strategy video game developed and published by Westwood Studios in 1995. Set in an alternate history, the game tells the story of a world war between two globalized factions: the Global Defense Initiative of the United Nations and a revolutionary militant organization called the Brotherhood of Nod, led by the mysterious Kane.
Command & Conquer: Renegade is a first- and third-person shooter video game developed by Westwood Studios and is part of the Command & Conquer series. It is the only Command & Conquer game that uses the first-person view and was the last installment in the series to be produced under Westwood Studios banner. It was released on February 26, 2002 by EA Games. The game received generally favorable reviews from critics.
Brett Sperry is an American video game designer, fine arts gallerist, and professional photographer. He is also a prominent developer of the Las Vegas arts community, where he has made significant investments in property and infrastructure, primarily in the Downtown Las Vegas area.
Joseph David Kucan is an American video game developer, director, actor, screenwriter, and casting director for various gaming companies and films. He is a resident of Las Vegas, Nevada. He is well known for his role as Kane from the Command & Conquer series.
Intelligent Games Ltd was a British video game developer based in London. The company was established in 1988 as The Intelligent Games Co. by Matthew Stibbe, who was studying at Pembroke College in Oxford. Following his graduation and the releases of 'Nam 1965–1975 and Imperium, Stibbe relocated to London in 1992, where he incorporated Intelligent Games in 1993. He hired Imperium producer Kevin Shrapnell as director of development, who aimed for the company to develop "hit-driven, brand-led" games, among them a series of PGA Tour games and a tie-in to the film Waterworld. The latter attracted Westwood Studios, which worked with Intelligent Games on Dune 2000 and expansions for Command & Conquer: Red Alert. Relocating multiple times within London, Intelligent Games grew to 65 employees by 1999. That year, Westwood was unsuccessful in acquiring Intelligent Games but inspired Stibbe to want to leave the company. He sold it to Shrapnell, Cuss, and Neil Jones in June 2000 and departed that same year. Intelligent Games continued producing games, eventually eyeing the mobile and console markets, until running out of money in 2002. The company closed and all assets were liquidated in December 2002.
The music of the Command & Conquer series consists of the soundtracks of the Command & Conquer video games, published in various soundtrack and compilation albums. C&C is a video game franchise, mostly of the real-time strategy style, developed primarily by Westwood Studios and Electronic Arts. Much of the music for the series was composed and produced by Westwood Studios' former sound director and video game music composer Frank Klepacki for the early games, with composition duties being taken on by several others following the liquidation of Westwood Studios in 2003. Klepacki returned to the series in 2008 to assist with the soundtrack for Red Alert 3.
Martin Alper was a video game designer and the former President of Virgin Interactive, once one of the largest companies in the field. Alper was a co-founder of Mastertronic, which went on to become Virgin Interactive following its acquisition by Richard Branson. He was involved with the development of Command & Conquer at Westwood Studios and Shiny Entertainment who developed The Matrix and Earthworm Jim. He was also the person who approached Westwood Studios co-founder Brett Sperry about creating Dune II. In an interview he also explained how he fired Rob Landeros and Graeme Devine so they could set-up their own company Trilobyte during the development of The 7th Guest.
Edward Del Castillo is the Founder, Executive President, and Chief Creative Officer of Liquid Entertainment.
Danger Close Games was an American video game developer based in Los Angeles. The company was founded in March 1995 as joint venture between DreamWorks SKG and Microsoft under the name DreamWorks Interactive, with studios in Redmond, Washington, and Los Angeles.
Command & Conquer is a cancelled real-time strategy video game in the Command & Conquer series. It was being developed by the now-closed video game studio Victory Games for Microsoft Windows. The game was set to use the Frostbite 3 engine and would have introduced downloadable content to the series. It was supposed to be the first game in the series to be developed by Victory Games, making them the series' third developer after Westwood Studios and EA Los Angeles. Command & Conquer would have been available exclusively on Electronic Arts' Origin distribution service.
Mark Skaggs is an American video game producer and executive. Skaggs is known for leading the team that created the Facebook game FarmVille for Zynga, leading the team that created CityVille. He served as Executive Producer and product lead for the PC real-time strategy games Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, Command & Conquer: Generals, and The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth.
Command & Conquer: Remastered Collection is a compilation of real-time strategy video games developed by Petroglyph Games and published by Electronic Arts. It is a remaster of the first two titles in the video game series Command & Conquer with rebuilt graphics, sound improvements and bonus materials. It was released on June 5, 2020, for Origin and Steam. A physical edition intended for collectors was released by Limited Run Games.