In February 1997, the company announced a video game based on Alien Resurrection for the PlayStation, Sega Saturn and PC, and two CD-ROM tie-in titles - The X-Files: Data Files, and Anastasia, based on the 1997 movie.[9] In the same month, the company announced major marketing plans for Independence Day before the game's release on March 11 in the United States, including a multi-million dollar ad campaign.[10] In April, the Fox Toons Interactive division announced the release of four more titles: Baby Felix Creativity Center, Hello Kitty Creativity Center, Danny and the Dinosaur and Frog and Toad are Friends, the latter two based on children's books.[11] In May, Fox Interactive announced the acquisition of the publishing rights to Argonaut Software's Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, and announced to showcase it at E3 1997.[12] During E3 in June, in addition to the previously announced titles, the Aliens Versus Predator title was announced for an Early 1998 release.[13] The only newly announced title at E3 that year for the publisher was Aliens Online, developed by then-fellow News Corporation subsidiary Kesmai.[14] On December 15, 1997, Fox Interactive formed a joint-venture with News Corporation's Fox Sports division and formed Fox Sports Interactive, which would be used to publish sports titles for consoles and computers. The company signed a long-term North American development agreement with Gremlin Interactive to re-name and publish some of the latter's Actua Sports titles for the North American market.[15][16][17]
On April 15, 1998, the company announced to publish Gremlin's N20: Nitrous Oxide for the US market for a June 1998 release.[18] The first two republished Actua Sports titles were also announced for the same release window - Fox Sports Soccer '99 and Fox Sports Golf '99.[19] During E3 1998, the company acquired the rights to two more Gremlin titles - Team Losi: RC Racer and Motorhead, as well as also announcing Croc 2 for PlayStation and Windows, and Virtual K'Nex for CD-ROM.[20] Other titles showcased included Aliens Versus Predator and several Fox Sports titles.[21] In August, the company announced the CD-ROM title James Cameron's Titanic Explorer, based on the movie.[22] In November 1998, the company delayed the releases of Alien Resurrection and Croc 2 to Mid-1999.[23]
In May 1999, during E3, the company announced Activision as the exclusive worldwide distributor of Fox Sports Interactive titles in Europe, Asia and Africa, excluding Japan.[24] Fox would continue to distribute and publish the titles in North America and Japan, and would not affect Electronic Arts' existing worldwide distribution deal with Fox's non-Sports titles.[25][26] During the event, the company announced Die Hard Trilogy 2 and a video game based on Planet of the Apes.,[27] in addition to Croc 2 and Fox Sports Interactive title Fox Sports Pro Baseball 2000 .[28] In July, a Game Boy Color version of Croc was announced for a Winter 1999 release window.[29] In August 1999, the company was announced to be publishing two titles from Monolith Productions: Sanity: Aiken's Artifact, and The Operative: No One Lives Forever.[30] On the same day, the company announced plans to release games for the PlayStation 2.[31] In September 1999, the company announced to support the Dreamcast, announcing versions of Croc 2 and Planet of the Apes for the system, and a game based on World's Scariest Police Chases tentatively titled World's Scariest Police Chases: Deadly Pursuit.[32][33]
On March 16, 2000, it was announced that THQ would publish the Game Boy Color version of Croc under license from Fox.[34] In April, the company's Dreamcast games would be released at the end of 2000.[35] and within the same month announced a full worldwide publishing deal with THQ for the company's Game Boy Color titles, with the additions of games based on The Simpsons, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Aliens and Croc 2 in addition to the already announced Croc title.[36] At E3 2000, in addition to several previously announced titles, the company announced Buffy the Vampire Slayer and World's Scariest Police Chases for the PlayStation, Dreamcast and Windows, and The Simpsons Wrestling and Titan AE for PlayStation.[37] Dreamcast ports of Alien Resurrection and Sanity: Aiken's Artifact were announced,[38] alongside the company's first PlayStation 2 projects, a port of The Operative: No One Lives Forever and Aliens: Colonial Marines.[39] In July 2000, the company announced a sequel to Aliens Versus Predator as part of their deal with Monolith Productions. In August 2000, the company announced that the Dreamcast port of Croc 2 would be cancelled.[40] In the same month, Unique Development Studios signed a deal to co-publish and develop a Futurama title with Fox for a 2002 release.[41] In November 2000, the company announced a King of the Hill game that was released for Windows and Macintosh.[42]
In January 2001, Fox Interactive announced they would start to focus more on development and would begin to co-publish their titles with a selection of well-known companies from then-on.[43] Activision became the first of these publishing partners, acquiring US rights to The Simpsons Wrestling[44] on March 13, and worldwide rights to World's Scariest Police Chases on April 20.[45] The company also announced a reevaluation of their Dreamcast titles following Sega's announcement to discontinue the system.,[46] Eventually, the company canceled the Dreamcast versions of Alien Resurrection and World's Scariest Police Chases, and left Planet of the Apes and Buffy the Vampire Slayer in limbo.[47] In April 2001, the company announced their plans for the Xbox, including a game based on Cops titled The Cops: Too Hot for TV, and a racing game based on The Simpsons. The already-announced Buffy the Vampire Slayer title was moved to the system as an exclusive, leaving the existing PlayStation and Dreamcast versions scrapped.[48] During E3 2001, Fox Interactive announced four titles: The Simpsons: Road Rage, Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza, Die Hard: Vendetta and No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way, in addition to the previously announced Aliens: Colonial Marines, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Cops: Too Hot for TV and the PlayStation 2 port of The Operative: No One Lives Forever. During E3 2001 the company announced that Electronic Arts would publish the Aliens, The Simpsons and Buffy titles,[49][50][51] in addition to Vivendi Universal Interactive Publishing publishing the Die Hard, Cops and the No One Lives Forever titles, which was announced a week prior to E3.[52][53] In August 2001, the company and DreamWorks SKG's consumer products division signed a 5-year publishing deal with Activision for the publication on games based on Minority Report.[54]
In March 2003, 20th Century Fox sold Fox Interactive to Vivendi Universal Games for an undisclosed amount.[57] After being purchased, the name was reduced to solely being a label for 20th Century Fox games published by Vivendi Universal Games. The label would be phased out by 2006, although Vivendi Universal continued to publish titles based on 20th Century Fox properties, with such examples including Eragon, and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. 20th Century Fox would later partner with other publishers to create games based on their properties, something which continues on to this day.
As of 2022, most of Fox Interactive's game library, which was copyrighted to 20th Century Fox, is owned by The Walt Disney Company through 20th Century Studios, while current video games based on 20th Century properties (which is owned by and operated under Disney since 2019) have been licensed out to third-party publishers on console and mobile devices.
Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one of the largest third-party video game publishers in the world and was the top United States publisher in 2016.
Sierra Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is known for pioneering the graphic adventure game genre, including the first such game, Mystery House. It is known for its graphical adventure game series King's Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest, Gabriel Knight, Leisure Suit Larry, and Quest for Glory, and as the original publisher of Valve's Half-Life series.
Alien Front Online is a 2001 video game released for the Dreamcast. It is an online version of the arcade game Alien Front, where it was bundled with the Microphone accessory. It was only released in North America.
2001 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Madden NFL 2002, NBA Live 2002, NBA 2K2, WWF Smackdown! Just Bring It, Capcom vs. SNK 2,Dead or Alive 3, Final Fantasy X, Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, Grand Theft Auto III, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Myst III: Exile, Crazy Taxi 2, SSX Tricky, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Sonic Adventure 2, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, and Virtua Fighter 4. New intellectual properties include Ace Attorney, Advance Wars,Animal Crossing, Burnout, Gothic, Black & White, Devil May Cry, Fatal Frame, Ghost Recon,Halo, Jak and Daxter, Max Payne, Oni, Onimusha: Warlords, Operation Flashpoint, Pikmin, Pro Evolution Soccer, Red Faction, Serious Sam, and Tropico.
Croc: Legend of the Gobbos is a 1997 platform video game developed by Argonaut Software and published by Fox Interactive. An early example of a 3D platform game, Croc was released for PlayStation, Sega Saturn and Windows. Taking place in the fictional setting of the Gobbo Valley, Croc: Legend of the Gobbos follows a young crocodile named Croc, who sets out to rescue his adoptive family from the evil magician Baron Dante.
Croc 2 is a 1999 platform game developed by Argonaut Software and published by Fox Interactive. The sequel to Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, it revolves around the title character going on a quest to search for his missing parents, as well as saving the Inventor Gobbo from a revived Baron Dante.
Radical Entertainment Inc. is a Canadian video game developer based in Vancouver. The studio is best known for developing The Simpsons: Hit & Run (2003), Scarface: The World Is Yours (2006), Prototype (2009) and Prototype 2 (2012), as well as entries in the Crash Bandicoot franchise. Radical Entertainment was founded in September 1991 by Rory Armes, Dave Davis, and Ian Wilkinson. It was acquired by Vivendi Games in 2005 and transferred to Activision in 2008. The studio faced significant layoffs in 2010 and 2012, with the latter causing it to cease development of original games and only support other Activision studios.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a 2000 beat 'em up game developed by GameBrains and published by THQ. Based on the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the game features Buffy Summers, who fights vampires, demons, and other supernatural entities as the Slayer. The player controls Buffy through eight side-scrolling levels, and gameplay centers on one-on-one fights with vampires.
Malice is a platform game developed by Argonaut Games and published by Mud Duck Productions in North America and Evolved Games in Europe, and was released in 2004 for the Xbox and PlayStation 2.
Vivendi Games was an American video game publisher and holding company based in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1996 as CUC Software, the publishing subsidiary of CUC International, after the latter acquired video game companies Davidson & Associates and Sierra On-Line. Between 1997 and 2001, the company switched parents and names multiple times before ending up organized under Vivendi Universal. On July 10, 2008, Vivendi Games merged with Activision to create Activision Blizzard.
Tomb Raider: Curse of the Sword is an action-adventure video game, part of the Tomb Raider series, developed by Core Design and published by Activision under license from Eidos Interactive. It was released for the Game Boy Color in 2001, and is a sequel to the first Tomb Raider for the same system. The next Tomb Raider game for a handheld system was Tomb Raider: The Prophecy for the Game Boy Advance.
Alien Resurrection is a 2000 first-person shooter video game based on the 1997 film of the same name. It was originally intended to coincide with the film's release, but was mired in development hell for several years, finally being completed and released in 2000. The game was developed by Argonaut Games and published by Fox Interactive for the PlayStation.
Jason Rubin is an American video game director, writer, and comic book creator. He is best known for the Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter series of games which were produced by Naughty Dog, the game development studio he co-founded with partner and childhood friend Andy Gavin in 1986. He was the president of THQ before its closure due to bankruptcy on January 23, 2013. Rubin is the vice president of Metaverse Content at Meta Platforms.
Universal Interactive was an American video game publisher. The company was established on January 4, 1994, and led by Skip Paul and Robert Biniaz of MCA. It was best known for producing the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro platform game franchises.
World's Scariest Police Chases is an open world action driving video game developed by Swedish company Unique Development Studios and co-published by Fox Interactive and Activision for the PlayStation in June 2001. Work on the Dreamcast, PlayStation 2 and PC versions of the game was cancelled, as well as its sequel, titled World's Scariest Police Chases 2: Code Red.
Croc is scrolling platform game for the Game Boy Color (GBC) developed by British studio Virtucraft and published on 6 June 2000 by THQ under license from Fox Interactive and Argonaut Software. It is a 2D remake of the 1997 3D platform game Croc: Legend of the Gobbos with similar gameplay. The game follows Croc, a crocodile, on a quest to save a race of furry creatures called Gobbos from the evil Baron Dante. The game received mixed reviews from critics. A second game for the GBC, Croc 2, was released in 2001, based on the 1999 game of the same title.
Croc is a video game series developed by Argonaut Software and published by Fox Interactive. It consists of two main games, plus three mobile games. A third main game was proposed but cancelled as Argonaut was "going through a rough patch", and an animated TV series based on the video game series was proposed by Fox Interactive but never came into fruition. By January 2001, the series had sold over 2.4 million copies worldwide on the PlayStation and Game Boy Color platforms.
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