GameTek was an American video game publisher based in North Miami Beach, Florida, [1] known for publishing video game adaptations of game shows in the late 1980s and early 1990s. GameTek was a trade name for IJE, the owner of electronic publishing rights to Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune . [2] Originally, IJE licensed these titles to ShareData of Chandler, Arizona; however, when IJE saw ShareData's success with the titles, IJE decided to publish the titles themselves, resulting in the founding of GameTek. [3]
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After establishing distribution for the game show titles, GameTek expanded by licensing European titles for the North American market, including Frontier: Elite II and The Humans . In 1991, they attempted to launch the InfoGenius Systems franchise for the Game Boy. [4] In 1994, the company made a deal to purchase game developer Malibu Interactive from Malibu Comics and renamed to Padded Cell Studios. [5]
In 1996, GameTek scaled down its publishing activities, turning most of that aspect of its business over to Philips. [6] GameTek filed for bankruptcy in December 1997, [7] [8] citing development delays and disappointing sales, [9] and went out of business in July 1998. Most of the company's assets were acquired by Take-Two Interactive in 1997. [10]
