Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd. is a Japanese multinational holding company, production enterprise and entertainment conglomerate, best known for its Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Star Ocean and Kingdom Hearts role-playing video game franchises, among numerous others. Outside of video game publishing and development, it is also in the business of video games, merchandise, arcade facilities and manga publication under its Gangan Comics brand.
Firaxis Games, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Sparks, Maryland. The company was founded in May 1996 by Sid Meier, Jeff Briggs and Brian Reynolds following their departure from MicroProse, Meier's earlier venture. They were acquired by Take-Two Interactive in August 2005, and subsequently became part of the publisher's 2K label. Firaxis Games is best known for developing the Civilization and XCOM series, as well as many other games bearing Meier's name.
Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in New York City and founded by Ryan Brant in September 1993.
NCSoft Corporation is a South Korean video game developer and publisher headquartered in Pangyo, Seongnam, South Korea, primarily known for the distribution of massively multiplayer online role-playing games such as Lineage and Guild Wars.
Rebellion Developments Limited is a British video game developer based in Oxford, England. Founded by Jason and Chris Kingsley in December 1992, the company is best known for its Sniper Elite series and multiple games in the Alien vs. Predator series. Sister company Rebellion Publishing has published comic books since 2000, when it purchased 2000 AD, the publisher of characters such as Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper.
Gathering of Developers, Inc. was an American video game publisher based in New York City. Founded by Mike Wilson and associates in January 1998 and originally based in Dallas, the company was acquired by Take-Two Interactive in May 2000. Between May 2000 and March 2001, Gathering of Developers also operated a division, On Deck Interactive, which acted as their mass market label. In August 2001, Take-Two Interactive closed Gathering of Developers' Dallas headquarters and moved the label in-house, to New York City. The label was shut down in September 2004, with all assets consumed by Global Star Software.
Square Enix Limited is a British subsidiary of Japanese video game company Square Enix, acting as their European publishing arm. The company formerly owned Tomb Raider, which was in development under CentreGold in 1996, and had acquired Crystal Dynamics in 1998, among numerous other assets, until 2022. Square Enix Limited and fellow group company Square Enix Incorporated shared "Phil" Rogers as CEO and other executives from 2013 to 2022.
Ready at Dawn Studios LLC (RAD) is an American video game developer located in Irvine, California and is composed of former members of Naughty Dog and Blizzard Entertainment. Formed in 2003, the company has primarily worked on games for the PlayStation Portable (PSP), most notably the Sony Computer Entertainment intellectual property God of War and Daxter. Ready at Dawn also now has a satellite campus in Portland, Oregon to assist with future PC and console game development. The studio is now part of Oculus Studios as of June 2020.
Acclaim Studios Manchester was a British video game developer based in Manchester, England. The company was established in 1985 by Richard Kay. They were primarily known for their video games based on movie and comic licences like Marvel Comics, Cutthroat Island, Disney's Beauty and the Beast and the original titles Plok, Solstice, and its sequel Equinox.
SouthPeak Interactive Corporation, doing business as SouthPeak Games, was an American video game publisher based in Midlothian, Virginia. Founded on March 1, 1996, as a subsidiary of SAS Institute in Cary, North Carolina, it was sold and moved to Midlothian, Virginia in 2000, and became a public company in 2008. Also in 2008, the company acquired and closed Austin, Texas-based publisher Gamecock Media Group, and opened a separate digital distribution subsidiary 7Sixty in Grapevine, Texas in 2011. SouthPeak Games quietly disappeared from the public eye in July 2013.
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.
Michael S. Wilson, is an American business executive, video game producer, and film-maker. Beginning his career at DWANGO as Vice President of Development before being hired to lead marketing and publishing at id Software in 1995, Wilson has subsequently co-founded multiple independent video game publishers, including Gathering of Developers, Gamecock Media Group, Devolver Digital, Good Shepherd Entertainment, and DeepWell DTx.
Kongregate is an American web gaming portal and video game publisher. Its website features over 110,000 online games and 30+ mobile games available to the public. The company also publishes games for PC, mobile, and home consoles. It was purchased by GameStop Corporation in 2010 before being acquired by Modern Times Group MT AB in 2017.
Renegade Kid LLC was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. The studio was founded in 2007 by Gregg Hargrove and Jools Watsham, video game development veterans formerly of Iguana Entertainment. In August 2016, Hargrove and Watsham announced that they had split their operations, with the intellectual property rights distributed between each's own studios, Atooi (Watsham) and Infitizmo (Hargrove).
GamersGate AB is a Sweden-based online video game store offering electronic strategy guides and games for Windows, macOS, and Linux via direct download. It is a competitor to online video game services such as Steam, GOG.com, and Direct2Drive.
Sean Kauppinen is an American video game executive, with particular experience as a marketer, publicist and speaker on the industry worldwide. He has worked for, a number of companies including bleem!, Sony Online Entertainment, Ubisoft, and 3dfx Interactive, among others. Kauppinen is the founder and CEO of the International Digital Entertainment Agency (IDEA). Kauppinen was the marketing and public relations person for bleem!, a company that helped define the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Devolver Digital, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Austin, Texas, specializing in the publishing of indie games. The company was founded in June 2009 by Nigel Lowrie, Harry Miller, Graeme Struthers, Rick Stults, and Mike Wilson, five executives who had been involved with Gathering of Developers and Gamecock Media Group, which published games on developer-friendly terms, but due to the high cost associated with releasing retail games saw themselves acquired and dissolved by larger companies. To avoid this, Devolver Digital instead turned to digital distribution channels.
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. THQ Nordic's core portfolio comprises assets that were acquired from other developers and publishers, such as from JoWooD Entertainment and its subsidiaries DreamCatcher Interactive and The Adventure Company in 2011, THQ in 2013, and NovaLogic in 2016. THQ Nordic has acquired and established several subsidiary studios, including Black Forest Games, Bugbear Entertainment, Gunfire Games, HandyGames, Piranha Bytes, Purple Lamp and Rainbow Studios.
