KingsIsle Entertainment

Last updated

KingsIsle Entertainment, Inc.
Company type Private
Industry Video games
FoundedJanuary 2005;19 years ago (2005-01) in Plano, Texas, US
FounderElie Akilian
Headquarters
Round Rock, Texas
,
US
Products
Number of employees
>120 (2024)
Parent Media and Games Invest (2021–present)
Website kingsisle.com

KingsIsle Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Round Rock, Texas. Founded in January 2005 by Elie Akilian, the company operates a development studio in Round Rock, Texas, which hosts the majority of its staff. KingsIsle is best known for its massively multiplayer online role-playing games, Wizard101 and Pirate101 . After Media and Games Invest acquired KingsIsle in January 2021, Akilian spun off the mobile games segment as Wimo Games.

Contents

History

KingsIsle Entertainment was founded in January 2005 by Elie Akilian. [1] Inspired by his teenage son, who was a fan of video games, Akilian established KingsIsle in Plano, Texas, [2] and started hiring former employees of id Software and Ubisoft to work on what would become Wizard101 . [1] To do so, Akilian used funds generated from the 2004 sale of his communications software company Inet Technologies to Tektronix for US$325 million. [1] [3] J. Todd Coleman, who had sold his company, Wolfpack Studios, to Ubisoft in 2004, joined KingsIsle in December 2007 after being introduced to Akilian through mutual contacts. [4] Coleman became the company's third employee and the first to be located in Austin, Texas, where he was joined by former Wolfpack Studios co-founder Josef Hall shortly after. [4]

On April 25, 2008, KingsIsle formally announced its existence after "three years of lock down secrecy". [5] At this point, the company had 100 employees in Plano and Austin, and was run by Akilian as chairman and chief executive officer, and David Nichols, formerly of Midway Games, as president. [6] [7] For the company's first project, Wizard101, Coleman headed the development, while Tom Hall, the co-founder of id Software and Ion Storm, served as creative director. [6] [8] Later that year, KingsIsle released Wizard101 as a card-battling massively multiplayer online role-playing game aimed towards children and teenagers, in which players take on the role of student witches and wizards in a fantasy world. [1] In September 2012, Wizard101 had over 30 million registered users. [1]

To accommodate the growth of its Austin studio, KingsIsle leased 18,000 square feet of office space in the Domain 5 building of Austin's The Domain complex in December 2008. [9] [10] In February 2010, KingsIsle released WizardBlox, a free game based on the Sorcery Stones mini-game from Wizard101, for iOS. [11] By September 2010, Austin hosted the majority of KingsIsle's 120 staff. [2] The employee count rose to 135 by February 2011, [12] and to 220 by August 2012. [13]

In October 2012, KingsIsle released its second online game, Pirate101 , which takes place within the same universe as Wizard101. [14] [15] The following November, KingsIsle released Grub Guardian, a tower defense game where players defend their towers with guard animals. [16] Grub Guardian was released on iOS, as well as for personal computers and Android devices as a browser game, [17] and later as a native Android application. [18]

In January 2013, Coleman announced his departure from KingsIsle. [19] In 2014, Tyler, Texas-based company Smartflash LLC sued KingsIsle, alongside Apple Inc., Game Circus, and Robot Entertainment, for infringement on three patents filed by Smartflash's founder and part-owner, Patrick Racz, that related to digital distribution of game content, primarily in-app purchases. [20] All defendants, except for Apple, were dismissed from the case later that same year under undisclosed circumstances. [20] It is believed that the companies either settled out of court or had their liabilities absorbed by Apple. [20]

On May 12, 2016, KingsIsle laid off 72 employees from its Austin studio, citing the cancellation of several unreleased mobile games and a shift in product strategy. [21] [22] In May 2017, KingsIsle released EverClicker for Android and iOS. [23] In September 2017, the company leased 19,871 square feet of office space at 301 Sundance Parkway in Round Rock, Texas. [24] In August 2018, KingsIsle released Animal Cove: Match 3 Adventure for Android and iOS. [25] In September 2018, Dave Rosen and Craig Beers joined KingsIsle's executive team as vice-president of marketing and vice-president of product management, respectively. [26]

In January 2021, KingsIsle was acquired by the Malta-based holding company Media and Games Invest for $126 million and further $84 million as earn-out. [27] Akilian subsequently spun off the company's mobile games segment as Wimo Games, heading it as executive chairman. [28] In December, the studio signed an economic development agreement with the Round Rock City Council to move into new 33,000 square feet (3,100 m2) headquarters in Round Rock. The new offices facilitated all of the studio's employees, including the 80 from the former Round Rock location, and aimed at employing 150 further people within three years. [29]

Games developed

YearTitlePlatform(s)
2008 Wizard101 macOS, Microsoft Windows
2010WizardBlox iOS
2012 Pirate101 macOS, Microsoft Windows
Grub Guardian Android, Browser, iOS

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Jeffrey Todd Coleman is an American computer game designer and businessman. He is known for Shadowbane, released in 2003, and Wizard101, released in 2008. He was a founder of Wolfpack Studios, which was purchased by Ubisoft. He also worked at KingsIsle Entertainment in Austin, Texas. On February 1, 2013, Coleman resigned from KingsIsle Entertainment to pursue other interests. He was most recently the Creative Director of the Kickstarter-backed MMORPG Crowfall.

<i>Wizard101</i> 2008 video game

Wizard101 is a 2008 massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by KingsIsle Entertainment. Players take on the role of student wizards who must save the Spiral, the fictional universe in which the game is set, from various threats. Players battle enemies by casting spells using a variety of different weapons in a turn-based combat system, similar to collectible card games.

<i>Pirate101</i> Massively multiplayer online role-playing game by KingsIsle Entertainment

Pirate101 is a 2012 massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by KingsIsle Entertainment. It is a sister game to Wizard101, set in the same fictional universe of the “Spiral”. The player assumes the role of a pirate, who, after being rescued from a prison ship, begins searching for pieces of a map that could take them to the mythical, long-lost world of El Dorado. The player is in a race to reach it with Kane, the game’s main antagonist.

References

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