Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Video games |
Founded | January 5, 1994 [1] |
Defunct | 2011 |
Fate | Closed |
Headquarters | Ventura County, California, US |
Products | Console and personal computer games |
Left Field Productions, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Ventura, California. Founded in 1994 by industry veterans John Brandwood, Jeff Godfrey and Mike Lamb, Left Field is best known for developing the critically acclaimed Nintendo 64 game Excitebike 64 for Nintendo.
On April 23, 1998, Nintendo announced the purchase of a minority interest in Left Field Productions, allowing them to expand operations and ensuring a steady flow of exclusive content from the developer. [2] In September 2002, after months of speculation, Left Field bought out Nintendo's stake in the company, once again becoming a fully independent third-party developer. [3]
The studio closed in 2011, shortly after releasing Mayhem to mixed reviews.
Year | Title | Platforms |
---|---|---|
1995 | Slam 'N Jam '95 | 3DO |
1996 | Slam 'N Jam '96 Featuring Magic & Kareem | PlayStation, Saturn |
Slam 'N Jam | MS-DOS | |
1998 | Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside | Nintendo 64 |
1999 | Disney's Beauty and the Beast: A Board Game Adventure | Game Boy Color |
NBA 3 on 3 featuring Kobe Bryant | ||
NBA Courtside 2: Featuring Kobe Bryant | Nintendo 64 | |
2000 | 3-D Ultra Pinball: Thrillride | Game Boy Color |
Disney's The Little Mermaid II: Pinball Frenzy | ||
Excitebike 64 | Nintendo 64 (iQue) | |
2002 | Backyard Football | GameCube |
NBA Courtside 2002 | ||
2004 | MTX Mototrax | PS2, Xbox, Windows, Mac |
2005 | World Series of Poker | GameCube, PS2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox |
2006 | MTX Mototrax | PlayStation Portable |
World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions | PS2, Xbox 360, PlayStation Portable, Wii | |
Dave Mirra BMX Challenge | PlayStation Portable | |
2007 | Dave Mirra BMX Challenge | Wii |
World Series of Poker: Battle for the Bracelets | PS3, PS2, Xbox 360, PlayStation Portable | |
Nitrobike | Wii, PS2 | |
2008 | SCORE International Baja 1000 | Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii |
2009 | Battle Poker | Wii, PlayStation Portable |
2011 | Mayhem | Xbox 360, PS3 |
A GameCube version of MTX Mototrax was in the works but was later canceled as publisher Activision scaled back support for the platform.
A sequel to the Nintendo 64 game 1080° Snowboarding was in development at Left Field at one time. Development originated on the Nintendo 64 platform but was later shifted to the GameCube once Nintendo began phasing out the Nintendo 64. When Left Field separated with Nintendo in early 2002, Nintendo Software Technology took over development of the game, releasing 1080° Avalanche on December 1, 2003. It is unknown how far into production the game was when Left Field left the project, or just how much, if any, of Left Field's work is present in the final game. [4]
The Nintendo 64 (N64) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on June 23, 1996, in North America on September 29, 1996, and in Europe and Australia on March 1, 1997. The successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was the last major home console to use a ROM cartridge as its primary storage format. As a fifth-generation console, the Nintendo 64 primarily competed with Sony's PlayStation and the Sega Saturn.
The Nintendo GameCube is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, in Europe on May 3, 2002, and in Australia on May 17, 2002. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64. As a sixth-generation console, the GameCube primarily competed with Sony's PlayStation 2, Sega's Dreamcast and Microsoft's Xbox.
Shigeru Miyamoto is a Japanese video game designer, producer and game director at Nintendo, where he serves as one of its representative directors as an executive since 2002. Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential designers in video games, he is the creator of some of the most acclaimed and best-selling game franchises of all time, including Mario,The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, Star Fox and Pikmin. More than 1 billion copies of games featuring franchises created by Miyamoto have been sold.
The 64DD is a magnetic floppy disk drive peripheral for the Nintendo 64 game console developed by Nintendo. It was announced in 1995, prior to the Nintendo 64's 1996 launch, and after numerous delays was released in Japan on December 11, 1999. The "64" references both the Nintendo 64 console and the 64 MB storage capacity of the disks, and "DD" is short for "disk drive" or "dynamic drive".
Rare Limited is a British video game developer and a studio of Xbox Game Studios based in Twycross, Leicestershire. Rare's games span the platform, first-person shooter, action-adventure, fighting, and racing genres. Its most popular games include the Battletoads, Donkey Kong, and Banjo-Kazooie series, as well as games like GoldenEye 007 (1997), Perfect Dark (2000), Conker's Bad Fur Day (2001), Viva Piñata (2006), and Sea of Thieves (2018).
Excitebike is a 1984 racing video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was ported to arcades for the Nintendo VS. System later that year and Famicom Disk System in 1988. In North America, it became one of the best-selling games on the console. It is the first game in the Excite series.
Excitebike 64 is a racing video game developed by Left Field Productions and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was released on May 2, 2000 in North America, June 23 in Japan, and June 8, 2001, in Europe. It is the second installment in the Excite series, acting as a sequel to Excitebike on the NES, and is the first 3D game in the series. Many real-life dirt bike gear brands are extensively featured throughout the game, such as Bell Helmets, Alpinestars and No Fear.
Retro Studios, Inc. is an American video game developer and subsidiary of Nintendo based in Austin, Texas. The studio is best known for its work on the Metroid Prime and Donkey Kong series and has contributed to several other Nintendo-developed projects, such as Mario Kart 7.
Nintendo Space World, formerly named Shoshinkai and Famicom Space World, was an annual video game trade show hosted by Nintendo from 1989 to 2001. Its three days of high-energy party atmosphere was the primary venue for Nintendo and its licensees to announce and demonstrate new consoles, accessories, and games. Anticipated and dissected each year with hype and exclusivity, it was a destination for the international video game press, with detailed developer interviews and technology demos.
1080° Avalanche is a snowboarding video game developed by Nintendo Software Technology and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. It was released on November 28, 2003, in Europe, on December 1, 2003, in North America, and on January 22, 2004, in Japan. Avalanche is a sequel to the 1998 video game 1080° Snowboarding for the Nintendo 64.
Super Mario 128 was a codename for two different development projects at Nintendo. The name was first used in 1997 for a sequel to Super Mario 64 for the 64DD, which was canceled. The name was reused for a GameCube tech demo at the Nintendo Space World trade show in 2000. Nintendo gradually incorporated the demonstrated graphics and physics concepts into the rapid object generation of Pikmin (2001), the physics of Metroid Prime (2002), and the sphere walking technology of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2006) and Super Mario Galaxy (2007). The Super Mario 128 demo led to widespread analysis, rumors, and anticipation in the media throughout the 2000s.
Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly is a 2002 platform game developed by Equinoxe Digital Entertainment and Check Six Studios for the PlayStation 2 and GameCube, and published by Universal Interactive. It is the fourth console game in the Spyro series and the sixth overall, being the first for either of its consoles and the first main entry to not be developed by Insomniac Games.
The Capcom Five are five video games that were unveiled by Capcom in late 2002 and published from March 2003. At a time when Nintendo's GameCube console had failed to capture market share, Capcom announced five new GameCube titles with the apparent goal of boosting hardware sales and demonstrating third-party developer support. Capcom USA followed up with confirmation that they would be exclusive to the GameCube. The five games were P.N.03, a futuristic third-person shooter; Viewtiful Joe, a side-scrolling action-platformer; Dead Phoenix, a shoot 'em up; Resident Evil 4, a survival horror third-person shooter; and Killer7, an action-adventure game with first-person shooter elements. Though not directly related to each other, they were all overseen by Resident Evil director Shinji Mikami and, except Killer7, developed by Capcom's Production Studio 4. Capcom USA later clarified that only Resident Evil 4 was intended to be exclusive; the initial announcement was due to a miscommunication with their parent company.
Jeffery Spangenberg is an American retired video game producer and entrepreneur who founded video game developers Punk Development, Iguana Entertainment, Retro Studios, and Topheavy Studios.
Marigul was a Japanese corporation created and jointly owned by video game company Nintendo Co., Ltd. (40%) and media company Recruit (60%). Its name is a combination of Nintendo's mascot Mario and Recruit's mascot Seegul.
Nitrobike is a dirt-bike racing video game for the Wii and PlayStation 2. It is published by Ubisoft and was developed by Left Field Productions, the developer previously responsible for, among other games, Excitebike 64, MTX Mototrax and Dave Mirra BMX Challenge. It began development in October 2006, and was presented by Ubisoft at its E3 2007 press conference in Santa Monica, California. Initially exclusive as Wii title, it was the first Motocross game for the Wii.
Super Smash Bros. Melee is a 2001 crossover fighting video game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. It is the second installment in the Super Smash Bros. series. It features characters from Nintendo video game franchises such as Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, Pokémon, and Donkey Kong among others. The stages and gameplay modes reference or take designs from these franchises as well.
Giles Goddard is an English video game programmer. He was one of the first Western employees at Nintendo, programming the Mario face in Super Mario 64, and working on titles such as Star Fox, 1080° Snowboarding, and Steel Diver. In 2002, he founded Vitei, a video game developer based in Kyoto, Japan, and is CEO.