Pyro Studios

Last updated

Pyro Mobile
Company typePrivate company
Industry Interactive entertainment
Predecessor
  • Pyro Studios
  • Play Wireless
Founded1996;28 years ago (1996)
Defunct2017
Headquarters,
Spain
Key people
Carlos Gonzálvez (general director) [1]
Products Commandos series
Owner Zed
Parent Zed Group

Pyro Mobile was a video game developer based in Madrid, Spain, established in 2012 as a merger between Play Wireless and Pyro Studios and eventually ceasing operations in the second half of 2017. [2] It is mostly known for its real-time tactics games series, Commandos .

Contents

Pyro Studios

Pyro Studios was founded in 1996 with the purpose of developing quality video games. [3] The result of this commitment was the development of Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines , which was released in 1998 [3] and became the decade's most successful Spanish game. Gonzo Suárez, who had previously worked at Opera Soft, conceived the real-time tactics series. [4] The success of this title led to the release of a disk containing new missions entitled Commandos: Beyond the Call of Duty .

In October 2001, the Microsoft Windows version of Commandos 2: Men of Courage was launched, followed by its release on Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation 2, in September 2002. Commandos 3: Destination Berlin was released in October 2003. In total, the Commandos series has sold more than 5 million copies worldwide. [3]

Praetorians , a 3D strategy game for Windows set at the time of Julius Caesar's campaigns, was released in February 2003.

Imperial Glory was released at the beginning of 2005. The game received "average" reviews. [5]

Commandos: Strike Force released during the first months of 2006. The game received "mixed" reviews and sold poorly. [6]

In late 2008, the studio cancelled an Xbox 360 and PS3 game named Cops, laying off 30 employees. [7] [8] For its sister company's film Planet 51 , Pyro developed the console version of the game, released in November 2009. [3] [9]

Pyro Mobile

In 2012, Pyro Studios merged with Play Wireless, establishing Pyro Mobile, a company to develop applications for smartphones, tablets and social media. [10] [1] Its first mobile game, The Moleys, was released in December 2012. [1]

Games

Related Research Articles

Commandos is a stealth-oriented real-time tactics video game series. The five games released between 1998 and 2006 are all set during World War II and follow the adventures of a fictional Allied commando unit. Each mission is loosely based on historical events during World War II to carry the plot. The series was developed by the Spanish developer Pyro Studios and published by Eidos Interactive. The series has sold a total of 3.3 million copies and generated $41 million of revenue at retail.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xbox Game Studios</span> American video game publisher

Xbox Game Studios is an American video game publisher based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, spun out from an internal Games Group, for the development and publishing of video games for Microsoft Windows. It has since expanded to include games and other interactive entertainment for the namesake Xbox platforms, other desktop operating systems, Windows Mobile and other mobile platforms, web-based portals, and other game consoles.

Halo is a military science fiction video game series and media franchise, originally developed and created by Bungie and currently managed and developed by 343 Industries, part of Microsoft's Xbox Game Studios. The series launched in 2001 with the first-person shooter video game Halo: Combat Evolved and its tie-in novel, The Fall of Reach. The latest main game, Halo Infinite, was released in late 2021.

<i>Star Wars</i> video games Video games based on the Star Wars franchise

Over one hundred video games based on the Star Wars franchise have been released, dating back to some of the earliest home consoles. Some are based directly on films while others rely heavily on the Star Wars Expanded Universe.

<i>Commandos 2: Men of Courage</i> 2001 video game

Commandos 2: Men of Courage is a real-time tactics video game, developed by Pyro Studios, published by Eidos Interactive, and released on September 20, 2001. It is a sequel to Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines and the second installment of the Commandos series, and is the only strategy game of the series to be designed not only for Microsoft Windows, but also for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. The game sees players taking control of a squad of commandos, along with various allied units, as they sneak behind enemy lines to accomplish various missions in World War II, between 1941 and 1944, that will help them to thwart the war efforts of the Germans and the Japanese. The game features several improvements to the gameplay from its predecessor, including the ability to use enemy weapons and explore interior locations, the inclusion of three new commandos, a number of new skills for the original six members along with their other abilities, and new pieces of equipment to help overcome the enemy.

<i>Praetorians</i> (video game) 2003 real-time tactics video game

Praetorians is a 3D real-time tactics video game developed by Pyro Studios and published by Eidos Interactive in 2003, based on Julius Caesar's historical campaigns in Gaul and Britain, Crassus' battles in Parthia, and the events of Caesar's Civil War during the 1st century BC. The player controls either the Roman Republic, the Ptolemaic Kingdom, or a generic barbarian tribe based on the Helvetii, Gauls, and Celts.

<i>Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines</i> 1998 video game

Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines is a 1998 real-time tactics video game developed by the Spanish company Pyro Studios and published by Eidos Interactive. The game sees players take control of a group of six Allied Commandos, who conduct a range of missions across wartime Europe and Africa, using small unit tactics. Each mission's objective varies, but ranges from sabotage, assassination or rescuing captured allied units, with players having a full view of a mission's map to plan their strategy and its execution in advance.

<i>Commandos: Strike Force</i> 2006 video game

Commandos: Strike Force is a first person tactical shooter video game and the fifth installment of the Commandos series. It is developed by Pyro Studios and published by Eidos Interactive.

Star Wars: Battlefront is a series of first- and third-person shooter video games based on the Star Wars franchise. Players take the role of characters from the franchise in either of two opposing factions in different time periods of the Star Wars universe. The series was launched in 2004 by LucasArts with Star Wars: Battlefront, developed by Pandemic Studios for LucasArts. The game received positive reviews and sold well. In 2005 Pandemic developed a sequel, Star Wars: Battlefront II, which was also critically and commercially successful.

Zed Group is a large organisation of privately held interlocking European companies that provide mobile phone and internet entertainment, film animation and video game production. Besides the main company also named Zed, other important companies of Zed Group are Ilion Animation Studios –production company specialized in computer-generated animation feature films like Planet 51- and Pyro Studios –video game developer including "Commandos".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kalypso Media</span> German video game publisher

Kalypso Media Group is a German video game developer and publisher. Founded in 2006 in Worms, the group includes four companies, in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States and has studios, Realmforge Studios, Gaming Minds Studios, Claymore Game Studios, and Nine Worlds Studios. Kalypso is best known for publishing Tropico, Sudden Strike, Dungeons and Railway Empire series.

<i>Star Wars: Battlefront</i> (2004 video game) 2004 action shooter video game

Star Wars: Battlefront is a 2004 first and third-person shooter video game based on the Star Wars film franchise. Developed by Pandemic Studios and published by LucasArts, it is the first installment in the Star Wars: Battlefront series. It was released in September 2004 for PlayStation 2, Xbox and Windows to coincide the release of the Star Wars Trilogy DVD set. Aspyr released a Mac OS X port in July 2005, and a cellular phone version, Star Wars Battlefront Mobile, was released on November 1, 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">5th Cell</span> Video game company

5th Cell is an independently owned American video game developer founded in 2003 as 5th Cell Media, LLC. led by Jeremiah Slaczka and Marius Falhbusch. The company is most well known for creating the Drawn to Life and Scribblenauts series.

<i>Terraria</i> 2011 video game

Terraria is a 2011 action-adventure sandbox game developed by Re-Logic. The game was first released for Windows and has since been ported to other PC and console platforms. The game features exploration, crafting, building, painting, and combat with a variety of creatures in a procedurally generated 2D world. Terraria is one of the best-selling video games of all time, selling 58.7 million copies as of 2024.

<i>Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II</i> 2012 video game

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II is an episodic platform video game developed by Dimps with assistance from Sonic Team, and published digitally by Sega for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, iOS, Android, and Microsoft Windows in 2012, with ports to the Ouya and Nvidia Shield releasing in 2013. It is a sequel to Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I (2010), taking place shortly after the events of the game and following Sonic and Tails as they attempt to once again stop Doctor Eggman and a newly revived Metal Sonic from using Little Planet to power the Death Egg mk.II space station. Like its predecessor, Episode II is restricted to a 2D plane with players guiding Sonic and Tails through levels, collecting rings and rolling into enemies; collecting Chaos Emeralds also requires players to access Special Stages by ending a stage with enough rings.

The year 2015 saw releases of numerous video games as well as a follow-up to Nintendo's portable 3DS console, the New Nintendo 3DS. Top-rated games originally released in 2015 included Madden NFL 16, NBA 2K16, NBA Live 16, WWE 2K16, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Bloodborne, Undertale, and Fallout 4. Sales of video games in 2015 reached $61 billion, according to analysis firm SuperData, an 8% increase from 2014. Of this, the largest sector was in computer game sales and subscription services, accounting for $32 billion. Mobile games revenues were at $25.1 billion, a 10% increase from 2014. Digital sales on consoles made up the remaining $4 billion.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "The Moleys, the new game by Pyro, now available for iOS". Gamasutra. 12 December 2012. Archived from the original on 26 January 2014. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  2. Albeit Crunchbase still lists the company as active, their Facebook page was last updated 26 January 2017, last Twitter post is from 26 May 2017, and their own web presence domain shows no content.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Miller, Greg (25 February 2009). "Planet 51 Game Details Announced". IGN. Archived from the original on 23 February 2014. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  4. Wolf, Mark J. P. (2021). Encyclopedia of Video Games: The Culture, Technology, and Art of Gaming (2nd ed.). ABC-CLIO. p. 982. ISBN   978-1-4408-7020-0.
  5. "Imperial Glory critic reviews". www.metacritic.com. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
  6. "La odisea de crear un juego en España". 18 June 2019. Archived from the original on 18 June 2019. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
  7. Sayed, Rashid (8 September 2010). "15 cancelled Xbox 360 games that should have never been cancelled". Gaming Bolt. Archived from the original on 6 January 2014. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  8. Esteve, Jaune (21 January 2013). "Cops, el superventas que Pyro canceló". IGN Espana. Archived from the original on 6 January 2014. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  9. Jones, Simon (17 June 2009). "FIREBRAND Games Announces Planet 51 The Game on Nintendo DS". Peppermint. Archived from the original on 21 April 2013. Retrieved 29 June 2012.
  10. "PYROMOBILE, NACE UNA NUEVA DESARROLLADORA ESPAÑOLA". iOS Gamers Zone. October 2012. Archived from the original on 14 October 2013. Retrieved 5 January 2014.