Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that answer the question.
Query: When was GMT Games first established?
GMT Games is a California-based wargaming publisher founded in 1990. The current management and creative team includes Tony Curtis, Rodger MacGowan, Mark Simonitch, and Andy Lewis. The company has become well known for graphically attractive games that range from "monster games", of many maps and counters, to quite simple games suitable for introducing new players to wargaming. They also produce card games and family games. "The Washington Post" called GMT "the modern hobby's highest-profile wargame publisher".
"Grandia Online" was first announced by Game Arts in late 2004 as a collaborative effort between their company and GungHo Online Entertainment under the codename "Project: GO". The game was first revealed during a GungHo Games panel at the 2005 Tokyo Game Show in Tokyo, Japan, where the company announced that they would be working with Game Arts to bring their "Grandia" role-playing game series to the PC as a "real adventure-themed MMORPG." Development for the game began shortly after completion of Game Arts' previous endeavor, "Grandia III", released earlier that year in Japan, and was overseen by GungHo president Morishita Yoshikazu and Game Arts producer Yoshitada Iwata. Inspiration for the game came from Gravity Corporation's "Ragnarok Online", as well as to fill the need for "Japan's increased demand for online games." The following October, one month after the game's announcement, GungHo announced plans to become a majority shareholder for the Game Arts corporation, turning the company into a subsidiary and making "Grandia Online" an in-house production. An open beta test period was originally planned for the first quarter of 2006, with the game's final release following later that year, which was pushed back to the following September, and then an undetermined date due to development issues.
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) was established in 1675, when the Royal Observatory was built, as an aid to mariners to determine longitude at sea, providing a standard reference time while each city in England kept a different local time.
On September 20, 2002, Blizzard Entertainment announced the development of "StarCraft: Ghost" in conjunction with fellow video game company Nihilistic Software. Nihilistic aimed to release the game for the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube video game consoles in late 2003, which elicited positive reactions from the press. The game was consistently delayed, and during the third quarter of 2004, Nihilistic discontinued their work on the project. Blizzard stated that Nihilistic had completed the tasks it had been contracted for, and the game would be delivered on time.
The game was publicly announced first at E3 2005, by means of a humorous and slightly abstract gag machinima using characters from "Metal Gear Solid 3", under the slogan of "No Place to Hide". The title was described as "essentially finished" by January 2008 and went through extensive beta testing. At Destination PlayStation on February 26, 2008, Sony announced that "MGS4" would be released worldwide on June 12, 2008, along with the special "MGS4" PlayStation 3 bundle. It was announced that "Guns of the Patriots" is the first PlayStation 3 game that uses a 50GB dual layer Blu-ray Disc even with the use of file compression.
"Doom"s original release date was the third quarter of 1993, which the team did not meet. By December 1993, the team was working non-stop on the game, with several employees sleeping at the office; programmer Dave Taylor claimed that working on the game gave him such a rush that he would pass out from the intensity. Id began receiving calls from people interested in the game or angry that it had missed its planned release date, as hype for the game had been building online. At midnight on December 10, 1993, after working for 30 straight hours, the development team at id uploaded the first episode of the game to the internet, letting interested players distribute it for them. So many users were connected to the first network that they planned to upload the game to—the University of Wisconsin–Parkside FTP network—that even after the network administrator increased the number of connections while on the phone with Wilbur, id was unable to connect, forcing them to kick all other users off to allow id to upload the game. When the upload finished thirty minutes later, 10,000 people attempted to download the game at once, crashing the university's network.
With the arrival of the seventh generation of video game consoles, the first "next-gen" "Grand Theft Auto" clones were released in 2006, beginning with "Saints Row" from 2006 and "Crackdown" from 2007 both introduced online multiplayer to the genre, a feature that had been requested by many fans. "Crackdown" attracted attention for being created by David Jones, the developer of the original "Grand Theft Auto", and featured the ability to develop the player character's superpowers in a semi-futuristic setting. Meanwhile, "" and "" entered the market in 2006, and attempted to apply the "Grand Theft Auto" formula to popular movie franchises. Still, reviewers continued to measure these games against the standard set by the "Grand Theft Auto" series. "Grand Theft Auto IV" was released in April 2008 and featured a large, detailed environment, redefining gameplay and even adopted the GPS navigation system seen in "Saints Row". The game broke numerous sales records, including the record for the fastest selling game in its first 24 hours. Since its inception, this genre has evolved to include larger settings, more missions, and a wider range of vehicles. In 2010, Rockstar Games published "Red Dead Redemption", an open world Western themed game. On the day of "Grand Theft Auto V" 's release on September 17, 2013, Volition released a free downloadable content pack for "Saints Row IV" titled "GATV", purposely playing the similarity in the abbreviated titles to promote their game due to the confusion raised on various social networks.
In 2004, Blizzard Entertainment moved the series away from the real-time strategy genre and released "World of Warcraft", a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). Requiring a subscription fee to be paid to play, it also introduced regular additional content to the series in the form of patches. "World of Warcraft" gained popularity worldwide, becoming the world's largest subscription-based MMORPG in 2008. The game reached a peak 12 million subscribers worldwide in October 2010. "World of Warcraft" has had seven expansions as of 2018. During the production of "", Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce stated that "If there's a team that's passionate about doing another "Warcraft" [real-time strategy], then that's definitely something we would consider. It's nothing that we're working on right now, we have development teams working on "", "", "Diablo III", and when those teams are all off the projects they're working on, they'll be intimately involved in the discussions about what's next".
Their first game was "Safecracker", a point and click adventure game published by DreamCatcher Interactive. The game had a tumultuous production, starting when GT Interactive bought initial publisher Warner Interactive Europe. Daydream Software went public in late 1996. The company's goal was to increase its economic and decision-making freedom, and to secure the ability to select a publisher at the end of each game's development rather than at the beginning. President Jans Phersson-Broburg argued that self-financing Daydream's future games with money from Swedish investors, instead of obtaining "funding linked to specific projects" from publishers, would offer the developer more stability, flexibility and room for growth. For Daydream's public launch, roughly 20 million kr worth of shares, or 45.5% of the company, were offered to investors in Sweden. The initial public offering was a success, and Daydream opened on the Stockholm Stock Exchange's Stockholm Börsinformation (SBI) list in January 1997. Daydream was eventually able to buy back the rights to "Safecracker".
A new installment in the "Grandia" series developed by Game Arts was officially announced on June 1, 2001 with the tentative name of "Grandia X". The game, later retitled "Grandia Xtreme", was to be published by Enix as they had just invested capital in Game Arts for a total of ¥99.2 million, or 15% of the company. The game was the first title Game Arts developed exclusively for the PlayStation 2. While previous installments in the series were traditional role-playing video games, the developers took the new title in a different direction and designed it more as an action role-playing game or dungeon crawler to make it more accessible to casual gamers. They nevertheless kept and enhanced mainstays such as the combat and magic systems, as well as the "enchantment" aspect of the story. To design the characters of the game, Enix and Game Arts selected Kamui Fujiwara, the character designer of "Terranigma". Development for the game spanned roughly 18 months.
In 2001, "" began development under Nihilistic Software, with the aim of releasing the game for the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube during late 2003. Unlike previous real-time strategy "StarCraft" titles, "Ghost" was to be a tactical third-person action game. Although the press was positive about the video game console direction taken by "Ghost", the game was consistently delayed, and during the third quarter of 2004, Nihilistic Software discontinued their work with the project. Blizzard stated that Nihilistic Software had completed the tasks it had been contracted for and that the game would be delivered on time. The game was never released.
"World of Warcraft" was first announced by Blizzard at the ECTS trade show in September 2001. Released in 2004, development of the game took roughly 4–5 years, including extensive testing. The 3D graphics in "World of Warcraft" use elements of the proprietary graphics engine originally used in "Warcraft III". The game was designed to be an open environment where players are allowed to do what they please. Quests are optional and were designed to help guide players, allow character development, and to spread characters across different zones to try to avoid what developers called "player collision". The game interface allows players to customize appearance and controls, and to install add-ons and other modifications.
Group C
Since the release of "Warcraft", "Diablo", and "StarCraft" (1998), Blizzard has focused almost exclusively on the "Warcraft", "Diablo", and "StarCraft" series. The sole exception has been the company's latest title, "Overwatch" (2016). All of Blizzard's games released since 2004 still receive expansions and updates, especially the long-running massively multiplayer online role-playing game "World of Warcraft" (2004). With over 100 million lifetime accounts as of 2014 and US$9 billion in revenue as of 2017, "World of Warcraft" is one of the best-selling computer games and highest-grossing video games of all time. Blizzard Entertainment has developed 19 games since 1991 as of 2018, in addition to developing 8 ports between 1992 and 1993; 11 of those games are in the "Warcraft", "Diablo", and "StarCraft" series.
Relic Entertainment is a Canadian video game developer based in Vancouver. The company was founded in June 1997 by Alex Garden and Luke Moloney. After its debut title "Homeworld" (1999), the company developed two more games, "Impossible Creatures" (2003) and "Homeworld 2" (2003), and signed a contract with publisher THQ for an additional two games. Before either game was released, however, Relic was bought by THQ in May 2004 for $10 million in cash; the company was renamed THQ Canada, with "Relic Entertainment" used as a marketing brand by the studio. THQ published the next five games by the company. A few months after being purchased, Relic released its first licensed title, "" (2004). It released two more original titles in 2006, "The Outfit" and "Company of Heroes", before transitioning to focus on further titles and expansion packs in the "Warhammer 40,000" and "Company of Heroes" franchises.
Grand Theft Auto III is an action-adventure video game developed by DMA Design and published by Rockstar Games. It was released in October 2001 for the PlayStation 2, in May 2002 for Microsoft Windows, and in October 2003 for the Xbox. An enhanced version of the game was released on mobile platforms in 2011, for the game's tenth anniversary. It is the fifth title in the "Grand Theft Auto" series, and the first main entry since 1999's "Grand Theft Auto 2". Set within the fictional Liberty City, based on New York City, the game follows Claude after he is left for dead and quickly becomes entangled in a world of gangs, crime and corruption.
On November 23, 2004, Blizzard released "World of Warcraft", a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. "World of Warcraft" is the fourth released game set in the fantasy "Warcraft" universe, which was first introduced by "" in 1994. Blizzard announced "World of Warcraft" on September 2, 2001. The game was released on November 23, 2004, on the 10th anniversary of the "Warcraft" franchise.
Grand Theft Auto 2 is an action-adventure video game developed by DMA Design and published by Rockstar Games. It was released on 22 October 1999 for Microsoft Windows and the PlayStation, followed by Dreamcast and Game Boy Color releases in 2000. It is the sequel to 1997's "Grand Theft Auto", part of the "Grand Theft Auto" series. The open world design lets players freely roam Anywhere City, the setting of the game.
"Doom"s original release date was the third quarter of 1993, which the team did not meet. By December 1993, the team was working non-stop on the game, with several employees sleeping at the office; programmer Dave Taylor claimed that working on the game gave him such a rush that he would pass out from the intensity. Id began receiving calls from people interested in the game or angry that it had missed its planned release date, as hype for the game had been building online. At midnight on December 10, 1993, after working for 30 straight hours, the development team at id uploaded the first episode of the game to the internet, letting interested players distribute it for them. So many users were connected to the first network that they planned to upload the game to—the University of Wisconsin–Parkside FTP network—that even after the network administrator increased the number of connections while on the phone with Wilbur, id was unable to connect, forcing them to kick all other users off to allow id to upload the game. When the upload finished thirty minutes later, 10,000 people attempted to download the game at once, crashing the university's network. Within hours, other university networks were banning "Doom" multiplayer games, as a rush of players overwhelmed their systems.
Relic Entertainment, known as THQ Canada Inc. between 2004 and 2013, is a Canadian video game developer based in Vancouver, founded in 1997. The studio specializes in real-time strategy games and is known for series such as "Homeworld", "" and "Company of Heroes". Acquired by THQ in 2004, the company was sold to Sega on January 22, 2013 as part of THQ's bankruptcy. Relic is now a part of Sega West, which also comprises Creative Assembly, Sports Interactive and Amplitude Studios.
"Counter-Strike: Global Offensive" is the sequel to the popular first-person shooter "", developed by Valve Corporation. "Global Offensive"s development began when Hidden Path Entertainment attempted to port "Counter-Strike: Source" onto video game consoles, prior to the end of their lifespan. During the development, Valve saw the opportunity to turn the port into a full game and expand on the predecessor's gameplay. "Global Offensive" began development in March 2010, and was revealed to the public on August 12, 2011. The closed beta started on November 30, 2011, and was initially restricted to around ten thousand people who received a key at events intended to showcase "Global Offensive". After issues such as client and server stability were addressed, the beta was opened up to progressively more people, and at E3 2012, Valve announced that "Global Offensive" would be released on August 21, 2012, with the open beta starting roughly a month before that. Before the public beta, Valve invited professional "Counter-Strike" players to play-test the game and give feedback.
In 1923 student organizations of Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania established an extensive co-operation agreement, which resulted in first regional student competition for the university students of the respective countries in Tartu, Estonia. The competitions lasted until 1940 when the last winter games were held before the ties between Baltic States were severed by World War II. During this period there were organized separately summer games, winter games and chess tournaments. 
After Baltic States became independent again the tradition of competition was restored in a meeting held 21.4. 1997, and the SELL Games were organized in 1998 in Tartu. The competition has been open to all university students around the world since then.
With the advent of the industrial revolution, a greater understanding and agreement on the nature of time itself became increasingly necessary and helpful. In 1847 in Britain, Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) was first created for use by the British railways, the British navy, and the British shipping industry. Using telescopes, GMT was calibrated to the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich in the UK.
In 2005, Bernie Tormé and John McCoy are reunited again with the idea form a new band, taking advantage by the successful sales of the Gillan material published for Angel Air Records between 1997 and 2000. By 2006, with the release of Gillan's "Live Edinburgh 1980" DVD, an extra videoclip from the song "Cannonball" made by GMT marked the start of the group, follow for the debut three-track EP "Cannonball" published on August 21, 2006. In 2007, GMT toured widely by the UK, performing at RBCS 2007 Rock and Blues Festival, in Pentrich. The next year, GMT released on November 17, "Evil Twin" their first full album, with Dee Snider as guest. Between 2009 and 2011, GMT performed various shows, release the first live album "Raw - Live" in 2011.
"The Great Battles of Alexander" began development at Erudite Software in 1994, as an adaptation of the titular board wargame designed by Mark Herman and Richard Berg, first published by GMT Games in 1991. The physical "Great Battles" series was known as a commercial success in a period of falling sales for board games. "Alexander"s computer adaptation was first announced in late 1994, under the direction of Mark Herman, and was created with assistance from GMT. Erudite, a business software developer founded in 1990, initially hoped to self-publish the game. However, the company had partnered with publisher Strategic Simulations (SSI) by the time of "Alexander"s announcement. At that point, the game was set to include play-by-email (PBEM) support, and Herman explained his plan to apply artificial intelligence (AI) routines he had created originally for the United States Department of Defense. A summer 1995 release was planned.