Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that answer the question.
Query: When was Relic Entertainment established?
Relic Entertainment was founded in Vancouver, Canada, on June 1, 1997, and began work on "Homeworld" as their first title. Relic co-founders Alex Garden and Luke Moloney served as the director and lead programmer for the game, respectively, while Erin Daly was the designer and Aaron Kambeitz the lead artist. Garden was 22 years old when he founded the company. Writer David J. Williams is credited with the original story concept, while the script itself was written by Martin Cirulis and the background lore was written by author Arinn Dembo. Cirulis and Dembo, credited jointly as "Marcus Skyler", were selected by the publisher, Sierra Studios, partway through development to expand the story concept of Relic and Williams. Sierra agreed to publish the game early in development based on, according to Garden, "two whiteboard presentations and no demo". The development of the game took over two years; the game systems were largely complete by the final eight months, which Relic spent polishing and improving the game, including adding the whole-map Sensors Manager view. The game was initially expected to be released at the end of 1998; Garden stated in a 1999 interview that the team found creating the core game itself much easier than getting it to the quality level they wanted, and that if they had known how difficult it was going to be they may have chosen not to do the project. Several ideas for the game, including ship customization, convoy routes, and different unit types for the Kushan and Taidann fleets were cut during development as they could not be done well enough for the project.
Silicon Knights was a Canadian video game developer. Founded in 1992 by Denis Dyack, the company was headquartered in St. Catharines, Ontario. Their games included ones for computers in their early stages, and after 1996, they moved to console titles. Dyack left Silicon Knights to form a new game studio, Precursor Games, after the loss of a court case against Epic Games over the game engine Unreal Engine 3. Epic Games won the case and a counter-suit for $4.45 million on grounds of copyright infringement, misappropriation of trade secrets, and breach of contract. Following the case, Silicon Knights filed for bankruptcy on May 16, 2014.
In November 1992, Don Bluth Entertainment found investment from UK filmmaker John Boorman's production company Merlin Films and Hong Kong-based company Media Assets. Merlin Films and Media Assets invested $14 million to purchase the studio's next three films and a further $6 million to ensure the completion of the two partially completed films, with further investment to follow on the third film, "The Pebble and the Penguin", then still in early development. A condition of the investment was that Merlin Films and Media Assets would have a close involvement in the management of Don Bluth Entertainment's financial operations, following reports of the studio's past mismanagement. In 1993, STAR TV, the parent company of Media Assets, was purchased by Rupert Murdoch (son of former Australian journalist Keith Murdoch, an editor for Adelaide's former "The News"), effectively making the studio a subsidiary of "The News"' namesake News Corporation.
Resident Evil, known in Japan as Biohazard, is a survival horror video game developed and published by Capcom. Released for the GameCube video game console in 2002, it is a remake of the 1996 PlayStation game "Resident Evil", the first installment in the "Resident Evil" video game series. The story takes place in 1998 near the fictional Midwestern town of Raccoon City where a series of bizarre murders have taken place. The player takes on the role of either Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine, S.T.A.R.S. agents sent in by the city to investigate the murders.
Pixar Animation Studios, commonly referred to as Pixar (), is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California, that is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, owned by the Walt Disney Company. Pixar began in 1979 as the Graphics Group, part of the Lucasfilm computer division, before its spin-out as a corporation in 1986, with funding by Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs, who became the majority shareholder. Disney purchased Pixar in 2006 at a valuation of $7.4 billion by converting each share of Pixar stock to 2.3 shares of Disney stock, a transaction that resulted in Jobs becoming Disney's largest single shareholder at the time. Pixar is best known for CGI-animated feature films created with RenderMan, Pixar's own implementation of the industry-standard RenderMan image-rendering application programming interface, used to generate high-quality images.
Following Bungie's split from Microsoft, 343 Industries – a studio established by Microsoft in 2009 – took the helm of the "Halo" franchise. 343 had already co-developed the "Halo Legends" animated series and had overseen production of "" and "". The next game in the series, "Halo 4", was announced at E3 2011 as the first entry in what would be a new series of "Halo" games, also known as the "Reclaimer Trilogy". The game included many staples of previous games, such as new or redesigned weapon types, an improved map-editing tool and expanded multiplayer options and maps. "Halo 4" was released worldwide on November 6, 2012, achieving record sales for the franchise. In a new addition to the series, a story-driven multiplayer campaign entitled "Spartan Ops" was released over the weeks following "Halo 4"s release, telling what happened after the end of the main game.
Pixar () is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio is best known for its CGI-animated feature films created with PhotoRealistic RenderMan, its own implementation of the industry-standard RenderMan image-rendering application programming interface used to generate high-quality images. Pixar began in 1979 as the Graphics Group, part of the computer division of Lucasfilm before its spin-out as a corporation in 1986 with funding by Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs, who became its majority shareholder. Pixar and Disney had a seven feature agreement that allowed Disney to distribute the films with Disney owing the character rights. With the success of "Toy Story 2" in 1999, then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner and Pixar CEO Steve Jobs began to disagree on how Pixar should be run and the terms of their continued relationship. Eisner claimed that Toy Story 2 would not count towards the "original" film count of the agreement. Jobs announced in January 2004 that Pixar would not renew their agreement with Disney and would seek out other distributors for releases starting in 2006. In 2004, Disney Circle 7 Animation was formed as a CG animation studio to create sequels to the Disney-owned Pixar properties. In Late January 2006, new Disney CEO Bob Iger and Jobs agreed to have Disney purchase Pixar which led to Disney closing Circle 7.
Raven Software is an American video game developer based in Madison, Wisconsin. It was founded in 1990 by brothers Brian and Steve Raffel after getting a publishing deal for their first game, "Black Crypt" (1992). During that game's development, the company formed a relationship with id Software, which was briefly located on the same street. Raven spent the next few years working primarily on PC games in partnership with id, making "ShadowCaster" (1993) with a game engine by id Software and three games in the "Heretic" series between 1994–1997 with id as the publisher and id Software employees as the producers. In 1997, Raven made an exclusive publishing deal with Activision, and the Raffel brothers subsequently sold the company to Activision. Several employees left the company then to form Human Head Studios.
On April 3, 2013, it was announced that The Walt Disney Company had ceased internal development at LucasArts and laid off its staff, except a skeleton crew of less than 10 employees which would allow LucasArts to remain open as a licensor. As a result, all projects were shut down, including "Star Wars 1313". A Lucasfilm representative stated: "After evaluating our position in the games market, we’ve decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company's risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality "Star Wars" games. As a result of this change, we've had layoffs across the organization." It is possible that "Star Wars 1313" may resume development by an external developer, but until that happens "Star Wars 1313" remains shelved. Following the halting of internal development at LucasArts, Disney announced an exclusive deal with Electronic Arts to produce "Star Wars" games for the core gaming market. However, Disney Interactive Studios retained the ability to develop, and LucasArts retained the ability to license the franchise for the casual gaming market. When asked whether Electronic Arts would continue "Star Wars 1313" and "Star Wars: First Assault", a representative for the company stated, "We are not announcing any specific titles at this time."
Lucasfilm Animation Ltd. LLC is the animation division of Lucasfilm, established in 2003. Its first major production was the feature film "" and its . In September 2016, Dave Filoni, known for his contributions to "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" and "Star Wars Rebels", accepted a promotion to oversee the development of all future Lucasfilm Animation projects.
Voss left the division in January 2016 for subscription service, Loot Crate. In March 2016, PGP was placed within Mattel Creations along with the other two Mattel content production units. After failure of the Max Steel movie in 2016, Playground Productions was absorbed into Mattel Creations.
On September 6, 2018, Mattel announced the launch of a film division, Mattel Films, that will make movies based on the company’s toy brands. Robbie Brenner was appointed to head the division as executive producer and will report directly to the CEO. The revived division's first two projects are expect to be Barbie and Masters of the Universe films. In early January 2019, Mattel closed the deal with Margot Robbie to star in the Barbie film and Warner and Robbie's production company, LuckyChap Entertainment, to co-produce the film. Mattel Films and Sony revive Master of the Universe film development in January 2019 with many of the prior attempt's director and producers while bringing on board different writers, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway.
Released July 15, 1983, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit video game console released by Nintendo in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Oceania and Africa and was Nintendo's first home video game console released outside Japan. In Japan, it is known as the "Family Computer" (or "Famicom", as it is commonly abbreviated). Selling 61.91 million units worldwide, the NES helped revitalize the video game industry following the video game crash of 1983 and set the standard for subsequent consoles in everything from game design to business practices. The NES was the first console for which the manufacturer openly courted third-party developers. Many of Nintendo's most iconic franchises, such as "The Legend of Zelda" and "Metroid" were started on the NES. Nintendo continued to repair Famicom consoles in Japan until October 31, 2007, attributing the decision to discontinue support to an increasing shortage of the necessary parts.
Ertl was the first company to manufacture Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends characters and sets from 1985 in the UK and from 1989 in the US. Production ceased for the US market in 2001, and for the UK market in 2004 after RC2 Corporation acquired Ertl and discontinued the ranges to avoid conflict with the then existing Thomas license held by Learning Curve Brands, which produced the similar Take Along Thomas and Friends system.
Founded in 2003 in Singapore as a means to tap into the talent pool, Lucasfilm Animation Singapore (LAS) opened its doors in October 2005. LAS works closely with Lucasfilm Animation. The LAS production schedule also includes contributions to projects from other Lucasfilm companies. While the largest of LAS’ production groups focused on "Star Wars: The Clone Wars", in July 2006 LAS announced the creation of the Game Group and the Digital Artists Group (DAG). With difficulty in meeting the technical and aesthetic requirements of Clone Wars, LAS was ultimately removed from the production and released a number of employees.
Following Bungie's departure from Microsoft in 2007, 343 Industries was eventually given complete control of the "Halo" franchise including servers and data on March 31, 2012. The studio's development of "Halo 4", which began in 2009, was completed ahead of schedule the same year in September. It was released on November 6, 2012, as the first title of a new "Halo" Reclaimer Trilogy which will include at least two more installments over the years. At E3 2013, Microsoft and 343i announced the next "Halo" installment set for release on the Xbox One. Shortly after the announcement, the Reclaimer Trilogy was confirmed by Microsoft Studios corporate vice president Phil Spencer to be expanded into a Reclaimer Saga. The following year at E3 2014, the official title was revealed as "Halo 5: Guardians" along with plans for its release on October 27, 2015. Microsoft, in a contract with Mega Bloks, is in conjunction with 343i to manufacture a new line of toys and other memorabilia for the upcoming "Halo" saga. "" was released on October 27, 2015, with semi-exclusive content to those who purchased select Mega Bloks sets. 343 Industries has since released free monthly content updates since Halo 5's launch.
Released by TriStar Pictures in 1989, the film grossed almost $3 million domestically, and has since become a cult film like its predecessor. In 2003, it received a brief issuing on DVD by Artisan Entertainment in a full frame presentation, but the release quickly went out of print and has since become a rare collector's item.
As a result, on November 7, 2012, Silicon Knights was directed by the court to destroy all game code derived from Unreal Engine 3, all information from licensee-restricted areas of Epic's Unreal Engine documentation website, and to permit Epic Games access to the company's servers and other devices to ensure these items have been removed. In addition, the studio was instructed to recall and destroy all unsold retail copies of games built with Unreal Engine 3 code, including "Too Human", "X-Men Destiny", "The Sandman", "The Box"/"Ritualyst", and "Siren in the Maelstrom" (the latter three titles were projects never released, or even officially announced).
The development of "Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption" began at Nihilistic Software in April 1998, shortly after the developer's founding in March that year. Its development was publicly announced in March 1999. Intending to move away from the first-person games the team members had worked on with previous companies, Nihilistic prepared a design and story for a futuristic RPG with similar themes and gothic aesthetics to those of the "" series. After publisher Activision approached the team using the White Wolf license, they adapted parts of their original design to fit the "Vampire" series, which became the original design for "Redemption". Endorsement by Id Software founder John Carmack helped Nihilistic decide to work with Activision. The Nihilistic team developed "Redemption" over twenty-four months; the team expanded to twelve members by the end of development. The development team included Nihilistic President and CEO Ray Gesko, lead programmer Rob Huebner, world designer Steve Tietze, level designer Steve Thoms, lead artist Maarten Kraaijvanger, artist Yujin Kiem, art technician Anthony Chiang, and programmers Yves Borckmans and Ingar Shu.
LucasArts's game producer Craig Derrick and his team conceived the idea of the remake in 2008. After researching the "Monkey Island" series' history, they decided to make "something fresh and new while staying true to the original", which resulted in the idea of "The Secret of Monkey Island" remake. The developers tried to leave much of the original design unchanged. Any changes were intended to achieve the level of immersion desired for the original. To that end, they added details like a pirate ship or pirates talking in the background of scenes. While the team considered the SCUMM interface revolutionary at the time, LucasArts community manager Brooks Brown noted that it is incompatible with an analog stick, which most consoles use. The designers made the cursor contextual to the game objects as the primary interface. Brown had considered updating the reference to advertise "" because "Loom" was not on the market at the time, but concluded that the game would not be the same if such changes were implemented. Prior to the "Special Edition" release, however, LucasArts announced that "Loom", along with other games from its back catalog, would be made available on Steam. Brown stated that the decision to distribute the game online was because "digital downloads have finally gotten going".
"The Secret of Monkey Island" received positive reviews from critics. According to Gilbert, it "sold well" but was "never a big hit". Grossman later summarized that the game's sales were "north of 100,000, far south of 1 million". According to "Next Generation", "The Secret of Monkey Island" was a "relatively minor hit" in the United States, but the game and its sequel became "blockbusters on the PC and the Amiga throughout Europe."
Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality is a virtual reality game compatible with HTC Vive, PlayStation VR and Oculus Rift developed by Owlchemy Labs and published by Adult Swim Games for Microsoft Windows on April 20, 2017. It is based on the American animated series "Rick and Morty", whose series co-creator Justin Roiland aided in the development. A port for the PlayStation 4 has been released on April 10, 2018.
Nickelodeon Creative Labs was founded in 1994 by Amy Friedman. The company produced motion graphics and short-form material for the Nickelodeon network, including the award-winning "Short Films by Short People" interstitial series. In 1996, Nickelodeon Creative Labs began producing the Nick Jr. series "Blue's Clues" in-house using Adobe After Effects, Photoshop, and Power Macintosh computers. In October 1999, Nickelodeon Creative Labs relaunched as Nick Digital; it was now also producing "Little Bill", another Nick Jr. series. In December 2008, MTV Networks planned to shut down Nick Digital by the end of the year. The company ultimately stayed open, but a Nick Digital branch at Nickelodeon Animation Studio took over producing visual effects for Nickelodeon's animated series. In 2009, Nickelodeon launched Nickelodeon Creative Advertising, a creative agency which produces advertising for kids and families.
"Company of Heroes", a World War II-themed real-time strategy game, was released on September 12, 2006. It used Relic's new Essence engine. The engine, which had been designed in-house by Relic, featured many next-generation graphical effects, including HDR and dynamic lighting, as well as utilizing the Havok middleware physics engine. The game was very successful and won many awards from multiple gaming magazines and websites. As of January 2013, the "Company of Heroes" series has sold more than 4 million copies worldwide.
On April 27, 2004, publisher THQ announced it was acquiring Relic for close to in an all-cash transaction, completed around early May, 2004.
In 2004, Relic Entertainment was bought by THQ, which confirmed in 2007 that it had acquired the rights to the series from Relic and Sierra. No further game in the series was made before THQ declared bankruptcy in 2013; on April 22, 2013, Gearbox Software announced that they had bought the rights to the series at auction for US$1.35 million. On July 19, 2013, Gearbox announced the production of remakes of "Homeworld" and "Homeworld 2" as "Homeworld HD", later renamed "Homeworld Remastered Collection". The following month, collection producer Brian Burleson stated that Gearbox had purchased the property with the express purpose of making a collection including the original and remastered versions of the game. He also noted that neither game had code in a releasable or playable state when purchased, and they ended up recreating many of the original development tools with the assistance of the "Homeworld" mod community. A later posting by a developer at Gearbox further praised the mod community for their assistance in getting the original code to be playable on modern computers. The stand-alone expansion "Homeworld: Cataclysm" was not announced for a remake, despite the outspoken interest of Gearbox, as they were unable to find the original source code for the game.
Relic released "" on September 20, 2004, a real-time strategy game based on Games Workshop's popular "Warhammer 40,000" franchise. The game was a success, with many reviewers applauding its innovative resource management system and squad-based interface. As a series "Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War" has sold more than 7 million copies worldwide as of January 2013.