Humongous Entertainment

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Humongous, Inc.
FormerlyHumongous Entertainment, Inc. (1992-2005)
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryVideo games
FoundedMarch 1992; 33 years ago (1992-03) in Woodinville, Washington, US
Founder
Defunct2013; 12 years ago (2013)
FateChapter 11 bankruptcy, assets split off
Headquarters
Bothell, Washington
,
US
ParentAtari, Inc. (1996–2005)
Atari SA (2005-2013)
Websitehumongous.com

Humongous, Inc. (formerly Humongous Entertainment, Inc.) was an American video game developer based in Bothell, Washington. Founded in 1992, the company developed multiple edutainment franchises, most prominently Putt-Putt, Freddi Fish, Pajama Sam, Spy Fox, and Backyard Sports, which, combined, sold over 15 million copies and earned more than 400 awards of excellence.[1]

Humongous Entertainment was acquired by GT Interactive (later renamed Infogrames, Inc., then Atari, Inc.) in July 1996. By October 2000, sales of Humongous games had surpassed 16 million copies.[2] GT, which had by that point became Atari, Inc. sold the Humongous business to its parent company, Infogrames (later renamed Atari SA), in August 2005 and reduced the company solely as a management firm for their assets until its bankruptcy in 2013, in which the assets were sold to Tommo, who re-released some of its games on digital distribution channels using the Humongous name.

History

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Formation (1992–1996)

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Humongous Entertainment was formed by Shelley Day and Ron Gilbert in March 1992,[3] then based in Woodinville, Washington.[4] The name Humongous Entertainment was suggested by Gilbert's ex-LucasArts colleague, Tim Schafer.[5] It became known for creating four point-and-click adventure game series intended for young children, branded collectively as "Junior Adventures", with the four series being the Putt-Putt, the Freddi Fish, the Pajama Sam and the Spy Fox series. Characters from one series do not cross over with ones in another (with the exception of Putt-Putt and Fatty Bear's Activity Pack) and instead appear as cameos or Easter eggs in any of the three other series. All of Humongous's games until 2003 were built on the SCUMM game engine, which Gilbert had developed for LucasArts years prior; following his departure from the company, LucasArts agreed to grant Humongous a license to use SCUMM for its games, on the condition that Gilbert continue to develop updates to the engine for both companies' use.[6] By 1995, the company had become the third largest children's educational-software company.[7]

In 1995, Gilbert and Day established a company division, Cavedog Entertainment, in Seattle, set to develop games of alternative genres, and released Total Annihilation, a real-time strategy (RTS) game, in 1997. This was followed by two expansion packs in 1998, as well as a variation called Total Annihilation: Kingdoms plus an expansion pack in 1999.[8]

Acquisitions, decline, dissolution (1996–2006)

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In July 1996, Humongous Entertainment was purchased by GT Interactive for US$76 million.[9] In November 1997, Humongous Entertainment signed a five-year worldwide deal with Nickelodeon to develop games based on the Nick Jr. series, Blue's Clues, making it the first and only time that Humongous has developed games based on a licensed character as opposed to its original characters.[10] The same year, Humongous released their first Backyard Sports title, Backyard Baseball. Backyard Sports would go on to become the company's longest-running series. In November 1999, GT Interactive was acquired by Infogrames and renamed to Infogrames, Inc. In 2000, Humongous Entertainment released a One-Stop Fun Shop activity center game for each Junior Adventure series, with the exception of Spy Fox.[11] The co-founders tried to buy Humongous Entertainment back from Infogrames, Inc., using external funding, but the day of the planned purchase was the day of the dot-com collapse, wherefore the funding was pulled. The founders soon left Humongous, alongside many other key employees, and formed a new studio, Hulabee Entertainment, in 2001. In June 2001, Infogrames, Inc. laid off 82 personnel, over 40% of staff from Humongous Entertainment.[12] In May 2003, after Infogrames, Inc. purchased Hasbro Interactive, which owned the rights to the Atari brand, the company was renamed Atari, Inc.

Humongous, Inc. (2005-2013)

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In Atari, Inc.'s fourth quarter results in June 2005, the company announced that they would divest and dispose of various "non-core" assets that they no longer saw as part of their upcoming strategic visions or creative directions, with Humongous Entertainment being the only named division to fulfill this purpose.[13] Shortly afterward, Atari laid off much of the development portion of the company and renamed them from Humongous Entertainment, Inc. to solely Humongous, Inc. around the same time.[14][15] During this time, Atari, Inc. was in the midst of heavy financial struggles and was cutting costs as much as they could.

On August 22, 2005, Atari, Inc. announced that it would transfer Humongous, Inc. over to its majority parent, Infogrames Entertainment SA, for shares worth US$10.3 million. The deal would include all licensing rights, trademarks, intellectual property, and existing inventory. The deal would also allow for Atari, Inc. to use a fifth of the payment as a down payment, alongside continuing to exclusively distribute Humongous titles in North America and Mexico up until March 31, 2006.[16][17] In October 2005, Infogrames announced they would relaunch the Humongous brand, and hired Alyssa Padia and Lauren Schechtman as the new CEOs. Infogrames stated that Humongous would focus mainly on new entries in the Backyard Sports franchise and will follow up with a business strategy to relaunch the Junior Adventure series.[14][18] In March 2006, Atari, Inc.'s distribution deal with Humongous, Inc. was extended another year through to March 2007.[19]

Following the expiration of the Atari deal aside from Backyard Sports, Humongous began to publish games on their own and in October 2007, they had signed a retail exclusivity deal with Target to release remastered versions of select Junior Adventure titles.[20][21] In March 2008, Interactive Game Group LLC (I2G) and Humongous, Inc. signed a North American publishing deal with Majesco Entertainment to allow the latter to publish a selection of Junior Adventure titles for the Wii. These titles were the first installments of each title in the series, except Putt-Putt. Atari Europe would handle publication and distribution in European territories.[22][23] The ports were developed by Mistic Software, but their availability was greatly limited by a legal conflict concerning their development.[24][1] In November of the same year, Humongous and Atari released the Nintendo DS game Freddi Fish: ABC Under The Sea in European territories.[25]

In April 2008, Infogrames announced that they would purchase out the remaining shares of Atari, Inc. that they didn't own previously and would merge with them.[26][27] Following this merger, Infogrames Entertainment's company name was changed to Atari SA, who would go on to publish numerous more Backyard Sports titles.[28] Beginning in November 2011, in collaboration with Nimbus Games, Atari began releasing Android and iOS ports of several Humongous Entertainment Junior Adventure titles.[29] These releases continued into 2012.[30]

Purchase of assets by Tommo (2013-present)

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In January 2013, following continued financial struggles from their parent company Atari SA, Humongous, Inc., and the rest of Atari's US operations all filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection in an attempt to secure independence from its profit-losing parent.[31] During Atari's bankruptcy sale on July 19, Humongous' assets were separated as they all went to different owners. Backyard Sports was sold to private equity firm The Evergreen Group,[32] while Moonbase Commander went to Rebellion Developments.[33] The Humongous brand and assets concerning the Junior Adventure and Junior Arcade series were sold to Tommo alongside a selection of other Atari-owned properties.[34]

At the start of 2014, Tommo officially relaunched the Humongous Entertainment brand by re-releasing the original Junior Adventure and Junior Arcade titles for Windows and Mac; ports for most of these titles were also released for mobile devices.[34]

Beginning in 2022, Tommo and Hong Kong-based business Billionsoft began releasing ports of Junior Adventure titles for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 consoles.[35][36][37] A digital compilation of the first six releases, titled Humongous Classic Collection was released in December 2022 for both systems, while a Nintendo Switch exclusive physical compilation was released in 2023.[38][39][40] In May 2024, a digital compilation of all five of the Freddi Fish Junior Adventure games titled Freddi Fish Collection was released.[41][42][43]

Games developed

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Majesco Brings Humongous' Best-Selling Children's Properties to Wii". GameZone. March 25, 2008. Archived from the original on January 17, 2016. Retrieved June 6, 2015.
  2. ^ Kubin, Jacquie (October 1, 2000). "There's Humongous Rewards in Edutaining Little Kids". Animation World Network. Archived from the original on October 12, 2016.
  3. ^ "Humongous Entertainment Fast Facts". Humongous Entertainment. August 26, 1997. Archived from the original on February 10, 1998.
  4. ^ "Humongous Entertainment's Child's Play Develops Maturity". Los Angeles Times. September 15, 1997. Archived from the original on September 25, 2021. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
  5. ^ Dave Grossman (June 19, 2009). "Q&A With the Team". Telltale Games. Archived from the original on May 18, 2022. Retrieved February 19, 2021. True fact: It was Tim Schafer who suggested the name "Humongous Entertainment".
  6. ^ "Interview with Ron Gilbert". Nightdive Studios. June 22, 2014. Retrieved October 16, 2023.
  7. ^ Robert Sorbo. "Cyber Elite - Shelley Day". Archived from the original on April 9, 2009. Retrieved September 4, 2016.
  8. ^ "Cavedog Entertainment". December 12, 1998. Archived from the original on August 8, 2003. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  9. ^ "Company News; GT Interactive acquires Humongous Entertainment". New York Times. July 11, 1996. Archived from the original on September 25, 2021. Retrieved January 4, 2017.
  10. ^ "Nickelodeon and Humongous Entertainment Ink Exclusive Five-Year Worldwide Deal To Create CD-ROMs for Blue's Clues, Nick Jr.'s Top-Rated Preschool TV Show". Humongous Entertainment and Nickelodeon. November 6, 1997. Archived from the original on October 31, 2000. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
  11. ^ "Humongous Entertainment's One-Stop Fun Shops". May 4, 2012. Archived from the original on November 18, 2017. Retrieved June 10, 2017.
  12. ^ "Humongous cuts 40% of its staff". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. June 15, 2001. Archived from the original on August 14, 2017. Retrieved October 9, 2006.
  13. ^ https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-reports-fiscal-2005-fourth-quarter-and-year-end-results
  14. ^ a b "Infogrames Announces Relaunch for Humongous Brand".
  15. ^ https://contracts.onecle.com/atari-inc/infogrames-transfer-2005-08-22.shtml
  16. ^ https://www.ign.com/articles/2005/08/26/infogrames-buys-humongous
  17. ^ "Atari Sells Humongous to Infogrames for $10.3 Million". Business Week. August 28, 2005. Archived from the original on September 23, 2018. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
  18. ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20071014111554/http://www.backyardsports.com/corporate/press/NewTeam.pdf
  19. ^ "Form 10-K". Atari, Inc. June 29, 2006. Retrieved December 4, 2023 – via Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval.
  20. ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20080727004834/http://www.backyardsports.com/corporate/index.php
  21. ^ "Pajama Sam: Don't Fear the Dark (Only at Target Edition) - PC - GameSpy". pc.gamespy.com. Retrieved May 12, 2025.
  22. ^ "Majesco Entertainment and Interactive Game Group Bring Humongous' Best-Selling Children's Properties to Wii in the U.S." March 26, 2008. Archived from the original on December 27, 2021. Retrieved December 27, 2021.
  23. ^ "TWiG 2008-08-25: A Week with the Shovel, PopMatters". www.popmatters.com. August 24, 2008. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
  24. ^ Moss, Richard (January 16, 2012). "Maniac Tentacle Mindbenders: How ScummVM's unpaid coders kept adventure gaming alive". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on February 23, 2016. Retrieved February 16, 2016.
  25. ^ "Freddi Fish: ABC Under The Sea - Nintendo DS - GameSpy". ds.gamespy.com. Retrieved June 11, 2024.
  26. ^ Infogrames Entertainment S.A. and Atari, Inc. Announce Agreement to Merge: Financial News Yahoo! Finance Archived May 27, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  27. ^ "Atari GB". Corporate.infogrames.com. October 9, 2008. Archived from the original on February 19, 2009. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  28. ^ "Infogrames Entertainment Fiscal Year 2008/2009 Earnings" (PDF). Infogrames. May 29, 2009. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 3, 2023. Retrieved January 3, 2023.
  29. ^ Atari. "Atari Brings Award Winning HUMONGOUS Kids Edutainment Games to iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch for the First Time". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved January 17, 2024.
  30. ^ "Nimbus Games to bring their newest title, Spy Fox in Dry Cereal, to Android". Droid Gamers. May 16, 2012. Retrieved January 17, 2024.
  31. ^ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21124214
  32. ^ "The Evergreen Group Has Agreed to Acquire Backyard Sports Video Game Franchise". Business Week. July 24, 2013. Archived from the original on February 8, 2014. Retrieved January 12, 2014.
  33. ^ "Wargaming, Rebellion and Stardock all bid on Atari assets". Gamasutra. July 22, 2013. Archived from the original on January 6, 2014. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
  34. ^ a b Clark, Nicole (May 9, 2019). "From 'Putt Putt' to 'Freddi Fish'—How Humongous Entertainment Made Edutainment Fun". Vice. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
  35. ^ Humongous [@HumongousEnt] (February 3, 2022). "Get your adventure on with four of the best games you've ever played, arriving for #NintendoSwitch on February 10th" (Tweet). Retrieved February 10, 2022 – via Twitter.
  36. ^ Humongous [@HumongousEnt] (December 27, 2021). "Freddi Fish 3 and Putt-Putt Travels Through Time on January 3rd, 2022!" (Tweet). Retrieved January 4, 2022 – via Twitter.
  37. ^ "Once trapped in fragile plastic diskettes..." Twitter. November 2, 2022.
  38. ^ "Humongous Classic Collection". store.playstation.com. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
  39. ^ "Amazon.com: Humongous Classic Collection - Nintendo Switch: Video Games". www.amazon.com. Archived from the original on January 9, 2023. Retrieved January 9, 2023.
  40. ^ "Humongous Classic Collection for Nintendo Switch - Nintendo Official Site". www.nintendo.com. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
  41. ^ "The Freddi Fish Collection". HE. Retrieved May 9, 2025.
  42. ^ "Freddi Fish Collection for Nintendo Switch - Nintendo Official Site". www.nintendo.com. Retrieved May 9, 2025.
  43. ^ "Freddi Fish Collection". store.playstation.com. Retrieved May 9, 2025.
  44. ^ "Humongous Entertainment Brings a New Perspective to Children's Software; Putt-Putt's Newest Junior Adventure™ Puts Kids in the Driver's Seat Putt-Putt Enters the Race™ Hits Retail Stores This Week; Humongous.com Kicks off Online Launch Party for Putt-Putt on January 14" (Press release). Humongous Entertainment. January 5, 1999. Archived from the original on October 2, 1999.
  45. ^ a b "Remember the fun of creating mazes when you were a kid". February 23, 1997. Archived from the original on February 23, 1997. Retrieved April 22, 2025.
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