Stormfront Studios

  1. Home
  2. Wiki
"Beyond Software" redirects here. For the British video game company, see Telecomsoft § Beyond Software.
Stormfront Studios, Inc.
FormerlyBeyond Software (1988–1993)
Company typePrivate
IndustryVideo games
FoundedDecember 28, 1988; 36 years ago (1988-12-28)
FounderDon Daglow
DefunctMarch 31, 2008 (2008-03-31)
FateDissolved
Headquarters
San Rafael, California
,
U.S.
Key people
Don Daglow (President & CEO)
Number of employees
33 (2008)

Stormfront Studios, Inc. was an American video game developer based in San Rafael, California. The studio was led by the pioneering developer Don Daglow. They were known for their work with RPGs in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including the first MMORPG with a graphical interface, Neverwinter Nights (1991). For the remainder of the 1990s they were primarily a sports studio, and launched games in many long running franchises including Tiger Woods PGA Tour. Switching to licensed titles in the early 2000s the studio had success with the critically acclaimed The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, but otherwise the group struggled financially with film adaptations and shut down in 2008.

The company received major awards and award nominations in its time, from The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, G4 Television, BAFTA, The IGDA Game Developers Choice Awards, The EMMA Awards, SCEA, and the Software Publishers Association. In 2008, Neverwinter Nights was honored (along with EverQuest and World of Warcraft) at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for advancing the art form of MMORPG games. In its final configuration in 2007, the company had over 50 developers working on two teams, and owned its proprietary engines, tools, and technology. The studio sold fourteen million copies of its games over its lifetime.[1][2]

History

[edit]

Origins and RPG focus (1988-1993)

[edit]

Stormfront was founded in 1988 as Beyond Software by Don Daglow, who had worked as a game programmer and then as Director of Game Development at Mattel Intellivision, as a producer at Electronic Arts, and as a production executive at Broderbund.[3] Stormfront's management includes veterans of Disney, Electronic Arts, Ensemble Studios, LucasArts, Origin Systems, THX, Vivendi Universal and Warner Bros. The name would be changed in 1993 as the trademark for Beyond proved difficult to enforce.

Daglow had previously worked on game projects with Kathi McHugh and Steve Case of AOL (then called Quantum Computer Services). Stormfront's initial projects were a series of online titles for AOL, including the first fully automated play-by-email game, Quantum Space (1989).[3] This led to the studio adopting the Dungeons & Dragons license to develop Neverwinter Nights in 1991. The title was the first graphical MMORPG and remained active until 1997. Neverwinter Nights held the all-time record as the top revenue-producing online RPG for almost ten years until the success of Ultima Online in the late 1990s. The studio also developed a number of single player Gold Box D&D titles, starting with Gateway to the Savage Frontier (1991).[4] The D&D license was also used to develop the first RTS game to use a 3D perspective, Stronghold (1993).[3]

EA Sports era (1993-2000)

[edit]

The studio developed Tony La Russa's Ultimate Baseball in 1991, working closely with baseball manager Tony La Russa. The game was the most successful of SSI's works outside of D&D, and would change the company's direction for the decade. Some of the design principles SSI introduced, such as a circular marker beneath the player with posession of the ball, would become ubiquitous in the sports genre.[3] From 1993, the studio would focus largely on sports titles, many of which were published by a then recently founded EA Sports. Daglow had previously designed or co-designed a number of baseball games, including the first ever adaptation of the sport Baseball (1971), as well as Intellivision World Series Baseball and Earl Weaver Baseball with Eddie Dombrower. The studio's relationship with EA Sports would prove profitable over the course of the decade, and SSI developed eleven games for the publisher. This included work on a number of long lived franchises, such as NASCAR Racing,[5] John Madden Football, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour. The studio produced sports titles almost exclusively over the period, though sometimes they were published by other groups. ESPN National Hockey Night for example was published by Sony.

Licensed titles (2000-2008)

[edit]

The studio worked on a variety of licenses during the 2000s. This included two final D&D games, Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor (2001) and Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone (2004). There were a few successful titles such as their adaptation of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002),[6] which won the group an Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Award for Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering. Their other movie adaptations in the period, including Eragon (2006) and The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008) were less successful.[7][8] Stormfront closed on March 31, 2008 due to poor business performance.[1]

Games developed

[edit]
Year Title Publisher Platform(s)
1996 Andretti Racing EA Sports PC, PlayStation and Sega Saturn
1997 Andretti Racing '98 EA Sports PC
2001 Blood Wake Microsoft Game Studios Xbox
1997 Byzantine: The Betrayal Discovery Channel PC
1994 Eagle Eye Mysteries in London Creative Wonders (EA Kids) PC and Mac
1993 Eagle Eye Mysteries Creative Wonders (EA Kids) PC and Mac
2006 Eragon Vivendi Universal Games Xbox 360, Xbox, PC and PS2
1994 ESPN Baseball Tonight Sony PC
1995 ESPN National Hockey Night Sony PC
2004 Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone Atari Xbox, PC and PS2
1991 Gateway to the Savage Frontier SSI PC, C64 and Amiga
1999 Hot Wheels Turbo Racing EA PlayStation and Nintendo 64
2001 Legend of Alon D'ar UbiSoft PS2
2000 Lego My Style: Kindergarten Lego Media PC and Mac
2000 Lego My Style: Preschool Lego Media PC and Mac
1996 Madden NFL '97 EA Sports PC
1997 Madden NFL '98 EA Sports PC
1994 Mario Andretti Racing EA Sports Sega Genesis
1997 NASCAR 98 EA Sports PlayStation and Sega Saturn
1998 NASCAR 99 EA Sports PlayStation and Nintendo 64
1999 NASCAR 2000 EA Sports PC, PlayStation and Nintendo 64
1991 Neverwinter Nights AOL, SSI PC
1995 Old Time Baseball Self-published PC
2001 Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor Ubisoft PC
1993 Rebel Space Prodigy PC and Mac
1996 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Harbinger Viacom New Media PC and Mac
1998 Starfire Soccer Challenge Purple Moon PC and Mac
1993 Stronghold SSI PC
2002 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers EA PS2, Xbox, GBA[9]
2008 The Spiderwick Chronicles Sierra Wii, Xbox 360 and PC
2000 Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf 2001 EA Sports PlayStation
1991 Tony La Russa Ultimate Baseball SSI PC
1993 Tony La Russa Ultimate Baseball EA Sports Sega Genesis
1994 Tony La Russa Baseball '95 EA Sports Sega Genesis
1994 Tony La Russa Baseball II SSI PC
1995 Tony La Russa Baseball 3 Self-published PC
1996 Tony La Russa Baseball 3: 1996 Edition Self-published PC
1997 Tony La Russa Baseball 4 Maxis PC
1992 Treasures of the Savage Frontier SSI PC and Amiga
1989 Quantum Space AOL PC, Mac, Apple II and C64
1988 The QuantumLink Serial AOL PC, Mac, Apple II and C64

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "Stormfront Studios shutting down". 2 April 2008.
  2. ^ "Breaking Report: Stormfront To Shutter Studio". April 2008.
  3. ^ a b c d "Don Daglow, Game Developer".
  4. ^ Bye, John (23 August 2001). "Pool of Radiance - Ruins of Myth Drannor". Eurogamer.net.
  5. ^ "NASCAR 99". IGN. 23 June 1998.
  6. ^ "Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone First Look". GameSpot.
  7. ^ "IGN Eragon review". Archived from the original (Review) on 2006-12-01. Retrieved 2007-02-25.
  8. ^ "The Spiderwick Chronicles". www.metacritic.com. Retrieved 2024-05-19.
  9. ^ "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (GBA)". Metacritic. Archived from the original on September 13, 2008. Retrieved November 5, 2014.
[edit]