Ocean Software Limited

Company type	Video game developer Video game publisher
Predecessor	Spectrum Games
Founded	1983; 42 years ago (1983)
Founder	David Ward Jon Woods
Defunct	1998; 27 years ago (1998)
Fate	Acquired by and later folded intoInfogrames
Successor	Infogrames United Kingdom, nowBandai Namco Entertainment UK
Headquarters	6 Central Street, Manchester, England
Key people	Paul Patterson (Sales Manager) Gary Bracey (Software Development Manager) Steve Blower (Art Director) Colin Stokes (Operations Manager) Marc Djan (Ocean France)
Parent	Ocean International Ltd.

Ocean Software Limited was a British software development company that became one of the biggest Europeanvideo game developers andpublishers of the 1980s and 1990s.

The company was founded by David Ward and Jon Woods and was based inManchester. Ocean developed dozens of games for a variety ofhome computer systems such as theZX Spectrum,Oric 1,Commodore 64,Dragon 32/64,MSX,Amstrad CPC,Commodore 16,Atari ST,Amiga,IBM PC,BBC Micro andvideo game consoles, such as theNintendo Entertainment System,Super Nintendo Entertainment System,Master System, andSega Genesis/Mega Drive.

Jon Woods and David Ward createdSpectrum Games as a mail-order business in 1983 after being inspired by the success of Liverpool-based software housesImagine Software,Bug-Byte andSoftware Projects.^{[1]: 13–14} Their initial catalogue was based around clones ofarcade video games likeFrogger andMissile Command^[1]: 13 for various home computers including theZX81, ZX Spectrum andVIC-20.^[2]

While trying to sell their titles into high street stores it became clear that the company name was confusing to owners of machines other than the ZX Spectrum.^[1]: 16 The company was renamedOcean Software leading to some of its games being re-released with different titles so theBerzerk cloneFrenzy was reissued asRobotics andMissile Attack becameArmageddon.

By September 1984, the success of Ocean allowed Woods and Ward to invest £50,000 in a new software house in return for a 50% stake in the company.U.S. Gold was created by Geoff Brown, owner of Centresoft software distribution, and specialised in importing American Commodore 64 games for the UK market. U.S. Gold had no developers to port the Commodore games for the UK's most popular home computer, the ZX Spectrum, so Ocean produced the conversions of titles such asBeach Head,Raid over Moscow andTapper through its external development team, Platinum Productions.^{[3]: 37 [4]}

In October 1984, Ocean bought the name and branding of Imagine Software from the liquidators of the failed software house. Although originally intended to be a label exclusively for arcade conversions,^[5] the Imagine logo would also be used on a number of original titles, as well as on UK releases of games licensed from Spanish developersDinamic Software.

In 1985, Ocean and U.S. Gold collaborated again to launch a new label,The Hit Squad, for releasing compilation packages.^[3]: 69 The first release featured Ocean'sDaley Thompson's Decathlon, U.S. Gold'sBeach Head,Jet Set Willy fromSoftware Projects andSabre Wulf byUltimate Play the Game — all titles which had sold over a million copies — which led to the titleThey Sold A Million. The compilation went on to sell over a million copies, as did the second and third instalments in the series.

Over half of Ocean's releases for 8-bit home computers were coin-op conversions and licensed games.^[5] While initially focused on British licences, such asHunchback from Manchester's Century Electronics,^[6] Liverpool'sFrankie Goes to Hollywood, and Olympic decathleteDaley Thompson, its attention soon shifted to film licences, withThe NeverEnding Story becoming its first movie tie-in in 1985.^[1]: 16

In 1986, a deal was signed withTaito andData East for home versions of their arcade games, such asArkanoid,Renegade,The NewZealand Story andOperation Wolf.Operation Wolf was the first title to be converted to 16-bit platforms byOcean France, a company created by Ocean and Marc Djan in 1986. The studio produced most of its 16-bit arcade conversions until 1991, when the company became Ocean's French marketing and sales department.^[7]

1986 also produced titles based on the filmsRambo,Short Circuit andCobra, as well as the first licensedBatman game. But it would be its 1988 gameRoboCop, adapted from Data East's arcade game based on the filmRoboCop, that would go on to become the most successful movie licence in history by the end of the decade.^[8]

In 1987, Ocean via Imagine had a deal with Spanish publisher Dinamic Software to release four titles, before launching its own line in the United Kingdom.^[9] The following year, Ocean signed a deal with Special FX Software, a company formed by ex-Ocean employees to release titles for home computers, starting withFirefly.^[10]

In 1989,The Hit Squad branding reappeared as the new budget re-release label for Ocean's 8-bit back catalogue.^{[1]: 72 [11]} The entire series consisted of 122 titles over seven 8-bit formats. Their uniform style and numbering has led to them becoming highly collectable.^[11] Meanwhile, the company was working on its next big film tie-in, which would be specifically aimed at the new graphically superior 16-bit computers, theAtari ST andAmiga.^[1]: 58

The success ofRoboCop established Ocean globally,^[8][1]: 52 and it would be Warner Bros. who suggested to Ocean that it produce a tie-in based on its forthcomingBatman movie.^[1]: 58 The resultinggame was another tremendous hit for the company and is now regarded as one of the greatest video game/film tie-ins.^[12] The game was used as the basis of the Amiga 500 "Batman Pack",^[1]: 58 which became one of the most successful hardware/software bundles of all time. In 1990, Ocean launched its new subsidiary, Ocean of America, led by formerData East boss Ray Musci to publish titles for the American market.^[13]

Ocean was voted Best 8-bit Software House of the Year at the 1989Golden Joystick Awards,^[14] along with awards for its 8-bit and 16-bit conversions ofOperation Wolf.

In 1996, Ocean's parent company Ocean International Ltd. announced they would be purchased by and merge with French publisherInfogrames^[15] for £100 million. This was the first key purchase in Infogrames' "Expand through Acquisition" policy. After the merger, Ocean remained as a separate division of Infogrames, continuing to publish and distribute its own games, such asF-22: Air Dominance Fighter.,^[16] with the UK subsidiary beginning to distribute titles from Infogrames, such asV-Rally.

In 1997, Infogrames' French publishing division Infogrames Télématique launched a European-focused online gaming website under the Ocean brand calledOceanline. The website offered up simplified online versions of a majority of Infogrames' game catalog.^[17]

On 8 February 1998,Bruno Bonnell announced that Ocean Software Limited would be rebranded as Infogrames United Kingdom Limited in order to standardize its various subsidiaries under the Infogrames banner.^[18][19] Ocean of America, Inc. was later renamed as Infogrames Entertainment, Inc.^[20][21] Infogrames continued to use Ocean as a brand name for specific titles until the end of the year when the company quietly retired the brand in favour of their own. The last title published under the Ocean brand altogether was the North American release ofGT 64: Championship Edition for the Nintendo 64.

Infogrames Entertainment, Inc. began to publish games under their own banner, replacing Infogrames' previous United States subsidiary I-Motion Inc. Infogrames Entertainment, Inc. was soon folded intoInfogrames North America, Inc. — a renaming of Accolade — which then became Infogrames' United States division before being merged and folded intoInfogrames, Inc., a renaming of GT Interactive.

The UK subsidiary continued to publish and distribute Infogrames' titles in the country, later being renamed as Atari United Kingdom Limited in 2003. In 2009,Bandai Namco Entertainment purchasedAtari SA's European assets, and the remains of Ocean Software currently lie under the hands as Bandai Namco Entertainment's UK publishing and distribution division.^[19]

Starting withDaley Thompson's Decathlon in 1984, games on theZX Spectrum used theSpeedlock protection system, which eventually included a countdown timer showing the time left to load a game.^[22] On the Commodore 64, Ocean added a full-screen graphic to look at and some catchy music to listen to during the loading of the tape. Several different Loaders^[23] were implemented over the years. Eleven loaders are known to have been created for Ocean games. Some of the composers who created the music for the Ocean Loaders wereMartin Galway, Jonathan Dunn, and Peter Clarke.

The last few titles from Ocean before being renamed were published and distributed under Infogrames' umbrella, and consisted mostly of titles from Infogrames themselves.

• Infogrames United Kingdom Limited

• 1983 establishments in England
• 1998 disestablishments in England
• Defunct companies based in Manchester
• Defunct video game companies of the United Kingdom
• Golden Joystick Award winners
• Video game companies established in 1983
• Video game companies disestablished in 1998
• Video game development companies

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