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| Formerly | Beyond Software (1988–1993) |
|---|---|
| Company type | Private |
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | December 28, 1988; 36 years ago (1988-12-28) |
| Founder | Don Daglow |
| Defunct | March 31, 2008 (2008-03-31) |
| Fate | Dissolved |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Don Daglow(President &CEO) |
Number of employees | 33 (2008) |
Stormfront Studios, Inc. was an Americanvideo game developer based inSan Rafael, California. The studio was led by the pioneering developerDon 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 includingTiger Woods PGA Tour. Switching to licensed titles in the early 2000s the studio had success with the critically acclaimedThe 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, fromThe Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences,G4 Television,BAFTA, TheIGDAGame Developers Choice Awards, TheEMMA Awards,SCEA, and theSoftware Publishers Association. In 2008,Neverwinter Nights was honored (along withEverQuest andWorld of Warcraft) at the 59th AnnualTechnology & Engineering Emmy Awards for advancing the art form ofMMORPG 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]
Stormfront was founded in 1988 asBeyond Software byDon Daglow, who had worked as agame programmer and then as Director of Game Development atMattelIntellivision, as a producer atElectronic Arts, and as a production executive atBroderbund.[3] Stormfront's management includes veterans ofDisney,Electronic Arts,Ensemble Studios,LucasArts,Origin Systems,THX,Vivendi Universal andWarner Bros. The name would be changed in 1993 as the trademark forBeyond proved difficult to enforce.
Daglow had previously worked on game projects withKathi McHugh andSteve Case ofAOL (then calledQuantum Computer Services). Stormfront's initial projects were a series of online titles for AOL, including the first fully automatedplay-by-email game,Quantum Space (1989).[3] This led to the studio adopting theDungeons & Dragons license to developNeverwinter Nights in 1991. The title was the first graphicalMMORPG and remained active until 1997.Neverwinter Nights held the all-time record as the top revenue-producing onlineRPG for almost ten years until the success ofUltima Online in the late 1990s. The studio also developed a number of single playerGold Box D&D titles, starting withGateway to the Savage Frontier (1991).[4] The D&D license was also used to develop the firstRTS game to use a3D perspective,Stronghold (1993).[3]
The studio developedTony La Russa's Ultimate Baseball in 1991, working closely with baseball managerTony 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 possession 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 foundedEA Sports. Daglow had previously designed or co-designed a number of baseball games, including the first ever adaptation of the sportBaseball (1971), as well asIntellivision World Series Baseball andEarl Weaver Baseball withEddie 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 asNASCAR Racing,[5]John Madden Football, andTiger 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.
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) andForgotten Realms: Demon Stone (2004). There were a few successful titles such as their adaptation ofThe Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002),[6] which won the group anAcademy of Interactive Arts & SciencesAward for Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering. Their other movie adaptations in the period, includingEragon (2006) andThe Spiderwick Chronicles (2008) were less successful.[7][8] Stormfront closed on March 31, 2008 due to poor business performance.[1]
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