![]() Purchase by Blockbuster Entertainment and Spelling Entertainment (1994-1998) Īs more media companies became interested in interactive entertainment, Blockbuster Entertainment, then the world's largest video-store chain, acquired 20 percent of Virgin Interactive Entertainment in January 1994. In late 1993, Virgin Interactive spun off a new company, Virgin Sound and Vision, to focus exclusively on CD-based children's entertainment. The deal cut off competitors like Mattel and Fisher-Price who were interested in a similar partnership. Hasbro wanted to create titles based on its brands, which included Transformers, G.I. Hasbro, who had previously licensed some of its properties to Virgin, bought 15 percent-later increased to 16.2 percent-stake in VIE in August 1993. acquired Mastertronic in 1991 while Virgin retained a small publishing unit, which was renamed Virgin Interactive Entertainment in 1993. To gain a foothold in its newly established market, Sega Enterprises, Ltd. The Mastertronic acquisition enabled Virgin to compete with Nintendo in the growing home console market. ![]() Mastertronic had been the distributor of the Master System in the United Kingdom and is credited with introducing Sega to the European market, where they expanded rapidly. in 1988 with Alper as its president which enabled Virgin to expand its business reach overseas. The subsequent merger created Virgin Mastertronic Ltd. Richard Branson stepped in and offered to buy 45 percent of Mastertronic stake, in exchange Mastertronic joined the Virgin Group. Mastertronic had opened its North American headquarters in Irvine, California just a year earlier to build on its success at home, though growth exhausted its resources after expanding in Europe and acquiring publisher Melbourne House. Purchase of Mastertronic and rebranding to Virgin Mastertronic (1987-1991) ġ987 marked a turning point for Virgin after its acquisition of struggling distributor Mastertronic. The company expanded with the acquisition of several smaller publishers, Rabbit Software, New Generation Software and Leisure Genius (publishers of the first officially licensed computer versions of Scrabble, Monopoly and Cluedo). Early successes included Sorcery and Dan Dare. The firm initially relied on submissions by freelancer developers, but set up its own in-house development team in 1984, known as the Gang of Five. It was headquartered in Portobello Road, London. Nick Alexander formed Virgin Games in 1983 after leaving Thorn EMI. A close affiliate and successor of Spanish origin, Virgin Play, was formed in 2002 from the ashes of former Virgin Interactive's Spanish division and kept operating until it folded in 2009. The VIE library and intellectual properties are owned by Interplay Entertainment as a result of its acquisition of Titus. VIE ceased to exist in mid-2003 after being acquired by French publisher Titus Software who rebranded them to Avalon Interactive in July of that year. division closer to Hollywood as it began developing sophisticated interactive games, leading to partnerships with Disney and other major studios on motion picture-based games such as The Lion King, Aladdin, RoboCop, and The Terminator, in addition to being the publisher of popular titles from other companies like Capcom's Resident Evil series and Street Fighter Collection and id Software's Doom II in the European market. Īs result of a growing trend throughout the 1990s of media companies, movie studios and telecom firms investing in video game makers to create new forms of entertainment, VIE became part of the entertainment industry after being acquired by media companies Blockbuster and Viacom, who were attracted by its multimedia and CD-ROM-based software development.īeing located in close proximity to the thirty-mile zone and having access to the media content of its parent companies drew Virgin Interactive's U.S. ![]() To highlight its focus beyond video games and on multimedia, the publisher was renamed Virgin Interactive Entertainment in 1993. ![]() As Virgin's video game division grew into a multimedia powerhouse, it crossed over to other industries from toys to film to education. Others include video game composer Tommy Tallarico and animators Bill Kroyer and Andy Luckey.įormed as Virgin Games in 1983, and built around a small development team called the Gang of Five, the company grew significantly after purchasing budget label Mastertronic in 1987. It developed and published games for major platforms and employed developers, including Westwood Studios co-founder Brett Sperry and Earthworm Jim creators David Perry and Doug TenNapel. Virgin Interactive Entertainment (later renamed Avalon Interactive) was the video game publishing division of British conglomerate the Virgin Group. Virgin Interactive España SA (Split in 2002) Westwood Studios (Both purchased by EA in 1998) ![]()
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