The History Of The Video Game Industry, Flowchart-Style

If you're into games the way we're into games, you're less a fan and more an obsessive. That means you probably care a lot not just about the games themselves but also the people who made them.

Alas, the tree of game development history is gnarled indeed. It'd take some kind of savant to keep all the relationships straight, the who-bought-whoms and the which-group-went-on-to-found-what-indie-studio and such. Have you ever wondered what happened to all those internal Sega studios with the awesome names like Smilebit, Hitmaker, and Overworks? Ever tried to get a handle on the entire "2K [PlaceName]" cabal? Are you shocked to find out that Killzone developer Guerrilla used to be called Lost Boys, or that those fine lads at Rare once labored under the moniker of Ultimate: Play the Game?  
 
Then boy howdy, is this chart for you! It's an absurdly detailed diagram showing more game development companies than you can possibly shake a stick at. Note the legend at the bottom, so you can distinguish "sold" from "name change" and "formed by former members of."   
 
 

If you're into games the way we're into games, you're less a fan and more an obsessive. That means you probably care a lot not just about the games themselves but also the people who made them.

Alas, the tree of game development history is gnarled indeed. It'd take some kind of savant to keep all the relationships straight, the who-bought-whoms and the which-group-went-on-to-found-what-indie-studio and such. Have you ever wondered what happened to all those internal Sega studios with the awesome names like Smilebit, Hitmaker, and Overworks? Ever tried to get a handle on the entire "2K [PlaceName]" cabal? Are you shocked to find out that Killzone developer Guerrilla used to be called Lost Boys, or that those fine lads at Rare once labored under the moniker of Ultimate: Play the Game?  
 
Then boy howdy, is this chart for you! It's an absurdly detailed diagram showing more game development companies than you can possibly shake a stick at. Note the legend at the bottom, so you can distinguish "sold" from "name change" and "formed by former members of."   
 
 

quite interesting actually

duude, crazy!

It's a graph! About videogames! I love these things! Cheers Brad.

It scares me

Oh snap.

You're welcome.

Good god, that would have taken long time. I also find it, really, really confusing. Some sort of time line chart might have been better.

Hmm, monolithsoft doesn't show any relationship with squaresoft.  I thought they were formed by the people who did xenogears for square weren't they?

I loved Psygnosis, that owl was like a brother to me.

Ahhhhhh! too much flowchart to handle!

Woah.

Psygnosis is two icons right from Guerrilla.  It's actually in the image you posted.  Near the center, where your eyes tend to focus first.

" Ahhhhhh! too much flow chat to handle! "

Its amazing (and a little sad) to see that names of all of those independent studios that I remember as a kid that have just been bought up by the big games companies.

Black sea studios ftw Knights of honor <3

Thanks Brad, that's awesome, I'll take great delight in checking it out.

interesting, but having to scroll way down to see the legend makes it too much work.... interesting though

Spawn of InfoPath... I BANISH THEE!!!

There's definitely a few omissions. Aside from the lack of Bethesda, another I noticed when I spotted an unconnected Double Fine at the bottom, is the lack of LucasArts. What's there is impressive and seems accurate though.

Well, I knew Blizzard had been called Chaos Studios, before copyright problems with the name. But 'Silicon & Synapse' before that? wow.

I like it! Shame it's missing some key players like Valve.

holy shit.

found that last night blew my mind

Epic flowchart! :)

@Brad 
Psygnosis is just to the left of Sega at the mid-right side of the chart. 
 
Evony is its own developer?

I found this a couple days ago and its the coolest thing!! :)

The games industry is one of the most exciting industries in the world, great to see this.

I tried to make sense of that flowchart and find out where to begin but my brain exploded so I guess I'll never know.

Psygnosis was actually in that image you posted, Brad.

Psygnosis was the first to my knowledge to do the "lensflare" effect in games. :)

Finally,  poster worthy of my barren walls :)

Yeah I don't see many of the big PC players, like id and Valve.

Can't seem to spot Valve. Really awesome though.

" 2K Czech? What? "

I'm sure our mighty GB engineers could script up something like this easily from the GB database.

I stored it on my computer right away. It is interesting to see how all these companies intertwine. 
Taito being bought by Square Enix makes sense, they made my favourite RPG of the SNES era.
 
Also didn't know EA Sims is its own studio, I do miss the line with Maxis though, since my sense of logic says it should be there, or am I wrong?

My head hurts.

 the history of the video game industry flowchart style:
 
Atari -> Nintendo -> Sega -> Sony -> SHORYUKEN!!!

Activision owns Origin systems.
 
Where is my new Wing Commander ???
 
Or Syndicate

There are a few that are annoyingly not on there Origin and Interplay most specifically, also no SSI.

: O

They should sell poster prints of these.
 
Also, Smilebit was awesome.

Cool