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    Insomniac Games

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    Insomniac Games was founded in 1994, and for a decade developed titles exclusively for Sony platforms such as Spyro, Ratchet and Clank, and Resistance. In 2013 they released their first multiplatform game, Fuse, on PS3 and Xbox 360, and in 2014 released their first current-gen title, Sunset Overdrive, exclusively on the Xbox One.

    Short summary describing this company.

    Insomniac Games last edited by MichaelPeterson on 12/20/20 03:31AM View full history

    Overview

    Insomniac Games was founded in 1994 by Ted Price, and is well known for creating a variety of well received games. Their headquarters are located in Burbank, California and as of May 2014 consists of over 180 staff. The company is highly regarded within the games industry, and has been awarded 'Best Workplace' 8 times in a row since 2005. In June 2008, it was revealed that Insomniac was planning on opening a new development studio in North Carolina in order to continue working on existing properties. Although they are an independent company, they have only ever released games on Sony platforms.

    Price and Alex Hastings worked together to form a demo of a game that would eventually become Disruptor. After searching for a publisher willing to back them, they finally struck a deal with Mark Cerny, of Universal Interactive Studios for three games. Brian Hastings, Alex's brother also joined the team, and together, they finished Disruptor in 1996. The game was critically well received, and sold reasonably well for the limited advertising, with 200,000 copies sold allowing the company to break even.

    After Disruptor, Insomniac changed direction completely, venturing into the platforming genre. At this time, most of the successful 3D platformers were only available on the Nintendo 64 ( Mario 64, Banjo Kazooie etc). With the financial support of Universal, Insomniac went on to release Spyro the Dragon for the Playstation, which was a huge success, selling over 5 million copies. Its subsequent Insomniac-developed sequels, Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage and Spyro: Year of the Dragon, also were well received, selling over 5.5 million copies together.

    After the release of the third Spyro game, Insomniac ended their partnership with Universal, looking to maximize profits. However, due to the Spyro franchise being owned by Universal, Insomniac was unable to continue developing for the series. Instead, they moved directly onto the Playstation 2, where they began pre-production for an adventure game, which according to Price, contained a 'much different character, in a darker environment'. The concept was abandoned, and instead the team began developing Ratchet & Clank. When designing the game, Naughty Dog, who were themselves working on Jak at the time, allowed Insomniac's designers to use some of their code to help with the game's production. Later, Insomniac returned the favor, allowing them to use some of their own code for other games. Ratchet & Clank was a huge success and resulted in 5 more games in the series, with over 15 million copies sold in total.

    Insomniac made their Playstation 3 debut with the launch title Resistance: Fall of Man. In many ways it was a return to their first-person shooter roots, a genre they had not delved into since Disruptor. The game sold over 4 millions units world wide and resulted in a sequel; Resistance 2.

    In 2003, a group of former Insomniac staff formed a new development studio called High Impact Games, though they continue to create Insomniac licensed titles.

    They were also one of the first developers to host their own podcast, The Full Moon Show, which is broadcast twice a month and features latest news of their games, a guest involved in the games industry and community updates.

    In 2010, Insomniac Games announced two more games in which would contain the PlayStation 3 exclusivity, even though they've announced multi-platform games. They have announced one sequel and a spin off of another series. The first game they announced is Resistance 3, a sequel to Resistance 2. A reveal trailer was shown, and it depicts a group of people riding in a train showing vintage weapons and as well as clothing. The trailer uses real actors, and depicts the world they are riding past, which seems to be somewhat destroyed, then stop at a station. Then Chimera attack them inside the train cart, the people start to shoot then a Resistance 3 logo ends the trailer.

    The other game announced was Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, which is a new Ratchet game where you can now for the first time control four of the main characters. The trailer showed the characters teaming up after the events of defeating Dr. Nefarious.

    Both games were revealed at GamesCon 2010.

    At EA's Press Conference for E3 2011, Insomniac announced their EA Partner's publishing deal with their first multiplatform title: Overstrike. Little was known about the title after the announcement, it was described as a cooperative experience revolving around a team of 4 secret agents. Prior to this EA Publishing arrangement, Insomniac had developed exclusively only for Sony, and had up to this point did not own any of their own intellectual properties that they had created.

    On August 31st, 2012, it was announced that Overstrike had been revised and renamed Fuse, and bettered suit towards a more serious action orientated demographic.

    On June 10th, 2013, the latest game from Insomniac called Sunset Overdrive was announced. The Xbox One exclusive game features a city to traverse using 'hyper agility' and an 'arsenal of kick-ass', according to the official site of the game.

    In the fall of 2019 Sony acquired Insomniac for $229 million, bringing the long time second party partner into its stable of studios. Development of a new Ratchet and Clank game was announced in 2020, slated for release on the PS5 in 2021.

    Games

    Release DateTitlesPlatforms
    1996DisruptorPlayStation
    1998Spyro the DragonPlayStation
    1999Spyro: Ripto's Rage!PlayStation
    2000Spyro: Year of the DragonPlayStation
    2002Ratchet & ClankPlayStation 2
    2003Ratchet & Clank: Going CommandoPlayStation 2
    2004Ratchet & Clank: Up Your ArsenalPlayStation 2
    2005Ratchet: DeadlockedPlayStation 2
    2006Resistance: Fall of ManPlayStation 3
    2007Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of DestructionPlayStation 3
    2008Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for BootyPlayStation 3
    2008Resistance 2PlayStation 3
    2009Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in TimePlayStation 3
    2011Resistance 3PlayStation 3
    2011Ratchet & Clank: All 4 OnePlayStation 3
    2012Ratchet & Clank CollectionPlayStation 3
    2012Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal AssaultPlayStation 3
    2013FusePlayStation 3, Xbox 360
    2014Sunset OverdriveXbox One
    2016Ratchet & ClankPlaystation 4
    2018Marvel's Spider-ManPlaystation 4

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