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Camelot Software Planning

Camelot CO. LTD is a video game developer company formed back in 1990 originally under the name Sega CD4. However, the company was after a short time renamed to Sonic Software Planning. The company got its name after Sonic the Hedgehog and they were closely involved with Sega. In addition, the studio has also created many other successful games in the franchise in which Shining Force 1 and 2 are included. Few years later, the studio was officially divided from Sega. However, the company signed a contract in which they were agreeing to continue creating games for the Shining series. In addition to that, they also signed a contract to not to publish any other games for rival systems that could somehow threaten the upcoming big success of the Shining franchise.

When Shining Force 3 was around, the studio started working under the current name they have. Sometime later, Sega started switching their focus to their resources on the Dreamcast which resulted into parting Camelot with their last Shining Force 3 scene for the Sega Saturn in threat. Even though the scene was published, the studio decided to leave Sega entirely and to start a new partnership with Nintendo. Moreover, after that Camelot created many Mario sports titles in which Mario Tennis and Mario Golf are included. In addition, they also developed the Golden Sun series of the role-playing games.

Shining Force

Shining Force is one of the games they worked on while they were working with Sega. Since the first game was success, they decided to develop another game and they turned out to be series. Shining Force is a fantasy turn-based logics and role playing video game developed originally for the Mega Drive/Genesis console back in 1992. It’s a game where the focus lies on the traditional fantasy-themed game; however, the game has some science fiction elements. Moreover, Shining Force has been constantly re-published in Sega Smash Pack 2 for Windows and Sega Smash Pack Vol 1 for the Dreamcast, in Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. In addition, the game has been released as a standalone game for the Microsoft Windows via Steam and for the Wii Virtual Console.

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French Bread (Game Developer)

French Bread is a company dedicated to the video game developing industry. It’s a Japanese company and they are most popular for their work in fighting games, especially the Melty Blood series. At first, the studio was officially started as a group of people who shared the same interest. That’s a Japanese word “Dojin”. In this case that is developing new games. They have been mainly focused on creating fighting games, with few exceptions like the Bike Banditz. The latest development by the studio was Under Night In-Birth and was officially released in September 2012. In the summer of 2013, an updated version of the game was released with the name Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late. Moreover, the studio has worked together with Ecole Software and Sega to create a new awesome fighting game named Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax.

Foundation

Originally, the company was started under the name Watanabe Manufacturing by a friend of the founder. Narita Shinya, who is the producer in the studio, often played video games after school with his friend who suggested the name. At first, they created desk accessories for Windows. Sometime later, Narita founded dojin Windows fighting games and action games such as the Moon Lights 2 and Tokimeki Taise which we reported from the X68000 home computer. In addition, he decided to create his own personal project for Windows. At first, the project was considered as original work, however, making new unique character designs and graphics showed to be challenging. Sometime later, Narita was introduced to the visual novel To Heard and then he decided to create his own game as “copied” work.

Characters for the project he was working were obtained from To Heart, while the system method was based on the game Asuka 120%. Asuka 120% is a game that served as an impact for Narita and his group. The first game they developed was The Queen of Heart ’98 and was officially published in 1998 for Microsoft Windows. Moreover, the game features characters from To Heart and was released to positive critical greeting from dojin gamers.

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Blue Byte

Blue Byte is a video game developer company located in Dusseldorf, Germany. The company’s history goes back to October 1988 when it was founded bu Lothar Schmitt and Thomas Hertzler. Blue Byte is famous for creating The Settlers and the Anno series. After forming the company, years later in 2001, Blue Byte was officially bought by Ubisoft. As of 2014, Related Designs has become a part of Blue Byte.

Startup

Back in 1988, Lothar and Thomas left Rainbows Arts, which is another video game developer company based in Germany and founded their own, Blue Byte. In October 1988 they started the company; however they used a starting capital of 10,000 Deutsche Mark that were borrowed from Thomas’s parents. After getting the money, they started the office in Mulheim.

First Games

The company’s first game that was officially published by Ubisoft in 1989 was the tennis simulation Great Courts. However, the company’s first big success in Europe was the turn-based strategy game called Battle Isle which was fully finished in 1991. In addition, they were inspired by the game Nectaris for the PC Engine which resulted into Battle Isle spawning many sequels and add-ons. Moreover, another big success for the company was the game Die Siedler in 1993 that was promoted internationally as The Settlers. This game also had many sequels and became the most popular product of Blue Byte.

Ubi Soft Acquisition

In the start of 2001, the company was officially bought by Ubi Soft (today’s Ubisoft) and started focusing on their 2 most famous series. When the acquisition took place, the company had 64 employees and was active in the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom. When 2013 rolled by, the company started collaborating with Related Designs on two of their titles in which Might and Magic Heroes Online was included. In addition, Related Designs was bought in April 2013 by Ubisoft. That meant both Blue Byte and Related Designs would create projects in tandem. In 2018 it was officially announced by the studio that they started working on the 8th game in The Settlers series. According to a report in July 2018, the company employs 360 people together with Ubisoft Berlin.

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Westwood Studios

Westwood Studios is a video game developer company located in Las Vegas, Nevada. The history of the company goes back to 1985 when it was founded by Louis Castle and Bret Sperry originally as Westwood Associates. Years later, when it was merged with Virgin Interactive, the name was changed to Westwood Studios in 1992. In 1998, Westwood Studios was acquired by EA alongside Virgin Interactive’s North American operations. Years later, in 2003, it was officially announced that Westwood Studios, alongside EA Pacific, would be merged into EA Los Angeles. In March the same year, the studio was closed. The company is most famous for creating role-playing, adventure and real-time strategy video games. In addition, they were listed in the Guinness World Records for selling over 10 million prints of Command & Conquer all around the world.

Games Developed

We already mentioned that they have created many games and were famous especially under 3 genres. The real-time strategy, role-playing and adventure are their best genres. We are going to talk about game they created and as a matter of fact, it’s our favorite.

Command & Conquer

Command & Conquer is a real-time strategy video game created by Westwood Studios. It was officially published in 1995 by Virgin Interactive. The story is in alternate history of modern day. Command & Conquer tells the player a story of a world war between 2 globalized factions. Those globalized factions are a militant organization, which in the game is called the Brotherhood of Nod, and the other is the Global Defensive Initiative. Since the game was such a success, the studio started working on other games which became a series. The first game in the series proved to be the biggest success because by 2009 it has sold more than 30 million copies.

The company that was founded in 1985, was merged with Virgin Interactive and was bought by Electronic arts became defunct on March 31, 2003. In addition to being popular with the Command & Conquer series, the company was also famous with other series like Dune, Lands of Lore and The Legend of Kyrandia. Even though they were closed, they left quite big games to be remembered by.

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Game box art from the late 1970s and early 80s

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I’ve been laughing at this for 5 minutes straight

source

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Barbie Super Model (DOS), 1993.