Starbreeze, developers of the PayDay franchise, have bought the Cinemaware brand and all of it’s back catalogue. For any younglings reading, Cinemaware were a hugely innovative developer and publisher back in the late 1980’s who created games based on classic movie genres.
The games were famous for being graphically impressive and having rich stories. They were also famous for coming on a huge number of floppy discs, gamers had to “disc juggle” and swap between floppys at an alarming rate.
Starbreeze purchased the rights for a little over half a million Euros, and plan on turning some of the classic games in to new VR experiences.
“Defender of the Crown is one of the games that made me and many others at Starbreeze go into the gaming industry all those years ago. For many, Cinemaware set the bar for fun and immersive gaming in the ATARI and AMIGA-era. For us, as a developer, it will be a pleasure to re-energize and bring these great brands into the new era of VR and other platforms,” said Bo Andersson Klint, Starbreeze CEO.
The full list of IP’s included in the transaction are:
- The Cinemaware brand
- Defender of the Crown
- Wings
- The King of Chicago
- Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon
- Lords of the Rising Sun
- Rocket Ranger
- It Came from the Desert
- It Came from the Desert II: Antheads
- SDI
- TV Sports: Basketball
- TV Sports: Baseball
- TV Sports: Boxing
- TV Sports: Football
- TV Sports: Hockey
Source: Press release
DeadlyChipmunk
Defender of the Crown, Rocket Ranger and It Came from the Desert are three of my fav games from Cinemaware. I’d love to see a Rocket Ranger remake and hopefully they’d do a non-VR version as well as a VR one.
Bring back the classics!!