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Frogboy
Frogboy
Join Date 03/2001
+2419 sdemperor

Is Stardock the oldest remaining private game studio?

May 29, 2012 3:17:24 PM from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums

A quick question:

Are there any privately held game studios older than Stardock still in business?

Stardock’s first game was released in 1994 (Galactic Civilizations) and was incorporated in 1993.

I don’t mean hobbyists but actual studio with full time employees.

Anyone know?

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Frogboy
the_Monk
Join Date 01/2008
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Reply #1 May 29, 2012 3:21:41 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

You very well may be..........you old fart! 

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Frogboy
jackswift85
Join Date 01/2009
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Reply #2 May 29, 2012 3:40:32 PM
from Elemental ForumsElemental Forums

I was going to say Maxis but they merged with EA quite a while ago if I remember correctly.

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Frogboy
Kazriko
Join Date 07/2004
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Reply #3 May 29, 2012 4:48:06 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

You're even older than Spiderweb software, by 1 year. That was the only other one I could think of. Kaser has been around longer, but has no employees. 

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Frogboy
Ashbery76
Join Date 02/2002
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Reply #4 May 29, 2012 5:47:00 PM
from Elemental ForumsElemental Forums

DELETE.

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Frogboy
Cauldyth
Join Date 07/2004
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Reply #5 May 29, 2012 6:09:10 PM
from Elemental ForumsElemental Forums

Stardock’s first game was released in 1994 (Galactic Civilizations) and was incorporated in 1993.

When in 1993?  Ambrosia Software, maker of the great Escape Velocity series, was founded August 18, 1993.

 

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Frogboy
Cauldyth
Join Date 07/2004
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Reply #6 May 29, 2012 6:20:10 PM
from Elemental ForumsElemental Forums

Ah, there we go.  Codemasters, founded in 1986.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codemasters

 

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Frogboy
zigzag
Join Date 10/2001
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Reply #7 May 29, 2012 6:59:45 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

They're not that rare. LucasArts was the first company I checked, and it was founded in 1982.

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Frogboy
Frogboy
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Reply #8 May 29, 2012 7:32:55 PM
from Elemental ForumsElemental Forums

LucasArts is part of LucasFilm.  Codemasters, though seems to be privately held. I'd say that counts.

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Frogboy
zigzag
Join Date 10/2001
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Reply #9 May 29, 2012 9:48:32 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

LucasFilm is privately held. Although, if you included subsidiaries of privately held companies, then you'd also need to include all the Valve and ZeniMax studios, so that's probably cheating.

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Frogboy
Frogboy
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Reply #10 May 29, 2012 9:58:17 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Valve is privately held. But it's not that old of a studio.

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Frogboy
zigzag
Join Date 10/2001
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Reply #11 May 29, 2012 10:07:14 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Yeah, I was wondering if any of their subsidiaries were older. Guess not.

Did some quick Wikipedia research. Apparently, 1C is privately held. And produces a heck of a lot more than games. 

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Frogboy
alaknebs
Join Date 08/2010
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Reply #12 May 31, 2012 3:25:47 PM
from Elemental ForumsElemental Forums

why privately held?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koei

koei was founded in 1978... 1st game in 1983 but merged with techmo a few years ago. but it's a publicly traded company..

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Frogboy
Lord Xia
Join Date 03/2006
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Reply #13 May 31, 2012 4:44:36 PM
from Elemental ForumsElemental Forums

Ah Koei, they use to be something special...

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Frogboy
lhetre
Join Date 12/2003
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Reply #14 May 31, 2012 5:44:50 PM
from Elemental ForumsElemental Forums

the Logic Factory, founded 1993, but they created only Ascendancy and Tone Rebellion that I know, the company is still alive, Ascendancy has become an iPod game

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Frogboy
Seleuceia
Join Date 01/2008
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Reply #15 May 31, 2012 11:48:11 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

This is an interesting thing to think about...

Do you think, Brad, that staying as a private company will be viable for SD in the future?  I'm not a video game market expert, but when you asked this question, it made me think...a lot of the private companies I grew up with are now gone, bought out/merged, or publicly traded...doesn't take an expert to see the trend, but the exact reasoning for it is beyond me...

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Frogboy
StevenAus22
Join Date 06/2010
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Reply #16 June 1, 2012 3:25:18 AM
from Elemental ForumsElemental Forums

Money, plain and simple.

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