Hasbro Interactive
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Hasbro Interactive was a video game production and publishing subsidiary of Hasbro, the large game and toy company.
Hasbro Interactive was formed late in 1995 in order to compete in the computer and video game arena. Several Hasbro properties, such as Monopoly and Scrabble, had already been made into successful video games by licensees such as Virgin Interactive. With Hasbro's game experience, computer games seemed like a natural extension of the company and a good opportunity for revenue growth.
Hasbro Interactive embarked on both internal and external development, and acquired some smaller video game developers and publishers such as Microprose and Spectrum Holobyte. They sought to leverage Hasbro board game brands, popular Microprose brands, and brands from subsequently-acquired game companies Avalon Hill and Wizards of the Coast. They also purchased the remaining brands and other intellectual property rights from Atari (pre-Infogrames), and engaged in some other video game licensing, such as Frogger from Konami.
Hasbro Interactive was a success story in revenue, becoming the #3 computer game publisher within three years of its founding, but the division was apparently not profitable. Late in 1999 with several game projects underway and dozens of new employees, many of who moved just to work for the company, Hasbro Interactive shut down several studios in a cost-cutting move. The studios affected included the former Microprose offices located in Alameda, California and Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
In January of 2001, Hasbro delivered nearly all of their video game related rights and properties — including the Hasbro Interactive division and Hasbro's Game.com division — to video game publisher Infogrames in a long-term license. Infogrames subsequently spun off its U.S. division into a separate (majority owned) corporation named "Atari Inc.". Infogrames still maintains ownership of the original Atari properties received through Hasbro which are kept in their Hasbro Interactive originated placeholder, Atari Interactive.
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[edit] Published games
- Action Man: Operation Extreme — Sony PlayStation (PS)
- Battleship: The Classic Naval Warfare Game — Windows
- Candy Land Adventure — Windows
- Glover — Nintendo 64, PS, Microsoft Windows
- H.E.D.Z. — Windows
- Monopoly (Video Game) — Windows
- Nerf ArenaBlast — Windows
- Pong — PS
- RollerCoaster Tycoon — Windows
- Tonka: Construction — Windows
- Tonka: Search & Rescue — Windows
- X-COM series, Windows version
- X-COM: Email games — Windows
- Centipede (1998 PC Version)
[edit] People
The following people were original Hasbro Interactive employees during the company's first year of business (not yet an all-inclusive list). Some ventured onto other opportunities, others remained until the company eventually folded.
Tom Dusenberry, Tony Parks, Kevin Gillespie, Ron Parkinson, Gary Carlin, Steve Webster, Tony Moreira, Michael Craighead, Nancy Gilberg, Jim Adams, Rusell Serbagi, John Sutyak, Chris Down, "Big" Mike Glosecki.
[edit] See also
- Vicious Cycle Software, a game development company started by employees laid off in the North Carolina Hasbro Interactive studio closing.
