Insomniac Games

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Insomniac Games
Type Private
Founded 1994
Headquarters Burbank, California, USA
Key people Ted Price (CEO)
Industry Computer and video game industry
Employees 150+
Website www.insomniacgames.com

Insomniac Games is an independent US video game developer founded in 1994 that has released award-winning hits for PlayStation, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3. They created the first three hugely successful Spyro the Dragon games, Disruptor, and the Ratchet & Clank franchise, which have combined to sell over 25 million copies worldwide and have won dozens of awards. Insomniac released Resistance: Fall of Man in 2006, a first-person shooter and PlayStation 3 launch title. Insomniac has finished production on Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, their first Ratchet & Clank title for the PlayStation 3 and are now in production on their third PS3 title, Resistance 2.

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[edit] Company overview

Insomniac was founded in 1994 as an independent video game developer and is now based in Burbank, California. Its initial game, a first-person shooter called Disruptor for the PlayStation, was released on November 20, 1996, and was a critical darling. Since then, the company has released eight more games in two series (both of which were created by the company) for the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3 and all have been both critical and commercial successes. After three Spyro games, the company went on to create the Ratchet & Clank series. The first Ratchet & Clank has the notable distinction of being the first Western-produced game to be officially bundled with the PS2 in Japan, a country notoriously fickle in its video game tastes. This was a result of R&C being the first western video game to crack Japan's top 100 list.

The company has been named as one of the top 10 Best Small Companies to work for in America for 3 years in a row for their relaxed environment, flexible hours, yoga, Fragfest Fridays, movie nights, and indoor 7/11. Their Yoga sessions have earned them the "Most Flexible Game Company" Award from IGN.com. The company also took its entire workforce on a free cruise.

In 2006, Insomniac released a comparatively mature, M-Rated PlayStation 3 first-person shooter, very unlike its other works. Its name during production was I-8, but it was then renamed Resistance: Fall of Man. The game's futuristic weapons seem to be influenced by the company's Ratchet & Clank.

In 2008, at the Game Developers Conference, Insomniac announced a new project titled The Nocturnal Initiative. This is a free wiki based project designed to encourage the distribution of development technologies which may be used in other games. Insomniac has shared technology they developed for use in titles such as Ratchet and Clank Future and Resistance 2.[1]

In June, 2008, in an interview with GameDaily BIZ, Ted Price announced that Insomniac Games plan to expand and open a sister studio in North Carolina, with Chad Derzern taking on the role of Studio Director. Derzern will be hiring twenty-five to thirty new developers and will prepare the studio to begin work on games based on new and existing intellectual properties. The current plan is for the studio to open in January 2009. [2]

[edit] Games

Insomniac Games have released/working on the following:

In Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando and Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, the player can visit an easter egg known as the "Insomniac Museum". This is located on the planets "Dantopia" (a reference to Dan Johnson who has since passed away) and "Burbank" (a reference to the company's location). The Museum lets players find items, monsters, objects and conceptions that did not make it into the final resulting games. The Insomniac Museum is notable because it has the actual layout of the Insomniac Games offices in Burbank, California.

[edit] People

  • Ted Price (President & CEO)
  • Alex Hastings (Chief Technology Officer)
  • Brian Hastings (Chief Creative Officer)
  • Chad Dezern (Art Director)
  • See also Team members

[edit] The Full Moon Show

On the first and third Thursday of every month, Insomniac Games releases an awesome new episode of The Full Moon Show, which lets gamers know what is happening in the world of Insomniac Games, along with community updates regarding Resistance: Fall of Man and their online community. Episodes could be downloaded either from the Insomniac website or iTunes. Insomniac Games has started to include members of their community in their podcasts. A few members from the Resistance community have been mentioned in this podcast such as bpowter, Lord Yod, Zotmaster, HiSToRiKL, and BertoFFA and a few clans from the game have also been mentioned, including [P$] ProFe$$ioNaL $kiLL$, [S!N] Slay! 9, as well as some others.

A company music video named "(pin)Ballz" was released instead of a podcast in the week of February 21st, 2008. This is so far the only time that the production and publishing of the podcast has changed scheduling.

[edit] Relations with other developers

[edit] Naughty Dog

Insomniac has had a close relationship with fellow developer Naughty Dog from when they worked together in the same building on a Universal Studios backlot. Insomniac borrowed an engine from Naughty Dog, which was used in the original Ratchet and Clank game, and was modified upon for the each later PS2 releases. They make games that are similar in style, which sometimes contain references to each other (as seen in secret Jak 3 gun courses, the start-up menu in Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando, as well as on the T.V. screen in Clank's apartment and various posters throughtout the games). Demos for one company's games often appear on the other's releases. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! contained a demo of Crash Team Racing, for example. Also, Insomniac's Ratchet & Clank series utilized some technology from Naughty Dog's Jak and Daxter games. Because of their friendship, many fans have wondered if the two companies would collaborate on a game. However, they have, in the past, publicly stated that they don't have plans for making a game together, although both Jak II and Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando featured billboard cameos of each others heroes (and a scene in Going Commando shows Ratchet playing both his games, both Jak games, and Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus). This is taken one step further in Jak X: Combat Racing and Ratchet: Deadlocked as both feature Ratchet and Jak respectively as unlockable skins/characters.

[edit] Sucker Punch

Insomniac also shares some sort of relationship with Sucker Punch Productions due to Sucker Punch being listed in the credits list of Going Commando, Up Your Arsenal, and Deadlocked. Sucker Punch is known for its Sly Cooper franchise. Given the three companies' close ties to Sony Computer Entertainment and the fact that all three created platform games for the PS2, they have always been associated together. Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal even has a Sly 2: Band of Thieves demo in it, if the player presses R1, R2, L1, and L2 at the same time at the "Load Game" screen.

[edit] High Impact Games

High Impact Games is a newer company formed by ex-Insomniac staff, so far they have released Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters and are currently developing Secret Agent Clank.

[edit] Other companies

Insomniac has stated that some of Sony's development teams are starting to develop closer relationships and are sharing technology and ideas. Naughty Dog also credits various first- and second-party developers of Sony in Uncharted: Drake's Fortune.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Insomniac Announces Nocturnal Initiative, Gives Away Source Code (2008-02-21). Retrieved on 2008-02-22.
  2. ^ 'Resistance' is futile. Insomniac Games has revealed to GameDaily BIZ that it's becoming bi-coastal with a new studio in North Carolina. We speak with CEO Ted Price about his company's plans. (2008-06-03). Retrieved on 2008-06-06.

[edit] External links

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Insomniac Games
Spyro the Dragon
Ratchet & Clank
Resistance
Other games
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