| Industry | Computer and video game industry |
|---|---|
| Fate | Bankrupt |
| Founded | August 14, 1991 |
| Defunct | 2004 |
| Headquarters | Austin, Texas, USA |
| Key people | Founders: Jeff Spangenberg, CEO & President Beth Spangenberg, CFO Darrin Stubbington, VP Matt Stubbington, Art Director J. Moon, Business Development Manager John Carlsen Iguana UK: Darren Falcus, Jason Falcus Others: Russell Byrd, Mike Daubert, Craig Galley, Cyrus Lum |
| Products | Video games for Nintendo, Sega, Sony video game consoles |
| Parent | Acclaim Entertainment |
| Subsidiaries | Iguana UK, Acclaim Studios Teesside |
Iguana Entertainment, renamed Acclaim Studios Austin after 1999, was a video game developer operating from 1991 to 2004 in Santa Clara, California, Sunnyvale, California, and Austin, Texas in the USA, and Teesside, England. They were best known for developing the Turok, NBA Jam, NFL Quarterback Club, and South Park video games.
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Iguana Entertainment was first incorporated in Sunnyvale, California on August 14, 1991 by Jeff Spangenberg. Other Iguana Entertainment founders include Mary Beth Campbell (later Mrs. Beth Spangenberg), John Carlsen, James Moon (known to most as J. Moon), and brothers Darrin Stubbington and Matt Stubbington.
Prior to incorporating Iguana Entertainment, Mr. Spangenberg had run Punk Development. Based in Sunnyvale, Punk Development was the product development arm of RazorSoft, Inc., an Oklahoma-based video game distributor. All of the Iguana founders named above (with the possible exception of Ms. Campbell) and many early employees of Iguana Entertainment worked for Punk Development.
Punk Development was originally called Team Design until a conflict arose with another local firm having the same name. According to rumor, the other Team Design had complained of young "punks" hijacking its name.
President Jeff Spangenberg kept his pet iguanas, Killer (the oldest), Spike and Squirt (the baby) in a large tank in the lobbies of the Punk and Iguana offices. When RazorSoft closed the Punk Development office, the Iguana name was selected, and Matt Stubbington painted on canvas the original company logotype, which included a portrait of the original Killer.
Iguana Entertainment's major clients included Acclaim Entertainment and SunSoft.
In September 1993, Iguana Entertainment moved to Austin, Texas, becoming Austin's second-largest developer of computer games, smaller only than Origin Systems, which was already part of Electronic Arts. Iguana Entertainment became a Texas corporation on December 10, 1993.
The original pet iguanas could not be easily moved between states and were given away. Once in Texas, a new tank and iguanas were added to the lobby. Cyrus Lum created an updated company logotype (featuring a portrait of the new iguana named Killer) and animation that appears in many Iguana games.
Also in 1993, the company acquired Optimus Software Ltd of Teesside, England which became Iguana UK. Iguana UK proved a valuable resource, both for "porting" arcade games including NBA Jam to home video game consoles and for recruiting and preparing employees for transfer to the US office.
In 1995, owners Jeff and Beth Spangenberg sold Iguana Entertainment to its largest customer, Acclaim Entertainment for $25MM ($13MM cash, the balance in Acclaim Entertainment stock) and the stipulation that Iguana Entertainment would retain its own independence; in the following years, the two Iguana studios became Acclaim Studios Austin and Acclaim Studios Teesside (AST).
During its 1995 spending spree, Acclaim Entertainment also purchased Sculptured Software in Salt Lake City, Utah (until then, the largest independent video game developer in North America) and Lazer-Tron (a maker of coin-operated redemption games), and formed Acclaim Coin-Operated Entertainment despite the well-documented (even at the time) shrinking of the coin-operated game industry. By suddenly overextending itself financially in 1995, Acclaim Entertainment's stock value quickly dropped about 90%, which alienated its merger partners and signaling to many the beginning of the end.
Following the Iguana-Acclaim merger, Jeff and Beth Spangenberg left the company, starting a procession of new studio heads at Acclaim Studios Austin.
Also following the Iguana-Acclaim merger, several Iguana Entertainment employees founded their own Austin-area companies:
In 2000, Jason and Darren Falcus left to form Atomic Planet Entertainment Ltd., Acclaim Entertainment made a sharp cut in the number of employees at Acclaim Studios Teesside, which was finally closed in 2002, with many staff being relocated to Acclaim Studios Cheltenham.
When parent company Acclaim Entertainment went bankrupt in September 2004, most employees of Acclaim Studios Austin found out when they showed up for work but the building's manager had locked them out of their offices. Acclaim Studios Austin was closed and subsequently liquidated.
Iguana Entertainment developed games for:
In addition, Iguana Entertainment created its own proprietary software and hardware tools for:
During its 13-year history, Iguana Entertainment developed many games under both the Iguana Entertainment name (for both US and UK studios) and the Acclaim Studios Austin name.
| Preceded by none |
Iguana Entertainment 1991–1995 |
Succeeded by Acclaim Studios Austin |