Looking Glass Studios, founded in 1990 as Blue Sky Productions, was a video game developer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The video games developed by Looking Glass Studios encompass genres such as first-person role-playing games, flight simulators and stealth games. Their debut title, Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, was published by Origin Systems in March 1992; its numerous innovations have had a widespread influence since its release. That year, a merge with Lerner Research, combined with the team's discovery of the similarly named BlueSky Software, resulted in the company's name being changed from Blue Sky Productions to Looking Glass Technologies. After releasing Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds in January 1993, the company reconsidered its design approach, and released the science fiction System Shock in 1994. While both of these games were also published by Origin Systems, the companies broke ties following System Shock, and Looking Glass self-publishing its next game, Flight Unlimited, in 1995.
The company's self-publishing venture was ended by the commercial failure of Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri (1996) and British Open Championship Golf (1997). Following this, they partnered with publisher Eidos Interactive. Around this time, the company's name was again changed, this time to Looking Glass Studios. After financial turmoil, the company released Thief: The Dark Project in November 1998, which was greeted with acclaim and commercial success. Following this, they co-developed System Shock 2 (1999) with Irrational Games, an offshoot developer founded by former Looking Glass members. Their final project was Thief II: The Metal Age in 2000; after its release, the company was closed due to debt problems, and several projects were cancelled or finished by other developers. Notably, Jane's Attack Squadron, originally developed as Flight Combat: Thunder Over Europe, was reworked and released by Mad Doc Software and Xicat Interactive, Inc. in 2002. In total, Looking Glass Studios released 12 original games in its 10 years of activity, alongside with several ports and other spin-offs. The licenses for their games are currently owned by Electronic Arts, Square-Enix and other companies.
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Release years by system: 1992 - DOS |
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Release years by system: 1992 - Genesis |
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Release years by system: 1993 - DOS |
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Release years by system: 1994 - DOS |
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Release years by system: 1995 - DOS 1995 - Windows 95 |
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Release years by system: 1996 - DOS |
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Release years by system: 1997 - Windows |
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Voyager
Cancellation date: 1997 |
Proposed system release: Windows |
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Release years by system: 1997 - Windows |
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Release years by system: 1998 - Windows |
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Release years by system: 1999 - Windows |
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Release years by system: 1999 - Nintendo 64 |
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Release years by system: 1999 - Windows |
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Original release date(s):
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Release years by system: 1999 - Windows |
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Original release date(s):
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Release years by system: 1999 - Nintendo 64 |
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Release years by system: 2000 - Windows |
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Deep Cover
Cancellation date: 2000 |
Proposed system release: Windows |
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Thief II Gold
Cancellation date: 2000 |
Proposed system release: Windows |
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Thief III
Cancellation date: 2000 |
Proposed system release: Windows |
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Release years by system: 2002 - Windows |
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