Eutechnyx

Eutechnyx Limited
Private
Industry Video game industry
Founded 30 October 1987 (1987-10-30)
Headquarters Newcastle upon Tyne, England
Key people
 Darren Jobling (CEO)[1]
Number of employees
 200 (2009)
Website eutechnyx.com

Eutechnyx Limited (formerly Zeppelin Games, until 1994, and Merit Studios (Europe) Limited, until 1997) is a British video game developer based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Since 1997, the company has focused on racing games. They are known for their largely-panned video game, Ride to Hell: Retribution, work with the NASCAR The Game franchise, and as a developer on various other racing titles and games.[2][3]

History

Zeppelin Games (1987–1994)

The company founder, Brian Jobling, started creating games for the Atari 800, ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 personal computers at home in the early 1980s as a 14-year-old.[4] With the money that he made, he started the company, Zeppelin Games, in November 1987 when he was 17.[5][4] Zeppelin Games produced a large number of games for various home computer systems including Atari 8-bit family, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Atari ST and Amiga and by the early 90s were also making games for PC and consoles such as the Mega Drive/Genesis and SNES. Popular games included Jocky Wilson's Darts Challenge, International Tennis, Universal Warrior and Sink or Swim. They also worked with publisher Codemasters to produce the first two Micro Machines games and Pete Sampras Tennis.

The company, being primarily a budget publisher, operated several labels for different price ranges; among them were Cognito[6][7] and Impulze[8] for full-price releases, Zeppelin Premier and Zeppelin Platinum.

Merit Studios Europe (1994–1996)

The company was acquired by American company Merit Studios, Inc. in 1994 and became known as Merit Studios Europe.[9] As well as developing their own games, the company was also responsible for the marketing and distribution of Merit's US games in Europe.

Eutechnyx (1996–present)

The company became Eutechnyx in 1996. After gaining registered developer and publisher status for the Sony PlayStation, the Directors bought back the company from Merit with help from French publishers Infogrames. This started a 3-year agreement with Eutechnyx developing exclusively for Infogrames on the PlayStation and PC platforms. The end of this agreement meant that as of 2000, the company became a fully independent developer and currently releases games across many formats for publishing companies such as Electronic Arts and Namco.[10][11] Since 1996, the company has specialised in driving and racing games of many types, including licensed titles such as James Bond 007, Max Power, Cartoon Network and The Fast and the Furious.

As of 2009, Eutechnyx has studios in Gateshead, England, Hong Kong, Chengdu, and the United States.[4] It employed almost 200 people.[4]

After the failure Ride to Hell Retribution, the London studio was closed in June 2013. In June 2013 several employees were loaned to Ubisoft Reflections and in February 2014 a restructuring was announced, with the loss of 12 jobs, taking the headcount to 130.[12]

In 2012, sister company ZeroLight was formed at the Gateshead offices, to apply the realtime rendering technology developed for racing games to showroom and online configurators for car manufacturers.

In October 2013 Darren Jobling replaced his brother Brian as CEO, to take on a more active role in development, with Brian becoming Executive Chairman.[13]

In July 2014 again after the failure of Warhammer 40k Storm of Vengeance, following another re-structuring, an additional 19 members of staff were lost.[14]

In July 2015 following commercially disappointing results from ambitious multiplayer online racing game ACR, a further 8 redundancies were made, with some of the 22 people announced as being added to sister firm ZeroLight, being relocated from Eutechnyx [15]

In September 2016, Zerolight moved across the river from Eutechnyx' Gateshead office to LiveWorks, on the Quayside at Newcastle upon Tyne.[16]

Games developed

as Zeppelin Games

as Merit Studios Europe

as Eutechnyx

References

  1. ↑ "Eutechnyx reveals new leadership structure". MCV. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
  2. ↑ "Gateshead game developer Eutechnyx sells NASCAR computer game in multi-mullion pound game". The Journal. The Journal. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
  3. ↑ "Eutechnyx's overhaul of free-to-play Auto Club Revolution adds VR support for Oculus Rift". Venturebeat. Venturebeat. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Wray, Richard (13 November 2009). "Video games developer Eutechnyx shows the value of self-help". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 November 2009.
  5. ↑ "Company History". Eutechnyx. Archived from the original on 30 October 2007. Retrieved 6 March 2009.
  6. ↑ Rixon, Paul (26 January 1989). "Draconus". Software reviews. New Atari User (36): 47. ISSN 0952-4967.
  7. ↑ "Ad for Kenny Dalglish Soccer Manager". New Atari User (40): 23. 28 September 1989. ISSN 0952-4967.
  8. ↑ "In Pole Position - Zeppelin Games". Retro Gamer (119): 62. August 2013. ISSN 1742-3155.
  9. ↑ "MERIT SOFTWARE INC. FINALIZES ACQUISITION OF ZEPPELIN GAMES LIMITED". The Free Library. 6 July 1994. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
  10. ↑ "Eutechnyx Company Profile 2009" (PDF). Eutechnyx - Press and Marketing Portal. Eutechnyx. 2009. Retrieved 20 February 2011.
  11. ↑ "Eutechnyx at IGN". IGN. Retrieved 11 April 2009.
  12. ↑ Yin-Poole, Wesley (19 February 2014). "Layoffs hit NASCAR, Auto Club Revolution developer Eutechnyx". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved 19 February 2014.
  13. ↑ "Eutechnyx announces new leadership structure". Eutechnyx. 31 October 2013. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
  14. ↑ "19 jobs in doubt as racing experts Eutechnyx re-structures". MCV UK. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  15. ↑ "22 new jobs at ZeroLight as sister firm Eutechnyx downsizes". GamesIndustryBiz. 23 July 2015. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
  16. ↑ "zerolight-moves-headquarters". Zerolight. 17 August 2016. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
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