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Insomniac Games

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Insomniac Games, Inc.
Company typePrivate
IndustryVideo game industry
Founded1994
HeadquartersBurbank, California, United States
Key people
Ted Price (CEO)
ProductsOverstrike (2012)
Ratchet & Clank series (2002-present)
Resistance series (2006-2011)
Spyro series (1998–2000)
Number of employees
180[1]
ParentIndependent[2]
DivisionsInsomniac North, Insomniac Click
Websitewww.insomniacgames.com

Insomniac Games, Inc. is an American video game developer headquartered in Burbank, California.[2][3] Founded in 1994, Insomniac has released titles for the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3 video game consoles. It created Disruptor, the first three Spyro the Dragon games, and the Ratchet & Clank franchise. Insomniac released Resistance: Fall of Man in 2006, a first-person shooter and PlayStation 3 launch game. In 2007, Insomniac released Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, their first Ratchet & Clank title for the PlayStation 3. In 2008, the company released their first title for PlayStation Network, Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty, and their third PlayStation 3 title, Resistance 2. At the moment they have released their 5th game for the PlayStation 3, Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time. Insomniac Games have sold a total of 35 million games for the PlayStation series.[4]

It was announced on May 25, 2010 that Insomniac Games will be starting a new franchise for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 to be published by Electronic Arts after only releasing games for Sony consoles. They have also confirmed that they are working on multiple projects which Insomniac claims they will be exclusively releasing for the PlayStation 3.[5] These include Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One and Resistance 3, which were both announced on August 17, 2010 at Gamescom in Cologne. As of March 2011, Insomniac has a new division called Insomniac Click which is dedicated to mobile gaming and Facebook game apps.

Company overview

The original logo for Insomniac Games

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 received critical success. 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 the company produced the first three Spyro the Dragon games, Universal Interactive Studios continued to publish the Spyro series while Insomniac went onto a new project called A Girl With A Stick. This project however was abandoned and Insomniac went onto working on the Ratchet & Clank series.

Brian Hastings suggested the idea 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 PlayStation 2 in Japan. This was a result of Ratchet & Clank being the first western video game to make 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 and flexible hours.[citation needed]

In 2003, a few of Insomniac's staff members left the company to create a new company called High Impact Games.

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

At the 2008 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 & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and Resistance 2.[6]

In an interview with GameDaily BIZ in June 2008, Ted Price announced that Insomniac Games plans to expand and open a sister studio in North Carolina. The new studio 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.[7] The new studio opened January 2009.[8]

In Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando, Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal and Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, the player can visit an easter egg known as the "Insomniac Museum". This is located on the planets Dantopia (a reference to the late Dan Johnson) and Burbank (a reference to the company's location). The museum lets players find items, enemies, objects and conceptions that did not make it into the final resulting games. The Insomniac Museum in all of the above games have the actual layout of the Insomniac Games offices.

In May 2010, it was announced that the studio is developing a new video game for both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 which will be published by Electronic Arts;[9] thus, marking the first time the company would develop a video game not exclusively for the PlayStation brand. That game later became Overstrike.[10]

In Jan 2012, CEO Ted Price announced that they would not be making any more Resistance games. The franchise is expected to continue under a Sony owned studio.

On March 2, 2012, Amazon France listed "Ratchet & Clank HD Collection" on its website. On March 15, Sony officially confirmed that a Ratchet & Clank Trilogy is coming May 16 in Europe, and this fall in North America as The Ratchet & Clank Collection, being handled by Idol Minds in conjunction with Insomniac Games. The HD Collection will include the first three games, each running at 60fps and in 3D. Trophies will obviously factor, as will multiplayer – the third game will support up to eight players.

Games

Game Title Year Released Platform Metacritic
Disruptor 1996 PlayStation N/A
Spyro the Dragon 1998 PlayStation N/A
Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! 1999 PlayStation N/A
Spyro: Year of the Dragon 2000 PlayStation 91/100[11]
Ratchet & Clank 2002 PlayStation 2 88/100[12]
Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando 2003 PlayStation 2 90/100[13]
Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal 2004 PlayStation 2 91/100[14]
Ratchet: Deadlocked 2005 PlayStation 2 81/100[15]
Resistance: Fall of Man 2006 PlayStation 3 86/100[16]
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction 2007 PlayStation 3 89/100[17]
Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty 2008 PlayStation 3 79/100[18]
Resistance 2 2008 PlayStation 3 87/100[19]
Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time 2009 PlayStation 3 87/100[20]
Resistance 3 2011 PlayStation 3 83/100[21]
Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One 2011 PlayStation 3 70/100[22]
Overstrike 2012 PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Ratchet & Clank HD Collection 2012 Playstation 3

People

  • Ted Price (President & CEO)[23]
  • Alex Hastings (Chief Technology Officer)
  • Brian Hastings (Chief Creative Officer)
  • John Fiorito (Chief Operating Officer)
  • Ransom White (Chief Financial Officer)
  • Chad Dezern (North Carolina Studio Director)

The Full Moon Show

Insomniac Games' Corp. had revealed in 2007 that they were going to do a bi-monthly podcast availabled on iTunes. This podcast offered a great opportunity for fans and game developers alike to get into the minds of the Insomniac Games' developers; this podcast provided a wide range of discussion ranging from gaming to particular Insomniac Games' projects to off-topic and wacky dialogues. Since July 8, 2011, this podcast hasn't had an episode due to the increasing business developing multiple game projects in a year within the studio; Insomniac Games' Corp. had publicly delayed the upcoming episodes on their community forums countless times in the past two years, when their podcast went from a bi-monthly to a monthly to a special event episodic special. The older episodes of the Full Moon Show remain fully available at the iTunes Store and on the Insomniac Games' official site.

Insomniac Click

This is a new division within the Insomniac Games' Corp. that will get into the social gaming market which has been revealed to the public in June 2011. According to GameInformer.com, "Insomniac Games is expanding its reach, today announcing the creation of a new division: Insomniac Click. Revealed by Insomniac Games’ Chief Creative Officer Brian Hastings, Click will focus on web and mobile platforms."(Marie 1) Apparently, this could be a massive investment opportunity for Insomniac Games' who have been talking about getting into this market ever since Ratchet and Clank Future: Quest for Booty. The Chief Creative Officer, Brian Hastings has stated that "The gaming landscape is changing faster now than at any time in the industry’s existence. More people are playing games every day than ever before and the kinds of games they are playing are diversifying more rapidly than ever. The whole game industry is in the midst of what appears to be a sea change. But with this change comes some of the most exciting challenges and opportunities we’ve ever had." (Marie 1) As of July 8, 2011, there are no news on the details of the products they plan to release on mobile platforms.[24]

Partnerships with other developers

Naughty Dog

Insomniac has had a close relationship with developer Naughty Dog from when the two companies worked together in the same building on a Universal Studios back-lot. The company makes games that are similar in style, which sometimes contain references to each other. Demos for one company's games often appear on the other's releases. For example, Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! contained a demo of Crash Team Racing. Because of their friendship, many fans have wondered if the two companies would collaborate on a game. However, it has been publicly stated that the two companies do not have plans for making a game together, although both Jak II and Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando feature billboard cameos of each others heroes (and a scene in Going Commando shows Ratchet playing both Jak games). 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. In the game Daxter, a Ratchet and a Clank mask can be found.

Contrary to popular belief, Insomniac never borrowed the Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy engine code from Naughty Dog to use on the Ratchet & Clank games, though several key renderers from Naughty Dog made it into code.[25][26] As for the two companies' direct involvement, Naughty Dog's Richard Lemarchand said: "We don't really trade anything concrete in terms of technology, but we definitely compare war stories of life in the trenches, and try and learn from each other's experiences."[27] Ted Price clarified Insomniac's stance on engine technology while obliquely mentioning the shared renderers:

"We've always developed all our own technology. It's been a little frustrating in the past for us to hear people say, 'Oh yeah, the Insomniac game is running on the Naughty Dog engine.' People assumed that we were using Naughty Dog's engine for Ratchet, and that was not true. We shared some technology with Naughty Dog way back when, and that was great, but we are a company that puts stock in developing specialized technology and we will continue to do so." -- Ted Price, Independent PlayStation Magazine, September 2006[25]

Despite these quotes, the credits sequence for Ratchet & Clank on the Sony PlayStation 2 states that "The Ratchet and Clank background engine was developed using proprietary techniques and code developed by Naughty Dog."

With the release of the PlayStation 3, both developers seemed to be changing focus aesthetically from character-based platformers to more realistic, mature-themed action games with Naughty Dog's action series Uncharted and Insomniac's sci-fi first-person shooter series Resistance. Both main protagonists of these series has the same first name "Nathan" (Nathan Drake in Uncharted series and Nathan Hale in Resistance series). However, Insomniac continues working on new installments of the Ratchet & Clank franchise, while Naughty Dog has put the Jak and Daxter series on hiatus.

High Impact Games

High Impact Games is a company formed by ex-Insomniac staff. They have released the titles Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters and Secret Agent Clank for the PlayStation Portable, as well as a PlayStation 2 port of Size Matters.

SCE Bend Studio

SCE Bend Studio is the studio in charge of the first portable episode of the Resistance: Resistance: Retribution. This game was released in 2009 on the PlayStation Portable.

Nihilistic Software

They developed PlayStation Move Heroes for the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Move which was released in March 2011. Nihilistic is currently developing an original game in the Resistance series called Resistance: Burning Skies for the PlayStation Vita.

Other companies

The credits lists SCE Japan, Sony Santa Monica, Guerrilla Games, Sucker Punch Productions, Media Molecule, Zipper Interactive and Incognito Games under "Thanks" in addition to the above. Insomniac has also stated that Sony's first-party developers are coming together and sharing technology and ideas.[citation needed]

References

  1. ^ "Company Profile: Insomniac Games". Gamasutra. Think Services. Retrieved November 27, 2011.
  2. ^ a b "About | Insomniac Games". Insomniac Games, Inc. 2255 N. Ontario Street, Suite 550 Burbank, CA 91504 USA: Insomniac Games. Retrieved August 21, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  3. ^ "Terms of Service." Insomniac Games. Retrieved on July 10, 2010. "Insomniac Games, Inc. 2255 N. Ontario Street, Suite 550 Burbank, CA 91504 USA."
  4. ^ "Insomniac Games Honored as One of the Top 5 Companies to Work for in California". News.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2011-07-08.
  5. ^ Brian Crecente (2010-05-25). "Ratchet & Clank Maker's Next Game Coming to the Xbox 360, PS3". Kotaku.com. Retrieved 2011-07-08.
  6. ^ "Insomniac Announces Nocturnal Initiative, Gives Away Source Code". 2008-02-21. Retrieved 2008-02-22.
  7. ^ "'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 2008-06-06.
  8. ^ [1][dead link]
  9. ^ "Insomniac goes multiplatform with EA Partners". GameSpot. 2010-05-25. Retrieved 2011-03-29.
  10. ^ http://www.insomniacgames.com/games/overstrike/
  11. ^ "Spyro: Year of the Dragon for PlayStation Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic.com. 2000-10-23. Retrieved 2011-07-08.
  12. ^ "Ratchet & Clank for PlayStation 2 Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic.com. 2002-11-04. Retrieved 2011-07-08.
  13. ^ "Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando for PlayStation 2 Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic.com. Retrieved 2011-07-08.
  14. ^ "Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal for PlayStation 2 Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic.com. 2004-11-03. Retrieved 2011-07-08.
  15. ^ "Ratchet: Deadlocked for PlayStation 2 Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic.com. 2005-10-25. Retrieved 2011-07-08.
  16. ^ "Resistance: Fall of Man for PlayStation 3 Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic.com. 2006-11-14. Retrieved 2011-07-08.
  17. ^ "Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction for PlayStation 3 Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic.com. 2007-10-23. Retrieved 2011-07-08.
  18. ^ "Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty for PlayStation 3 Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic.com. 2008-08-21. Retrieved 2011-07-08.
  19. ^ "Resistance 2 for PlayStation 3 Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic.com. 2008-11-04. Retrieved 2011-07-08.
  20. ^ "Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time for PlayStation 3 Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic.com. 2009-10-27. Retrieved 2011-07-08.
  21. ^ "Resistance 3 Reviews".
  22. ^ "Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One".
  23. ^ [2][dead link]
  24. ^ by Di5a5terp13ce (2011-03-12). "Insomniac Expands Into Social With Insomniac Click - News". www.GameInformer.com. Retrieved 2011-07-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  25. ^ a b Slate, Chris. "PS3 Trailblazing: PSM Chats With Ted Price, President of Insomniac Games." Independent PlayStation Magazine Sep. 2006
  26. ^ Price, Ted (June 13, 2003). "Postmortem: Insomniac Games' Ratchet and Clank". Gamasutra. Retrieved July 19, 2009.
  27. ^ Robinson, Martin. "Naughty Dog Q&A" IGN UK 30 July 2008
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