UTV Ignition Games originated as a British video game publisher in September 2001 called Valecombe Limited and was located in Waltham Abbey. The company was renamed Ignition Entertainment on 30 March 2002. It was created from a selection of smaller developers and publishers, such as Archer MacLean's Awesome Studios. In 2007, the company was acquired by UTV Software Communications and opened two new branches: Ignition Tokyo in Japan and Ignition Florida in the United States.
On 20 April 2007, the company announced the completion of their acquisition by UTV Software Communications, a media conglomerate based in India. On 17 December 2007, they announced the opening of two development studios - Ignition Florida, and Ignition Tokyo. Both studios were said to be working on proprietary intellectual property for next-generation platforms. The Tokyo studio was composed of former members of Clover Studio and Capcom, worked on the game El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron. On 21 April 2009, Ignition announced that they would be publishing Muramasa: The Demon Blade for the Wii in North America.[1] On 22 October, they announced they would be publishing Arc Rise Fantasia. Ignition Entertainment also published The King of Fighters XII in North America and Europe for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 during Summer 2009.
On 2 November 2010, sources at UTV confirmed the closing of the Florida-based studio. Staff were given opportunities to relocate to Texas or find other work. This announcement followed the widespread allegations of sexual harassment by once boss Paul Steed and mis-management of company funds. The title they were producing, Reich, had completed 2 of 9 major levels' costing roughly US$23 million. Despite major setbacks, the London office will continue on in a more limited scope.[2] Leaked footage of Reich was uploaded to YouTube in November 2010 by an unknown source.[3]