Westwood Studios

Infobox Defunct Company
company_name = Westwood Studios
company_
slogan =
fate = Acquired by EA in 1998, closed in 2003
successor = Electronic Arts
foundation = 1985
defunct = 2003
location = Las Vegas, Nevada
industry = Video games
key_people =
products = Command & Conquer Lands of Lore
num_employees =
parent =
subsid =

Westwood Studios (1985-2003) was a computer and video game developer, founded in 1985 as Westwood Associates by Brett Sperry and Louis Castle and based in Las Vegas, Nevada.

History

Initial projects

The company's first projects consisted of contract work for companies like Epyx and Strategic Simulations (SSI), porting 8-bit titles to 16-bit systems like Commodore Amiga and Atari ST. Proceeds from contract work allowed the company to expand into designing its own games in-house. Their first original title was "Mars Saga", a game developed for Electronic Arts and released in 1988. One of the company's first great successes was "Eye of the Beholder" (1990), a real-time computer role-playing game based on the Dungeons & Dragons license, developed for SSI. Other publishers of early Westwood games included Infocom and Disney.

Westwood Studios

In 1992, the company was renamed Westwood Studios and sold to Virgin Interactive. Well-known Westwood titles from this period include "Dune II", the adventure game "The Legend of Kyrandia" and the role-playing game "Lands of Lore". Westwood's greatest commercial success however came in 1995 with the release of the real-time strategy game "Command & Conquer". Building on the gameplay and interface ideas of "Dune II", it added pre-rendered 3D graphics for gameplay sprites and video cinematics, an alternative pop/rock soundtrack with techno elements streamed from disk, and modem play. "Command & Conquer", "Kyrandia", and "Lands of Lore" all spawned multiple sequels.

In August 1998, Westwood was acquired by Electronic Arts (EA) for $122.5 million in cash, and at the time Westwood had 5% to 6% of the PC game market. [ [http://money.cnn.com/1998/08/17/life/q_ea/ Electronic Arts buys Westwood Studios - Aug. 17, 1998 ] ] . In response to what was perceived as an unwillingness to maintain the Westwood brand and independence from EA, many long-time employees quit over the next few years and formed Petroglyph Games.

Along with Westwood, EA had also acquired a development studio in Irvine, California. It was managed by Westwood and became known as "Westwood Pacific" (later "EA Pacific"). Westwood Pacific developed or co-developed games like "Nox" and the Command & Conquer: Red Alert sequel "" which take place in an alternate universe to that of the original title Command & Conquer.

One of the last games released by Westwood, "" (an action game which mixed elements from first-person shooters and real-time strategy games) failed to meet consumer expectations and commercial goals EA had set for it. In March of 2003, Westwood Studios (along with EA Pacific) was liquidated by EA and all willing staff were assimilated into EA Los Angeles. At the time of its closure, Westwood employed more than 100 people. Their last game was the MMORPG "Earth & Beyond".

Selected games developed by Westwood Studios

* ""
* "Blade Runner" computer game movie adaptation.
* "Circuit's Edge", a game adaptation of George Alec Effinger's novel "When Gravity Fails"
* "Command & Conquer series" (1995-2002, up to "")
* "DragonStrike" a 3D dragon flight combat simulator.
* "Dune II" (1992)
* "Dune 2000" (1998)
* "" (1992)
* "" (2001)
* "Earth & Beyond"
* "Eye of the Beholder" series (minus "Assault on Myth Drannor")
* "Lands of Lore" series
* "The Legend of Kyrandia" series
* "The Lion King (video game)"
* "Nox"
* ""
* "Resident Evil" (Windows port, uncredited)
* "Young Merlin"

See also

*Petroglyph Games
*Command & Conquer
*Dune
*Louis Castle
*Brett Sperry

References

External links

* [http://www.westwoodstudios.com/ Offical Westwood Studios Website]
* [http://www.petroglyphgames.com Petroglyph's Website]
* [http://www.cncworld.org/index.php?page=features/wwr Westwood Remembered] A fan-recreation of the Westwood website from around 1997, made with content from The Internet Archive
* [http://www.mobygames.com/company/westwood-studios-inc/history A brief history of Westwood Studios] from MobyGames
* [http://www.fatbabies.com/story_jan-june02.html Story of Closing]
* [http://www.dune2k.com/ FED2k] (Since WW's site was closed, the onus for support of the "Dune" series passed to this fan community)