Foundation 9 Entertainment

Foundation 9 Entertainment (sometimes abbreviated as F9E) is an American entertainment media company that develops video games, comic books, film and television series. The company is an independent video game developer, with studios in California, Oregon in the U.S, Sheffield, UK, and Pune, India. Its current CEO is James North-Hearn.

Foundation 9 was formed on March 29, 2005 through the merger of Backbone Entertainment, The Collective. and Oregon-based developer Pipeworks Software. Afterward, on May 26, 2005, F9E announced a partnership with Circle of Confusion. Unlike F9E's other studios, which primarily work in software development, Circle of Confusion is a production and management company that represents creative staff in entertainment.

On June 1, 2006 Foundation 9 received $150 million from Francisco Partners, a private equity firm. Foundation 9 announced the acquisition of Shiny Entertainment on October 2, 2006,Amaze Entertainment on November 14, 2006, and Sumo Digital on August 17, 2007. On May 25, 2007, the Charlottetown, PEI studio of Foundation 9 constituent Backbone Entertainment was spun off to become Other Ocean Interactive.

Other subsidiaries include ImaginEngine (part of Backbone Entertainment) and, formerly, Griptonite Games (part of Amaze Entertainment). Digital Eclipse is not a studio under the Foundation 9 hierarchy, as all games under the Digital Eclipse brand were developed at the Backbone Entertainment studios. Digital Eclipse was originally one of the core companies that merged to form Backbone, the progenitor of F9E.

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