Virgin Mastertronic
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| Public company, subsidiary of Titus Software | |
| Industry | Video game industry |
| Fate | Sold to Electronic Arts (North American Branch) Re-branded as Avalon Interactive (European Branch) Split and re-named Virgin Play (Spanish Subsidiary) |
| Successor | |
| Founded | 1983 (as Virgin Games Ltd.) |
| Defunct | 2003 |
| Headquarters |
London, England, U.K. (International HQ) |
|
Key people
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| Products | Entertainment software |
| Revenue | $99 million (£67 million) (1993) |
|
Number of employees
|
500 (1997) |
| Parent |
Virgin Group (1987-1991) |
| Divisions |
Burst Studios Westwood Studios |
| Subsidiaries | Virgin Interactive España SA |
| Website | www.vie.com -- offline -- |
London, England, U.K. (International HQ)
Virgin Group (1987-1991)
Sega Enterprises, Ltd. (1991-1993)
Blockbuster 73%
Hasbro 16.2%
The Branson Trust 10% (1993-1994)
Spelling Entertainment 91%
Viacom (original) 9% (1994-1999)
Interplay 43.9%
Titus Software 50.1% (1999-2003)
Virgin Interactive Entertainment was the video game publishing division of British conglomerate the Virgin Group. It was formed as Virgin Games in 1983. Initially built around a small development team called the Gang of Five, the company grew significantly after purchasing budget label Mastertronic in 1987.
Virgin was home to renowned developers who went on to create successful franchises with other studios like Westwood Studios (Command & Conquer series) and Shiny Entertainment (Earthworm Jim). As Virgin's video game division grew into a multimedia powerhouse, it crossed over to other industries from toys to film to education. To highlight its focus beyond video games and on multimedia, the publisher was renamed Virgin Interactive Entertainment in 1993.
As result of a growing trend throughout the 1990s of media companies, movie studios and telecom firms investing in video game makers to create new forms of entertainment, VIE became part of the entertainment industry after being acquired by media behemoths Blockbuster and Viacom, who were attracted by its edge in multimedia and CD-ROM-based software development. Being centrally located in close proximity to the thirty-mile zone and having access to the media content of its parent companies drew Virgin Interactive's U.S. division closer to Hollywood as it began developing sophisticated interactive games, leading to partnerships with Disney and other major studios on motion picture-based games such as The Lion King, Aladdin, RoboCop and The Terminator, in addition to being the publisher of popular titles from other companies like Capcom's Resident Evil and Street Fighter and id Software's Doom II in the European market.
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Wikipedia