Insomniac

Full name: Insomniac Games, Inc. Established: 1994 Reason: Website: www.insomniacgames.com

Founded in 1994 by Ted Price who, with programmers Alex and Brian Hastings, laid the foundation for the Insomniac's first game, Disruptor - a sci-fi first-person shooter released on the PlayStation in 1996. The game won several awards from magazines for Best First-Person Shooter but was also labelled "Dark Horse of the Year" and "the Best Game that No One Heard Of" thanks to its non-existent marketing budget.

Deciding that it was time for a new direction, the now 5-person team created Spyro the Dragon. Over the next two years, the team grew to 13 people and learned how to make character action games.

In 1998, Sony Computer Entertainment published Spyro the Dragon worldwide and the game was a smash hit. The natural thing to do at that point was to expand the franchise and so Insomniac did - it created Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer in 1999 and then Spyro: Year of the Dragon in 2000.

All three titles won industry awards in many categories and all three are now part of SCEE's Platinum collection. The combined sales of the three Spyro titles are well over 3.3 million units in the PAL territories.

After releasing Spyro: Year of the Dragon, Insomniac had grew to over 30 people and was beginning to prototype its tools and technology for the PlayStation 2. Insomniac believed that it had taken the Spyro franchise as far as it could and decided to create something new.

Ratchet and Clank reflected Insomniac's desire to expand the character action genre and to build on its experiences from Spyro. The title was revolutionary in many ways and broke new ground on the PS2.

The Insomniac team continued to grown, bringing on board more talented designers, programmers, artists and animators to create a more complex weapons-based, action-adventure game featuring the return of the dynamic pairing of Ratchet & Clank.

In 2006 the company release its first PlayStation 3 title, the critically acclaimed Resistance: Fall of Man. As of 2008, Insomniac Games has grown to 145 hard-working, creative souls and remains completely independent.

Software Highlights from Credited Titles

Insomniac's first work that SPOnG is aware of is the 1996 title, "Disruptor" (PlayStation).

The company has been involved titles released on the PS3, Xbox 360, PS2 and PlayStation. Of these, "Spyro: Year of the Dragon" (PlayStation), "Resistance: Fall of Man" (PS3), "Resistance 3" (PS3), "Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer" (PlayStation), "Spyro the Dragon" (PlayStation) has been a best selling title.

The company is currently involved with the forthcoming 2013 release "Fuse" (Xbox 360).

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