Avalanche Software is an American

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

based in

Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

and a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (WBIE; also known as Warner Bros. Games or WB Games) is an American video game publisher based in Burbank, California, and part of the newly-formed Global Streaming and Interactive Entertainment unit of ...

. It was founded in October 1995 by four

programmers A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...

formerly of

Sculptured Software Acclaim Entertainment was an American video game publisher from Long Island, active from 1987 until filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on September 1, 2004. Through a series of acquisitions between 1990 and 2002, Acclaim built itself a large portfo ...

, including John Blackburn, who serves as

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

. The studio was acquired by the games arm of

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

in May 2005, and spent the next ten years developing Disney-related titles, including the

toys-to-life Toys-to-life is a video game feature using physical figurines or action figures to interact within the game. These toys use a near field communication (NFC), radio frequency identification (RFID), or image recognition data protocol to determine ...

game ''

Disney Infinity ''Disney Infinity'' is an action-adventure sandbox toys-to-life video game series developed by Avalanche Software. The setting of the series is a giant customizable universe of imagination, known as the Toy Box, populated with toy versions of i ...

'' (2013). In May 2016, due to a declining toys-to-life games market, Disney decided to close the games arm, including Avalanche.

acquired the studio and re-opened it in January 2017.

History

Avalanche Software was founded by four

formerly of

, including John Blackburn. After Sculptured Software had been acquired by

Acclaim Entertainment Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game publisher based in Glen Cove, New York. Originally formed by Greg Fischbach, Robert Holmes and Jim Scoroposki out of an Oyster Bay storefront in 1987, the company established a worldwide ...

, the four had been in contact with another former Sculptured Software staffer who left the year prior for Saffire. The four were interested in joining Saffire, which was seeking programmers for an upcoming project, but did not want to commute to the company's offices in Pleasant Grove. Instead, Saffire's owner convinced them to start their own company. Subsequently, Blackburn and his acquaintances established Avalanche in October 1995, with Blackburn becoming the company's

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

. On April 19, 2005,

Buena Vista Games Disney Interactive Studios, Inc. was an American video game developer and publisher owned by The Walt Disney Company through Disney Interactive. Prior to its closure in 2016, it developed and distributed multi-platform video games and interact ...

(later called Disney Interactive Studios), the

video game publishing A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that have been developed either internally by the publisher or externally by a video game developer. They often finance the development, sometimes by paying a video game developer ...

arm of

, announced that it had acquired Avalanche for an undisclosed price. Buena Vista Games established a sister studio to Avalanche,

Fall Line Studio Fall Line Studios was a start up studio, and a division of Disney Interactive Studios. It was based in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S., and was the sister studio to Disney's Avalanche Software, also based in the city. Fall Line Studios was dedicated ...

, in November 2006. The studio was merged into Avalanche in January 2009. In January 2013, Avalanche unveiled the

cross-platform game ''

''. On May 10, 2016, due to a lack of growth in the toys-to-life market and increasing development costs, Disney discontinued ''Disney Infinity'' and closed down Disney Interactive Studios, including Avalanche. Many former Avalanche workers were hired by

castAR castAR (formerly Technical Illusions) was a Palo Alto-based technology startup company founded in March 2013 by Jeri Ellsworth and Rick Johnson. Its first product was to be the castAR, a pair of augmented reality and virtual reality glasses. cast ...

to create a new studio in Salt Lake City. On January 24, 2017,

announced that it had acquired and re-opened the studio, with Blackburn returning as its

. The studio's first title under the new ownership was '' Cars 3: Driven to Win''. It is set to release its first independent title since 25 to Life and after the acquisition, '' Hogwarts Legacy'', in 2023, which was announced at the

PlayStation 5 The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, it was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North Ame ...

event in September 2020. It will be released for

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

Xbox Series X/S The Xbox Series X/S are home video game consoles developed by Microsoft. They were both released on November 10, 2020, as the fourth generation Xbox, succeeding the Xbox One. Along with Sony's PlayStation 5, also released in November 202 ...

and

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...

. Hogwarts Legacy is scheduled to be released in 2023 as Avalanche's first independent game since it was acquired by

. The open-world action role-playing game is to be published by the publisher Portkey Games, which also belongs to

. The game was officially announced as part of the PlayStation 5 Showcase on September 16, 2020 and was subsequently named "Star of the Evening" by the daily newspaper Die Welt.

Games developed

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1995 establishments in Utah 2005 mergers and acquisitions 2016 disestablishments in Utah 2017 establishments in Utah 2017 mergers and acquisitions American companies established in 1995 American companies established in 2017 Companies based in Salt Lake City Disney acquisitions Former subsidiaries of The Walt Disney Company Re-established companies Video game companies disestablished in 2016 Video game companies established in 1995 Video game companies established in 2017 Video game companies of the United States Video game development companies Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment