Encore Software, LLC ("Encore") is a Delaware limited liability company focused on software sales, distribution and software development. In November 2008, Encore announced an expanded license with

Riverdeep Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Learning Technology, originally started as Riverdeep Interactive Learning, is a publishing house for educational online and CD-ROM products based in San Francisco, Boston and Dublin, Ireland. Founded in 1995, Riverdeep wa ...

. Under the terms of the agreement Encore now manages the Broderbund family of products as well as Broderbund's direct to consumer business. In May 2010, Encore acquired the assets of Punch! Software Previously, Encore was a wholly owned subsidiary of WYNIT Distribution, LLC which acquired the majority of Encore's assets from Speed Commerce, Inc. (previously Navarre Corporation) on approximately July 9, 2014.

Navarre Corporation Navarre Corporation was an American public distribution and publishing company founded in 1983 by Eric H. Paulson. The company was headquartered in New Hope, Minnesota. Navarre owned three subsidiary companies: a software publisher, Encore, Inc ...

, had initially acquired Encore's assets from the

United States Bankruptcy Court United States bankruptcy courts are courts created under Article I of the United States Constitution. The current system of bankruptcy courts was created by the United States Congress in 1978, effective April 1, 1984. United States bankruptcy c ...

for the

Central District of California The United States District Court for the Central District of California (in case citations, C.D. Cal.; commonly referred to as the CDCA or CACD) is a Federal trial court that serves over 19 million people in Southern and Central California, m ...

in August 2002. As a result of bankruptcy case 17-42726 of WYNIT Distribution, LLC, substantially all of Encore's assets were sold at auction on November 9, 2017, to Sereno Ventures, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, with offices in

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

, California. Shortly after the sale Encore's main office in

Eden Prairie, Minnesota Eden Prairie is a city southwest of downtown Minneapolis in Hennepin County and the 16th-largest city in the State of Minnesota, United States. As of the 2020 census, it has a population of 64,198. The city is adjacent to the north bank of th ...

was closed. Encore continues to operate a sales call center in

Cedar Rapids, Iowa Cedar Rapids () is the second-largest city in Iowa, United States and is the county seat of Linn County, Iowa, Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River (Iowa River), Cedar River, north of Iowa City, Iowa, Iowa City and north ...

, while technical support and software development is managed by senior management in the US with the help of offshore staff in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

, Pakistan.

Titles

Among the brands published by Encore for the retail market: *

Punch! Home Design Software is a manga written by Rie Takada, creator of ''Happy Hustle High''. The series is published in Japan by Shogakukan, and in the United States in English by VIZ Media. ''Punch!'' is about a young girl by the name Elle Nagahara, whose family ar ...

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults. The company is based in the Financial Dist ...

Broderbund Broderbund Software, Inc. (stylized as Brøderbund) was an American maker of video games, educational software, and productivity tools. Broderbund is best known for the 8-bit video game hits ''Choplifter'', ''Lode Runner'', ''Karateka'', and '' ...

and

The Learning Company The Learning Company (TLC) was an educational software company founded in 1980 in Palo Alto, California and headquartered in Fremont, California. The company produced a grade-based line of learning software, edutainment games, and productivity ...

: distributes primarily through the Broderbund website owned by Encore. Series include '' Adventure Workshop'',

Carmen Sandiego ''Carmen Sandiego'' (sometimes referred to as ''Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?'') is a media franchise based on a series of computer games created by the American software company Broderbund. While the original 1985 '' Where in the World ...

, ClickArt, Disney Fun & Skills,

Mavis Beacon Mavis is a female given name, derived from a name for the common Old World song thrush. Its first modern usage was in Marie Corelli's 1895 novel ''The Sorrows of Satan'', which featured a character named Mavis Clare (whose name was said to be "rat ...

, '' The Oregon Trail'', ''

The Print Shop The Print Shop is a basic desktop publishing software package originally published in 1984 by Broderbund. It was unique in that it provided libraries of clip art and templates through a simple interface to build signs, posters and banners with ho ...

'', ''

PrintMaster PrintMaster was a greeting card and banner creation program for Commodore 64, Amiga, Apple II and IBM PC computers. History In 1986, PrintMaster was the target of a lawsuit by Broderbund, who alleged that PrintMaster was a direct copy of thei ...

'', and

Reader Rabbit ''Reader Rabbit'' is an educational game franchise created in 1983 by The Learning Company. The series is aimed at children from infancy to the age of nine. In 1998, a spiritual successor series called ''The ClueFinders'' was released for old ...

. * ''

Hoyle Card Games ''Hoyle Card Games'' is a Game Boy Color-only video game that was developed by Sandbox Studios and published by Sierra On-Line under their Sierra Attractions label. Gameplay The package includes eight competitive card games, such as cribbage and ...

'', ''

Hoyle Casino ''Hoyle Casino'' is a virtual casino video game series, developed and published originally by Sierra Entertainment and since 2005 by Encore, Inc. It is a spin-off of Sierra's ''Hoyle's Official Book of Games'' series. Set in a virtual Las Vegas c ...

'' and ''

Hoyle Puzzle & Board Games Hoyle is an English surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Arthur Hoyle (1922–2012), Australian historian and biographer * Bert Hoyle (1920–2003), English footballer * Colin Hoyle (born 1972), English footballer * David Hoyle ...

'' * ''

Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given genera ...

'' and ''

Wheel of Fortune The Wheel of Fortune or ''Rota Fortunae'' has been a concept and metaphor since ancient times referring to the capricious nature of Fate. Wheel of Fortune may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Art * ''The Wheel of Fortune'' (Burne-Jo ...

'' PC/Mac games *

PlayFirst PlayFirst, Inc. is a Delaware based publisher of casual games founded in 2004 by industry veterans. PlayFirst produced the ''Diner Dash'' series, which won the 2008 Annual Casual Game Awards. and has seen over 550 million downloads. The popularit ...

titles *

Runic Games Runic Games was a Seattle-based American computer game company formed by Travis Baldree (creator of ''Fate''), Max Schaefer and Erich Schaefer (co-founders of Blizzard North, creators of '' Diablo''), Peter Hu, and the Flagship Studios Seattle t ...

' ''

Torchlight ''Torchlight'' is an action role-playing hack and slash dungeon crawler video game developed by Runic Games and published by Perfect World, released for Windows in October 2009. The fantasy-themed game is set in the fictional town of Torchlight ...

'': distributed to the North American retail market by Encore *

Panda Security Panda Security is a Spanish cybersecurity software company that specializes in creating products for IT security. Panda Security started with antivirus software, and the company now also provides and develops cybersecurity software. This includ ...

software * WildTangent games, including '' Fate: The Traitor Soul''

References

External links

*
Encore, Inc.
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

American companies established in 1994 Software companies based in California Video game companies based in California Companies based in Los Angeles Software companies of the United States Video game companies of the United States Video game publishers {{US-media-company-stub