Magnet Interactive Studios was a software development company based in Georgetown. Founded in 1989 by designer Greg Johnson as a print and 3D design firm and later joined by businessman Basel Dalloul, the company saw a short-lived software and video game business in the mid-1990s as a subsidiary of the Magnet Interactive Group

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. The studio was shut down in 1996 after demand dropped due to the advent of the Internet, firing its employees. Only Magnet Interactive Communications, a web development company and separate subsidiary, remained operational. The company had five divisions,

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and role-playing video games,

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and children's games, interactive story and strategy, and the advanced products group. Among the video games developed by the studio are ''Beyond the Wall: Stories Behind the Vietnam Wall'' (1995), ''Icebreaker'' (1995), a strategy and action game, and ''Chop Suey'' (1995), a

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. They were developing a space video game called ''Bluestar'', planned for release in November 1995, and ''Hellraiser: Virtual Hell'', a game based on the ''

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'' franchise planned for release in early 1996, but they were both cancelled upon the studio's shutdown.

History

The company was created in 1989 as a print and 3D design firm, and soon switched to developing interactive media. By June 1995, the company employed 212 people and had 300 PC and Mac computers, including an

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. At the time, Johnson was chief technical officer and senior creative director, and Dalloul the chairman and CEO. The company was seen as unusual for making numerous games in many different genres at once, rather than focusing on one segment of the business, as well as being largely funded by family money from its founders. While Dalloul planned for the company to become the United States' largest software developer, around 1997, the company scaled back its software ambitions, citing a drop in demand due to the Internet, reducing the company to 90 employees and pivoting to web development.

References

{{Reflist American companies established in 1989 Defunct companies based in Washington, D.C. Video game development companies