Pipeworks Studios 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

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 United States Census, Eu ...

. The company was founded in November 1999 by Dan White and Dan Duncalf and works to provide full development, co-development, and live operations to video game publishers and other partners, in addition to creating original IPs.

History

Pipeworks Software was founded in

, in November 1999 by Dan White and Dan Duncalf, two developers formerly of

Dynamix Dynamix, Inc. was an American developer of video games from 1984 to 2001, best known for the flight simulator ''Red Baron'', the puzzle game '' The Incredible Machine'', the '' Front Page Sports'' series, ''Betrayal at Krondor,'' and the online ...

. White and Duncalf assumed the roles of chief technical officer and

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 ...

, respectively, and Phil Cowles was hired as director of

business development Business development entails tasks and processes to develop and implement growth opportunities within and between organizations. It is a subset of the fields of business, commerce and organizational theory. Business development is the creation of ...

. On April 12, 2005, it was announced that Pipeworks had been acquired by

Foundation 9 Entertainment Foundation 9 Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game company based in Irvine, California. The company was formed in March 2005 through the merger of video game developers Backbone Entertainment and The Collective. History Foundation ...

, a video game conglomerate company founded the month prior. Subsequently, Duncalf joined Foundation 9's

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

. By May 2010, Pipeworks had 60 employees. In September 2014, under advisory from GP Bullhound, Foundation 9 sold Pipeworks to Italian game publishing company Digital Bros. By February 2016, Pipeworks employed 75 people and had changed its name to Pipeworks Studio. Digital Bros sold Pipeworks off to

Northern Pacific Group Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ...

for in February 2018, and the studio was later renamed Pipeworks Studios. In September 2020,

Sumo Group Sumo Group Limited is a British video game holding company based in Sheffield. It was formed in December 2017 as the parent company for Sumo Digital and Atomhawk, followed by its initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange later that ...

acquired Pipeworks for $100 million. Together with its new parent company, the studio opened a subsidiary, Timbre Games, in Canada under the management of Joe Nickolls. In July 2022, Pipeworks Studios was acquired by

Jagex Jagex Limited is a British video game developer and publisher based at the Cambridge Science Park in Cambridge, England. It is best known for ''RuneScape'' and ''Old School RuneScape'', both free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playi ...

, developers of the

RuneScape ''RuneScape'' is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by Jagex, released in January 2001. ''RuneScape'' was originally a browser game built with the Java programming language; it was large ...

franchise.

Games developed

References

External links

* {{Authority control Companies based in Eugene, Oregon Video game companies established in 1999 Video game companies of the United States Video game development companies 1999 establishments in Oregon 2005 mergers and acquisitions 2014 mergers and acquisitions 2018 mergers and acquisitions 2020 mergers and acquisitions 2022 mergers and acquisitions American subsidiaries of foreign companies American companies established in 1999 Sumo Group