Park Place Productions was a corporation founded in 1989 by Michael Knox,

Troy Lyndon Troy A. Lyndon (born November 29, 1964, in New York, NY) is an entrepreneur, game developer, and business coach. Early life Troy Lyndon is the son of Jacquie Edelen, a retired HR professional and David Lyndon, a former Marine, retired Aegis Prog ...

and Stephen Quinn.

History

In 1990, contracted by

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...

, the company produced ''

John Madden Football ''Madden NFL'' (known as ''John Madden Football'' until 1993) is an American football video game series developed by EA Tiburon for EA Sports. It is named after Pro Football Hall of Fame coach and commentator John Madden and sold more than 130 m ...

'' for the

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...

video game console, described as "the most successful sports game of all time." Other popular titles that the company developed include ''

Monday Night Football ''ESPN Monday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''MNF'' and also known as ''ESPN Monday Night Football on ABC'' for simulcasts) is an American live television broadcast of weekly National Football League (NFL) games currently airing on ESPN, AB ...

'' (DOS, 1989), and '' Muhammad Ali Heavyweight Boxing'' (Genesis, 1992). Park Place Productions went on to become the largest independent developer of computer games in 1993 with 130 developers making 45 games for 14 video game publishing companies. At the end of December 1993 the company collapsed. Co-founder

had left two months earlier. After milestones for some of the projects hadn't been met, publishers denied further payments, which worsened the situation. One large customer that accounted for 30% of business, decided to pull out of its contracts. This led to a chain reaction with other business partners dropping their projects. Park Place Productions could not pay its employees in December 1993. Before the end of December 1993, a group of 30 employees started to work for a newly established operation of

Sony Imagesoft Sony Imagesoft Inc. was an American video game publisher that operated from 1989 to 1995 and was located in California. It was established in January 1989 in Los Angeles, California, as a subsidiary of the Japan-based CBS/Sony Group (CSG) and in ...

based in San Diego's

Sorrento Valley Sorrento Valley is a neighborhood of San Diego, California. It is located about 17 mi (27 km) north of Downtown San Diego and its main airport, Lindbergh Field. It is roughly bounded by Interstate 5 and Interstate 805, Camino Santa Fe t ...

. Park Place Productions subsequently opened a lawsuit against Sony, alleging that these employees were acquired in a

hostile takeover In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to ...

and took with them hardware, software, and proprietary source codes from Park Place. On 15 September 2009, co-founder Michael Knox died in

Kaneohe, Hawaii Kāneohe () is a census-designated place (CDP) included in the City and County of Honolulu and located in Hawaii state District of Koolaupoko on the island of Oahu. In the Hawaiian language, ''kāne ohe'' means "bamboo man". According to an an ...

colon cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel mo ...

. He was 48.

References

External links

Parks Place Productions Game List
Defunct video game companies of the United States Video game companies established in 1989 Video game companies disestablished in 1993 {{US-videogame-company-stub