Firefly Studios Limited (also stylized as FireFly Studios) is a British

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

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. Formed in August 1999 by Simon Bradbury, David Lester, and Eric Ouellette, the company focuses on historic real-time strategy games for the PC and Macintosh systems. They are best known for their '' Stronghold'' series of games. In June 2021, the studio was acquired by

Devolver Digital Devolver Digital, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Austin, Texas, specializing in the publishing of indie games. The company was founded in June 2009 by Nigel Lowrie, Harry Miller, Graeme Struthers, Rick Stults, and Mike Wilso ...

History

Firefly Studios was established in August 1999 by Simon Bradbury, David Lester, and Eric Ouellette, who met while working at

Impressions Games Impressions Games was a British video game developer founded by David Lester. He sold the company to Sierra On-Line in 1995, who was then bought out by Cendant and eventually, Vivendi Universal (now known as Vivendi SA). Impressions specialized ...

. The studio released its first game, '' Stronghold,'' in 2001, to critical and commercial success. The later Stronghold releases, ''

Stronghold 2 ''Stronghold 2'' is a real time strategy computer game released in April 2005 in which the player develops a stronghold in the Middle Ages. It is the sequel to ''Stronghold'', released in 2001, also by Firefly Studios. The game engine was enhanc ...

'' (2005), and ''

Stronghold Legends ''Stronghold Legends'' is a real-time strategy game developed by Firefly Studios and published by 2K Games in 2006. It is the fourth game in the ''Stronghold'' series, following ''Stronghold, Stronghold: Crusader,'' and ''Stronghold 2.'' ''Stro ...

'' (2006), both received poor reviews and were given

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

scores of 63 percent and 57 percent respectively. The last of the series, '' Stronghold: Crusader Extreme'' (2008), received an average score of 40 percent on Metacritic. Around this time, the studio began a collaboration with Firaxis Games that produced '' CivCity: Rome, a'' game that received poor reviews and was the last Firefly game published by Take-Two Interactive. In 2008, Firefly announced that they would be working on ''Stronghold 3'' followed by ''Crusader II'' because of demand from fans. The studio later canceled the release of the planned ''Dungeon Hero'' game. In 2009, when asked if they had any other unannounced games in development besides ''Dungeon Hero'' and ''Stronghold Kingdoms'', the studio responded that they still had one more game in development. A subsequent newsletter stated that the studio had "something very big in the pipeline" which would be revealed in 2010. ''

Stronghold 3 ''Stronghold 3'' is a 2011 real-time strategy video game for Microsoft Windows developed by Firefly Studios and published by 7Sixty. The game is the seventh in the series after several spin-offs, including a remake, '' Stronghold: Crusader Extrem ...

'' was officially announced on 14 May 2010 by

SouthPeak Games SouthPeak Interactive Corporation, doing business as SouthPeak Games, was an American video game publisher based in Midlothian, Virginia. Founded on March 1, 1996, as a subsidiary of SAS Institute in Cary, North Carolina, it was sold and moved t ...

, and was released in October 2011. The game received some criticism on gaming sites for game bugs. Fans pointed to various issues, including the difficulty involved with building walls and the absence of a kingmaker. More recent games included '' Stronghold Crusader II,'' the sequel to their 2002 game ''Stronghold: Crusader.'' The lead designer at Firefly Studios, Simon Bradbury, stated that the title was "our favorite game, it’s our fans’ favorite game and it’s the game we have been waiting to put into production for several long years now." The title was initially scheduled for release in early 2013 but due to delays was not released until 23 September 2014. Despite the uneven success of some of its games, the studio continues to develop new games and has sold over seven million copies to date. The ''Stronghold Kingdoms'' series retains a following with over eight million registered players. The publisher

acquired Firefly Studios on 24 June 2021. While Devolver Digital had not published any Firefly Studios games, the studio had previously worked with

Gathering of Developers Gathering of Developers, Inc. (shortened as G.O.D. or GodGames, and branded as Gathering between 2003 and 2004) was an American video game publisher based in New York City. Founded by Mike Wilson and associates in January 1998 and originally b ...

and Gamecock Media Group, both co-founded by Devolver's founders.

Recent activities

Dungeon Hero ''Dungeon Hero'' was a role-playing video game under development by Firefly Studios. It had been in development for several years and had been scheduled to be released in 2009 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360. Originally being published by Game ...

'' had been in development for several years and was scheduled for release in 2009 on both PC and Xbox 360 systems. The game was originally going to be published by Gamecock Media Group, but after that company was bought out by

in October 2008, a legal dispute on the subject of ownership of the game stopped its release. ''Dungeon Hero'' is currently without a publisher, despite SouthPeak publishing every other Gamecock title due for release. Firefly Studios has announced that the title is on hold, and several planned release dates have passed without release. The lack of clarity on the issue has fueled speculation that the game may be published as a

vaporware In the computer industry, vaporware (or vapourware) is a product, typically computer hardware or software, that is announced to the general public but is late or never actually manufactured nor officially cancelled. Use of the word has broade ...

title in the future. '' Stronghold: Warlords'', initially announced by Firefly Studios as ''Stronghold: Next'', was released on 9 March 2021.

Games

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1999 establishments in England 2021 mergers and acquisitions British companies established in 1999 British subsidiaries of foreign companies Companies based in the London Borough of Wandsworth Video game companies established in 1999 Video game companies of the United Kingdom Video game development companies