SkyBox Labs Inc. is a Canadian

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 larg ...

located in

Burnaby Burnaby is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. Located in the centre of the Burrard Peninsula, it neighbours the City of Vancouver to the west, the District of North Vancouver across the confluence of the Burrard ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include ...

. Founded in 2011 by Derek MacNeil, Shyang Kong and Steven Silvester formerly from

EA Vancouver EA Vancouver (formerly known as EA Burnaby, then EA Canada) is a Canadian video game developer located in Burnaby, British Columbia. The development studio opened as Distinctive Software in January 1983, and is also Electronic Arts's largest an ...

, they are mostly known for their work with

Xbox Game Studios Xbox Game Studios (previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games) is an American video game publisher and part of the Microsoft Gaming division based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000 ...

on the ''Halo'', ''

Age of Empires ''Age of Empires'' is a series of historical real-time strategy video games, originally developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Xbox Game Studios. The first game was '' Age of Empires'', released in 1997. Nine total games within the se ...

'' and ''

Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made public in May 2009 before bein ...

'' franchises.

History

Formation

SkyBox Labs co-founders, Derek MacNeil, Shyang Kong and Steven Silvester worked together at

from 2004 to 2010 on the '' FIFA'', ''

Need for Speed ''Need for Speed'' (''NFS'') is a racing game franchise published by Electronic Arts and currently developed by Criterion Games, the developers of ''Burnout''. The series generally centers around illicit street racing and tasks players to co ...

'', '' NBA Live'' and ''

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

'' franchises, where MacNeil was development director while Kong was senior producer and Silvester technical director, when they decided to set up an independent studio in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. Th ...

. Initially being a contract-based studio, in the year of its founding SkyBox Labs signed an agreement with publisher

Microsoft Studios Xbox Game Studios (previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games) is an American video game publisher and part of the Microsoft Gaming division based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000 ...

(late renamed to Xbox Game Studios), which liked the studio and its culture, being a partner publisher of SkyBox, outhough not owning them.

Development

SkyBox Labs collaborated with

Relentless Software Relentless Software was a British video game company formed in 2003 that was based in Brighton. The company was best known for developing 12 games in the BAFTA award-winning and multi-million selling ''Buzz!'' franchise from 2005 to 2010. Relent ...

on their first title, '' Kinect Nat Geo TV'', which was developed for

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...

with

Kinect Kinect is a line of motion sensing input devices produced by Microsoft and first released in 2010. The devices generally contain RGB cameras, and infrared projectors and detectors that map depth through either structured light or time of fl ...

. It was published by

and released on September 18, 2012. It received mostly positive reviews, scoring 78 out of 100 on review aggregator site

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that 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 average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

. SkyBox Labs continued working with

after that, co-developing an expansion pack for '' Age of Empires II HD'' called ''The Forgotten'' with Forgotten Empires, which was released on November 7, 2013. They also worked on a remaster of ''Age of Mythology'' called '' Age of Mythology: Extended Edition'', which was released on May 8, 2014, and received mixed reviews, scoring 66 out of 100 on

, they also co-developed a new expansion for ''Age of Mythology: Extended Edition'' called ''Tale of the Dragon'' together with Forgotten Empires, which was released on January 28, 2016. They also developed a remaster of ''

Rise of Nations ''Rise of Nations'' is a real-time strategy video game developed by Big Huge Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios in May 2003. The development was led by veteran game designer Brian Reynolds, of ''Civilization II'' and '' Sid Mei ...

'', ''Rise of Nations Extended Edition'', released on June 12, 2014. On June 17, 2014, ''

EA Sports UFC ''EA Sports UFC'' is a mixed martial arts fighting video game developed in a collaboration between EA Canada and SkyBox Labs, and published by EA Sports for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It is based on the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) bran ...

'' was a collaboration between

EA Canada EA Vancouver (formerly known as EA Burnaby, then EA Canada) is a Canadian video game developer located in Burnaby, British Columbia. The development studio opened as Distinctive Software in January 1983, and is also Electronic Arts's largest an ...

and SkyBox Games. It was the first UFC game after

THQ THQ Inc. was an American video game company based in Agoura Hills, California. It was founded in April 1990 by Jack Friedman, originally in Calabasas, and became a public company the following year through a reverse merger takeover. Initia ...

lost the license and it was sold to

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 th ...

. Final product received mixed, but mostly positive reviews, with

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

version scoring 71 out of 100 on

and

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

version scoring 69 out of 100. Their next work was a

simulation A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or process, whereas the ...

, sandbox video game called ''

Project Spark ''Project Spark'' was a game creation system video game developed by SkyBox Labs and Team Dakota and published by Microsoft Studios for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One. The game was announced during Microsoft's E3 2013 press event, and was launc ...

'', co-developed with Team Dakota and published by

. It was released on October 8, 2014. Japanese company

DeNA Dena (in Luri and fa, ) is the name for a sub-range within the Zagros Mountains, Iran. Mount Dena, with length and average width, is situated on the boundary of the Isfahan, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad and Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Pro ...

published their next two video games, first being ''Military Masters'' for

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

and Android, which was released on December 4, 2014, and second being ''Protocol Zero'' for

Samsung Gear VR The Samsung Gear VR is a virtual reality headset developed by Samsung Electronics, in collaboration with Oculus VR, and manufactured by Samsung. The headset was released on November 27, 2015. When in use, a compatible Samsung Galaxy device act ...

, which was released on January 5, 2015. SkyBox Labs then developed and self-published ''Parade Runner'' for

and Android, which was released on April 9, 2015. Company is also working on a PC game called ''Lethal Tactics'', which was released in Early Access on

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporizat ...

on May 20, 2015. In 2018, after E3, SkyBox announced a new partnership with

343 Industries 343 Industries is an American video game developer located in Redmond, Washington, part of Xbox Game Studios. Headed by Pierre Hintze, the studio is responsible for the ''Halo'' series of military science fiction games, originally created and p ...

and Microsoft, where the studio will be co-developing ''

Halo Infinite ''Halo Infinite'' is a 2021 first-person shooter game developed by 343 Industries and published by Xbox Game Studios. It is the sixth mainline entry in the ''Halo'' series, following '' Halo 5: Guardians'' (2015). The campaign follows the hu ...

'', the next major entry to the ''

Halo Halo, halos or haloes usually refer to: * Halo (optical phenomenon) * Halo (religious iconography), a ring of light around the image of a head HALO, halo, halos or haloes may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Video games * Halo (franchise), ...

'' franchise. SkyBox Labs was acquired by

NetEase Games NetEase, Inc. () is a Chinese Internet technology company providing online services centered on content, community, communications, and commerce. The company was founded in 1997 by Ding Lei. NetEase develops and operates online PC and mobile gam ...

in January 2023.

Games

References

External links

*{{official website, http://skyboxlabs.com/ Companies based in Burnaby Privately held companies of Canada Video game companies of Canada Video game development companies Canadian companies established in 2011 Video game companies established in 2011 2011 establishments in British Columbia 2023 mergers and acquisitions Canadian subsidiaries of foreign companies NetEase