Vicious Cycle Software was an American

video game development Video game development (or gamedev) is the process of developing a video game. The effort is undertaken by a developer, ranging from a single person to an international team dispersed across the globe. Development of traditional commercial PC a ...

company based in

Morrisville, North Carolina Morrisville is a town located primarily in Wake County, North Carolina, United States (a small portion extends into neighboring Durham County). The population was 18,576 at the 2010 census. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated the town's population t ...

History

Vicious Cycle was founded in 2000 by Eric Peterson, Dave Ellis, Marc Racine and Wayne Harvey after layoffs at the local

MicroProse MicroProse is an American video game publisher and video game developer, developer founded by Bill Stealey, Sid Meier, and Andy Hollis in 1982. It developed and published numerous games, including starting the ''Civilization (series), Civilizatio ...

development studio (then a

Hasbro Interactive Hasbro Interactive was an American video game developer, video game production and video game publisher, publishing subsidiary of Hasbro, the large game and toy company. Several of its studios were closed in early 2001 and most of its properties ...

studio) forced several game developers into finding other work. Racine resigned as Vice President and Director of Production in the Spring of 2005 to pursue other ventures. Ellis left the company in the Summer of 2000, but returned in 2005 to take a position as

game designer Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in ...

. Vicious Cycle has released titles for the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...

GameCube The is a home video game console developed and released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, and in PAL territories in 2002. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 (1996), and predecessor of the Wii ...

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 generation ...

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...

, and

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, ...

systems as well as the

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

platform. In 2005, Vicious Cycle announced the opening of their

Monkey Bar Games Monkey Bar Games was an American division of the defunct video game developer Vicious Cycle Software, based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Monkey Bar's mission was the creation of family entertainment products on all handheld and console video ga ...

division. Monkey Bar Games was focused on providing mass-market games to gamers of all ages. Monkey Bar Games released video games incorporating licensed characters from

Ben 10 ''Ben 10'' is an American media franchise created by Man of Action Studios, produced by Cartoon Network Studios and owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The series centers on a boy named Ben Tennyson who acquires the Omnitrix, an alien device rese ...

Dora the Explorer ''Dora the Explorer'' is an American children's animated television series and multimedia franchise created by Chris Gifford, Valerie Walsh Valdes and Eric Weiner that premiered on Nickelodeon on August 14, 2000, went on hiatus on June 5, 20 ...

, and

Curious George Curious George is a fictional monkey who is the title character of a series of popular children's picture books written by Margret and H. A. Rey. Various media, including films and TV shows, have been based upon the original book series. Geor ...

. A game was also released in late 2006 to coincide with the release of the ''

Flushed Away ''Flushed Away'' is a 2006 computer-animated adventure comedy film directed by David Bowers and Sam Fell, produced by Cecil Kramer, David Sproxton, and Peter Lord, and written by Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais, Chris Lloyd, Joe Keenan and W ...

'' animated feature film. Also in 2005, Vicious Cycle announced the release of their

Vicious Engine The Vicious Engine is a game engine that offers functionality for rendering, sound, networking, physics, game play scripting, and lighting. It was developed by Vicious Cycle Software, and was first released in January 2005. No additional third-pa ...

game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games and generally includes relevant libraries and support programs. The "engine" terminology is similar to the term "software engine" used in the software i ...

. The Vicious Engine is a complete game development

middleware Middleware is a type of computer software that provides services to software applications beyond those available from the operating system. It can be described as "software glue". Middleware makes it easier for software developers to implement co ...

solution for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation Portable, GameCube, Wii and Microsoft Windows. The Vicious Engine is one of the first game engines to offer full support for the PSP and Wii platforms. On June 20, 2007, Vicious Cycle was acquired by

D3 Publisher is a Japanese video game developer and publisher founded on February 5, 1992. The company is known for the ''Simple'' series of budget-priced video games. Their games have been released for the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Ninten ...

, making Vicious Cycle Software a subsidiary of D3Publisher of America and a second‐tier subsidiary of D3 Inc. Vicious Cycle released '' Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard'' for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on February 26, 2009. On October 1, 2009, they announced '' Matt Hazard: Blood Bath and Beyond'' for

Xbox LIVE Arcade Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) is a digital video game download service available through the Xbox Games Store, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360. It focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent ...

and the

PlayStation Store The PlayStation Store (PS Store) is a digital media store available to users of Sony's PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 game consoles via the PlayStation Network. The store offers a range of downloadable content ...

for winter 2009. The second version of the

, V^e2, was released on March 25, 2009, at the Game Developers Conference. It specifically features improvements for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. In Spring of 2014, Vicious Cycle was acquired by Little Orbit. As the final two games ('' Adventure Time: Finn & Jake Investigations'' and '' Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends'') neared completion, several rounds of layoffs reduced the studio to a skeleton crew. Vicious Cycle closed its doors permanently in January 2016.

Products

References

External links

Vicious Cycle Software official site

Monkey Bar Games official site

Vicious Engine official siteVicious Cycle Software
entry at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

{{Authority control Former Bandai Namco Holdings subsidiaries Defunct video game companies of the United States Video game development companies Video game companies established in 2000 Video game companies disestablished in 2016 Defunct companies based in North Carolina 2000 establishments in North Carolina 2016 disestablishments in North Carolina