Elixir Studios was a British video game developer. The company was founded in 1998 by

Demis Hassabis Demis Hassabis (born 27 July 1976) is a British artificial intelligence researcher and entrepreneur. In his early career he was a video game AI programmer and designer, and an expert player of board games. He is the chief executive officer and ...

, formerly a prominent figure at

Lionhead Studios Lionhead Studios Limited was a British video game developer founded in July 1997 by Peter Molyneux, Mark Webley, Tim Rance, and Steve Jackson. The company is best known for the ''Black & White'' and ''Fable'' series. Lionhead started as a br ...

. At its height, it employed around sixty people, and was based in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...

. It aimed to be an independent developer, creating its own intellectual properties rather than licensing established ones. The company's first game, '' Republic: The Revolution'', was released in 2003, and a second game, '' Evil Genius'', was released in 2004. In 2005, however, the company announced that it would be closing. This followed the cancellation of development on a major project due to its "perceived high-risk", which had been underway for two years. The company, citing "the current risk averse publishing climate", concluded that its goal of exploring new territory was not possible. In a press release, Hassabis said: "It seems that today's games industry no longer has room for small independent developers wanting to work on innovative and original ideas. ... is was the sole purpose of setting up Elixir and something we could never compromise on." Elixir stated that it had sufficient resources to pay redundancy packages to its staff and ensure that the company was wound down in an orderly manner. Rebellion Developments bought Elixir's intellectual property in March 2006, including '' Evil Genius''.

Games

References

Defunct video game companies of the United Kingdom Video game development companies Video game companies established in 1998 Video game companies disestablished in 2005 Defunct companies based in London 1998 establishments in England 2005 disestablishments in England {{UK-videogame-company-stub