Underground Development, Ltd. (formerly Z-Axis, Ltd.) was an American

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

Foster City, California Foster City is a city located in San Mateo County, California. The 2020 census put the population at 33,805, an increase of more than 10% over the 2010 census figure of 30,567. Foster City is sometimes considered to be part of Silicon Valley ...

. The company was founded in 1994 by David Luntz and sold to

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

in May 2002. Following a rebranding to Underground Development in February 2008, the company was closed in February 2010.

History

Z-Axis was founded by David Luntz in 1994, originally located in

San Mateo, California San Mateo ( ; ) is a city in San Mateo County, California, on the San Francisco Peninsula. About 20 miles (32 km) south of San Francisco, the city borders Burlingame to the north, Hillsborough to the west, San Francisco Bay and Foster C ...

. On May 22, 2002,

announced that they had acquired Z-Axis in exchange for a payment of in cash and stock, and up to 93,446 additional shares in Activision linked to the studio's performance. At the time, the studio was located in

Hayward, California Hayward () is a city located in Alameda County, California in the East Bay subregion of the San Francisco Bay Area. With a population of 162,954 as of 2020, Hayward is the sixth largest city in the Bay Area and the third largest in Alameda Coun ...

. In February 2008, Z-Axis was rebranded as Underground Development. Activision reported in April 2008 that they were closing Underground Development, which had the time had under 45 employees in a

office, at the end of the coming May. The studio was fully closed on February 12, 2010.

Games developed as Z-Axis

Games developed as Underground Development

References

Defunct video game companies of the United States Software companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area Video game companies based in California Video game development companies Defunct Activision subsidiaries Companies based in Foster City, California Video game companies established in 1994 Video game companies disestablished in 2010 1994 establishments in California 2010 disestablishments in California Defunct companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area {{Activision-stub