Avalanche Software is an American

video game developer A video game developer is 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 business with em ...

and

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

of Warner Bros. Games based in

Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Salt ...

. It was founded in October 1995 by four programmers formerly of Sculptured Software, including John Blackburn, who is

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

. The studio was acquired by the games arm of

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

in May 2005, and spent the next ten years developing Disney-related titles, including the toys-to-life game '' Disney Infinity'' (2013). In May 2016, due to a declining toys-to-life games market, Disney decided to close the games arm, including Avalanche. Warner Bros. Games acquired the studio and re-opened it in January 2017.

History

Avalanche Software was founded by four programmers formerly of Sculptured Software, including John Blackburn. After Sculptured Software had been acquired by Acclaim Entertainment, the four had been in contact with another former Sculptured Software staffer who left the year prior for Saffire. The four were interested in joining Saffire, which was seeking programmers for an upcoming project, but did not want to commute to the company's offices in Pleasant Grove. Instead, Saffire's owner convinced them to start their own company. Subsequently, Blackburn and his acquaintances established Avalanche in October 1995, with Blackburn becoming the company's president. On April 19, 2005, Buena Vista Games (later renamed Disney Interactive Studios), the video game publishing arm of

, announced that it had acquired Avalanche for an undisclosed price. Buena Vista Games established a sister studio to Avalanche, Fall Line Studio, in November 2006. The studio was merged into Avalanche in January 2009. In January 2013, Avalanche unveiled the toys-to-life cross-platform game '' Disney Infinity''. On May 10, 2016, due to a lack of growth in the toys-to-life market and increasing development costs, Disney discontinued ''Disney Infinity'' and closed down Disney Interactive Studios, including Avalanche. Many former Avalanche workers were hired by castAR to create a new studio in Salt Lake City. On January 24, 2017, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (now Warner Bros. Games) announced that it had acquired and re-opened the studio, with Blackburn returning as its

. The studio's first title under the new ownership was '' Cars 3: Driven to Win''. In February 2021, game director Troy Leavitt received backlash for his social media posts that supported

cultural appropriation Cultural appropriation is the adoption of an element or elements of one culture or cultural identity, identity by members of another culture or identity in a manner perceived as inappropriate or unacknowledged. Such a controversy typically ari ...

and

Gamergate Gamergate or GamerGate (GG) was a loosely organized online misogyny, misogynistic online harassment campaign motivated by a right-wing backlash against feminism, diversity, and progressivism in video game culture. It was conducted using the ...

. This led to his resignation from Avalanche Software and the

Hogwarts Legacy ''Hogwarts Legacy'' is a 2023 action role-playing game developed by Avalanche Software and published by Warner Bros. Games under its Portkey Games label. It is part of the Wizarding World franchise, taking place a century prior to the ''Harry ...

project. He claimed that his exit was not a result of the criticism, and Warner Bros. chose not to address the situation. ''Hogwarts Legacy'' was released in 2023 as Avalanche's first independent game since it was acquired by Warner Bros. Games. The open-world action role-playing game was published by the publisher Portkey Games, which is also owned by Warner Bros. Games. The game was officially announced as part of the

PlayStation 5 The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North ...

Showcase on September 16, 2020 and was subsequently named "Star of the Evening" by the daily newspaper Die Welt. It has been released for

, Xbox Series X/S,

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

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 ...

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 console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...

, and

Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...

Games developed

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1995 establishments in Utah 2005 mergers and acquisitions 2016 disestablishments in Utah 2017 establishments in Utah 2017 mergers and acquisitions American companies established in 1995 American companies established in 2017 Companies based in Salt Lake City Disney acquisitions Re-established companies Video game companies based in Utah Video game companies disestablished in 2016 Video game companies established in 1995 Video game companies established in 2017 Video game development companies Warner Bros. Games