BAM! Entertainment, Inc. (formerly Bay Area Multimedia, Inc.) was an American

video game publisher A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that have been developed either internally by the publisher or externally by a video game developer. They often finance the development, sometimes by paying a video game developer ...

based in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...

, that was founded by Ray Musci in October 1999. BAM!'s partnership with

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...

in 2000 led to the development of a number of licensed video games featuring Cartoon Network IPs, including ''

The Powerpuff Girls ''The Powerpuff Girls'' is an American Superhero fiction, superhero animated television series created by animator Craig McCracken and produced by Hanna-Barbera (later Cartoon Network Studios) for Cartoon Network. The show centers on Blossom ...

'', ''

Dexter's Laboratory ''Dexter's Laboratory'' is an American animated television series created by Genndy Tartakovsky for Cartoon Network. The series follows Dexter, an enthusiastic boy-genius with a science laboratory in his bedroom, which he keeps secret from his u ...

'', ''

Samurai Jack ''Samurai Jack'' is an American science fantasy action-adventure animated television series created by Genndy Tartakovsky for Cartoon Network and Adult Swim. The show is produced by Cartoon Network Studios. Tartakovsky conceived ''Samurai Jac ...

'', and ''

Ed, Edd n Eddy '' Ed, Edd n Eddy'' is an animated television series created by Danny Antonucci for Cartoon Network. The series revolves around three friends named Ed, Edd (nicknamed "Double D" to avoid confusion with Ed), and Eddy—collectively known as "th ...

''. A 2001 distribution deal allowed French publisher

Ubi Soft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include ''Anno (video game series), Anno'', ' ...

to distribute BAM!'s games internationally. BAM! suffered financial turmoil beginning in 2002, during which time the

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

threatened to delist it from the stock exchange. The company sold off their

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

-based development studio to

VIS Entertainment VIS Entertainment Limited (formerly known as VIS Interactive) was a British video game developer based in Edinburgh. Chris van der Kuyl and Peter Baillie established the company in 1996. In 2003, VIS Entertainment faced financial struggles and ...

in 2003. BAM! acquired VIS in 2004 but was delisted from the NASDAQ. The company continued to publish licensed games until 2005, when the company went defunct after filing for

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

History

Formation

American entrepreneur Ray Musci founded Bay Area Multimedia on October 7, 1999. The company signed a deal with

Takara was a Japanese toy company founded in 1955. In March 2006, the company merged with Tomy, Tomy Company, Ltd. to form Tomy, Takara Tomy. The Takara motto was("playing is culture"). The company focused on traditional toys and board games. They cr ...

in April 2000 to localize and publish '' Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals'' for the

Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on June 23, 1996, in North America on September 29, 1996, and in Europe and Australia on March 1, 1997. As the successor to the Super Nintendo E ...

in North America as a rental-only release. The company also signed distribution deals with

Virgin Interactive Avalon Interactive Group, Ltd., formerly known as Virgin Interactive Entertainment, was a British video game distributor based within Europe that formerly traded as the video game publishing and distributing division of British conglomerate the V ...

and

Victor Interactive Software was a Japanese video game software publisher and developer, established on October 1, 1996 as a division of Victor Entertainment. Their first game was ''Fish Eyes'' and their last game was ''Fish Eyes 3''. Some of their games used the brand. H ...

to distribute '' Jimmy White's 2: Cueball'' and ''Contender 2'' for the North American market. In 2000, Bay Area Multimedia secured an exclusive licensing deal with

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Warner Bros. Games (formerly Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment) is an American video game publisher based in Burbank, California. The publisher was founded as a division of Warner Bros. on January 14, 2004, as well as the WB Games brand. ...

and

to publish games based on ''

'', ''

'', and ''

Yogi Bear Yogi Bear is an anthropomorphic animal character who has appeared in numerous comic books, animated television shows, and films. He made his debut in 1958 as a supporting character in ''The Huckleberry Hound Show''. He was created by Hanna- ...

''. The company also secured a licensing agreement with Franchise Pictures to publish video games based on their films. A separate licensing agreement with Warner Bros. and DC Comics was also made for the licensing of Sgt. Rock.

Expansion

In December 2000, the company was renamed BAM! Entertainment. Shortly afterward, the company opened an office in the United Kingdom to publish their games in Europe. They soon signed a deal with

in February 2001 for the distribution of BAM!'s games in the entirety of Europe except for the United Kingdom. The company launched their first

Palm OS Palm OS (also known as Garnet OS) is a discontinued mobile operating system initially developed by Palm, Inc., for personal digital assistants (PDAs) in 1996. Palm OS was designed for ease of use with a touchscreen-based graphical user interface. ...

titles ''Strike it Rich'' and ''CardTopia'' at the end of June 2001. From September onward, the company secured more publishing and licensing deals, including a deal to publish the Game Boy Advance port of '' Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars'' on September 17, a licensing agreement with

Spyglass Entertainment Spyglass Media Group, LLC is an American independent film and television production and finance company based in Los Angeles, California. The company was founded by Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum on August 21, 1998 as Spyglass Entertainment and ...

for a video game based on '' Reign of Fire'' on October 9 and 16 On January 8, 2002, BAM! announced that their Cartoon Network partnership would expand to include ''

'' and later and ''

''. Shortly afterwards, BAM! signed a five-year agreement with

Aardman Animations Aardman Animations Limited, known simply as Aardman, is a British animation studio based in Bristol, England, United Kingdom. It is known for films and television series made using stop motion and clay animation techniques, particularly those fe ...

to publish games based on ''

Wallace and Gromit ''Wallace & Gromit'' is a British claymation comedy media franchise, franchise created by Nick Park and produced by Aardman Animations. The series centres on Wallace, a good-natured, eccentric, cheese-loving bachelor inventor, and Gromit, his ...

''. In February, the company announced a port of ''Driven'' as their first

GameCube The is a PowerPC-based home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, in Europe on May 3, 2002, and in Australia on May 17, 2002. It is the suc ...

title. and at the end of the month signed a publishing agreement with

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Team Soho was a British video game developer based in Soho, London. It was formerly the video game development division of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe before being spun off to develop ''The Getaway'' series; a second unit at Cambridge ...

to release ''

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is an international rallying series owned and governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA. Inaugurated in 1973, it is the oldest FIA world championship after Formula One. E ...

'' in North America. The SCEE agreement soon expanded to include '' Wipeout Fusion'' and '' Dropship: United Peace Force'' in March. In June, a deal was made with

Riverdeep Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Learning Technology, originally started as Riverdeep Interactive Learning, is a publishing house for educational online and CD-ROM products based in San Francisco, Boston and Dublin, Ireland. Founded in 1995, Riverdeep w ...

for video games based on the ''

Carmen Sandiego ''Carmen Sandiego'' (sometimes referred to as ''Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?'') is a media franchise based on a Carmen Sandiego (video game series), series of computer video games created by the American software company Broderbund. Whi ...

'' educational franchise. In November, BAM! signed a publishing deal with

Disney Interactive Disney Interactive is an American video game and internet company that oversees various websites and interactive media owned by The Walt Disney Company. History 1995–1996: Formation and beginnings In December 1994, Disney announced that it w ...

to release two ''

Winnie the Pooh Winnie-the-Pooh (also known as Edward Bear, Pooh Bear or simply Pooh) is a fictional Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard. Winnie-the-Pooh first appeared by ...

'' educational titles and '' My Disney Kitchen'' for the PlayStation.

Fate and bankruptcy

In 2002, BAM! started to suffer from financial problems, which led to the

threatening to delist the company. In April 2003, the company's London-based development studio was purchased by

, however, VIS later announced that the studio would close following the completion of its remaining projects. In the same year, following the expiration of their distribution deal with Ubi Soft, BAM! entered into a new distribution deal with

Acclaim Entertainment Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game publisher based in Glen Cove, New York. Originally founded by Greg Fischbach, Robert Holmes, and Jim Scoroposki from a storefront in Oyster Bay in 1987, the company built a global develop ...

in August. Unlike the Ubi Soft partnership, the Acclaim deal included all PAL region countries. The deal ended after Acclaim's bankruptcy the following year. In 2004, BAM! acquired

and fellow subsidiary State of Emergency Development. The NASDAQ finally delisted BAM!'s stock in the same year. VIS Entertainment was placed into

in April 2005; BAM! then sold the rights to VIS's '' State of Emergency 2'' to

DC Studios DC Studios is an American film and television production company that is a division of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). It is responsible for the production of live-action and animated films and television series, as well as video games, based ...

in May that year and filed for bankruptcy shortly thereafter.

Games

References

External links

* {{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050523080214/http://www.bam4fun.com/, title=Bam4Fun.com (archive), date=May 23, 2005 1999 establishments in California 2005 disestablishments in the United States Companies disestablished in 2005 Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Defunct video game companies of the United States Video game companies established in 1999 Video game publishers