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Krome Studios

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Krome Studios
Type Developer
Founder(s) Robert Walsh
John Passfield
Steve Stamatiadis
Founded 1999
Headquarters Brisbane
Melbourne
Adelaide
Ownership Private
Employees ~280 at close (450+ at peak)
Website http://www.kromestudios.com

Krome Studios was a Brisbane-based game developer founded in 1999 by Robert Walsh, John Passfield and Steve Stamatiadis. At its peak, it was Australia's largest independent games developer with three studios and over 450 staff. After a number of rounds of lay-offs, the company closed its Melbourne and Adelaide studios, and laid off most of its staff at its Brisbane studio. Kennedy-Miller Mitchell brought most of the remaining Krome Studios staff on as contractors for about 12 months after Krome's closure. The company relaunched its website on July 27, 2012

Contents

History

Foundation

Krome Studios was started by Robert Walsh, John Passfield and Steve Stamatiadis on 30 September 1999[1]. Passfield and Stamatiadis had previously operated Interactive Binary Illusions, where they combined to create Flight of the Amazon Queen and Alien Carnage, and had recently started Gee Whiz! Entertainment and released Zombie Wars, the third game in the Halloween Harry series. They met Robert Walsh while making Mike Stewart's Pro Bodyboarding - Walsh was the game's producer at publisher Pacific Interactive Entertainment[2]. Gee Whiz! and Walsh's company formed a joint venture to start a studio where they could create the kinds of games they wanted, and grow the market in Australia[3]

Krome's first production was the international version of Mike Stewart's Pro Bodyboarding which was Gee Whiz Entertainment had completed earlier.

The studio teamed up with Mattel for their next two projects; Championship Surfer for the PC, PlayStation and Dreamcast, and Barbie: Beach Vacation for the PC. While neither game was especially successful from a critical or commercial perspective, they cemented Krome as a reliable work-for-hire developer.

Sixth Generation Era

Success with work-for-hire projects also afforded Krome the opportunity to create their own IP. Ty the Tasmanian Tiger was Krome's first original IP, a 3D platformer for the PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox. Development on the project started in 2000 with a core team of five, which eventually expanded out to 40.[4]. Krome initially ran into a lot of resistance while searching for a publisher[5], but eventually found a home for Ty at Electronic Arts. Ty would go on to sell in excess of one million units worldwide across the three platforms.

The success of Ty enabled Krome to expand their staff to enable the studio to take on more licensed projects while working on their own IP. Krome joined forces with THQ to release The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius: Jet Fusion in 2003, and with Konami for King Arthur in 2004. The second Ty game, Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue was also released in 2004, with the home console versions also being joined by a 2D Game Boy Advance version developed in conjunction with Halfbrick Studios.

A third Ty game, Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 3: Night of the Quinkan was released in October 2005, but published by Activision after Electronic Arts declined on release duties.

Departure, Expansion and Spyro

In March 2005, seven months before Ty 3 wrapped up, Krome co-founder John Passfield left the company to assume the position of creative director at Pandemic Studios. Passfield had decided to take his career in a different direction to that of Krome Studios[6].

Krome opened the first of its secondary studios in December 2005 after Midway Games decided to close its Adelaide studio, the former Ratbag Games. Krome opened up new headquarters in the city and rehired many of Ratbag's former staff.

The next project handed to Krome was a reboot of the Spyro franchise. Insomniac Games, the original developers of the IP and the first three games had left Spyro behind when jumping to the sixth generation of consoles, and license owner Vivendi Universal had attempted to continue the lineage, but results were mixed. Krome developed a whole new universe for Spyro with a three game story arc. The reception to the The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning was improved from Vivendi's previous offerings, but it still did not match the efforts of Insomniac.

Not long after the release of A New Beginning, Krome purchased Melbourne House from Atari, establishing their second ancilliary studio.

A New Beginning was successful enough for Krome to be able to continue with their planned story arc. The company released The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night in 2007. However, the game met with a much stiffer critical response than the first game, and Vivendi handed development of the third part of the trilogy, The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon to another company, Etranges Libellules.

Seventh Generation, Star Wars and Contraction

Krome had undergone mass expansion to deal with the demands of developing for high definition consoles, giving them the capability to handle a large number of ongoing development projects at one time. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Viva Pinata: Party Animals and Hellboy: The Science of Evil were all in development at the same time as the Spyro games.

Viva Pinata: Party Animals was Krome's first HD game. A team of sixty worked on the game, with development running for roughly 18 months[7]. Working in conjunction with the producers of the television show, the Krome team produced what was an amazing looking game. Unfortunately, the critical response was somewhat tepid. The game fared much better than Hellboy, however, which received a hostile response from the press.

LucasArts had sought Krome out for the PlayStation 2, PSP and Wii versions of The Force Unleashed, which was a major Star Wars multimedia project. The Brisbane studio worked on the PlayStation 2 and PSP versions, while the Melbourne studio took care of the Wii version of the game. The response to the game was positive when released in 2008, though there was some disappointment over the rigidity of the Wii version's lightsaber control. Krome's second Star Wars game Star Wars Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels was made to quell some of that angst, but the game's limited control system and lack of content resulting in a number of unhappy reviews.

Microsoft and Krome teamed up a second time for Scene It? Box Office Smash, the second of the movie trivia puzzle games to be released on the Xbox 360. The game was among the first to use Microsoft's new Avatar system, which helped the game's response with critics.

Licensed content defined much of Krome's output for 2009, with the company releasing Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen for the PS2 and Star Wars Clone Wars: Republic Heroes across multiple formats. Each title was poorly received, and it is believed that Republic Heroes poor reviews cost the company the contract to develop the Wii version of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2. Activision was also rumoured to be unhappy with Krome's efforts on Transformers, denying the company a role in the development of games for the third movie.

The strong Australian dollar and global financial crisis hit many of Australia's game developers hard, due to the reliance on work-for-hire projects. Krome weathered the storm better than many of its contemporaries, but was still forced to shed a large number of its staff. Between late 2009 and mid-2010, Krome's headcount was reduced from over 450 to 280.

Final titles and perceived closure

Krome was in charge of Microsoft's Game Room project, having developed the front end for the service and emulation of the titles released on the surface. The company released Blade Kitten and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole in September 2010, but both titles performed poorly. Unable to secure further work-for-hire contracts due to perceived poor performance of recent releases and the strong Australian dollar, the company laid off the majority of their remaining Brisbane employees on October 18, 2010.


Re-emergence

A lighter, re-focused Krome Studios revealed itself to the public on July 27, 2012 with the announcement of a new TY the Tasmanian Tiger game for Facebook.

Games Developed by Krome Studios

PC

PlayStation

Dreamcast

PlayStation 2

Game Boy Advance

Xbox

GameCube

PlayStation Portable

Xbox 360

Xbox Live Arcade

Wii

PlayStation 3

PlayStation Network

Windows Phone 7

Other

  • Unannounced LucasArts title (cancelled)

References

  1. ↑ Australian Securities and Investment Commission - http://www2.search.asic.gov.au/cgi-bin/gns030c?acn=089_762_783&juris=9&hdtext=ACN&srchsrc=1
  2. ↑ Tsumea - Interview with John Passfield - http://www.tsumea.com/australasia/australia/news/111002/interview-with-john-passfield
  3. ↑ Behind the Games: Krome Studios - TeamXbox - http://interviews.teamxbox.com/xbox/966/Behind-the-Games-Krome-Studios/p1
  4. ↑ Ty the Tasmanian Tiger Interview - IGN - http://au.cube.ign.com/articles/364/364531p1.html
  5. ↑ Interview with Steve Stamatiadis - Gaming Age - http://www.gaming-age.com/cgi-bin/specials/special.pl?spec=ty3_interview&pagenum=1
  6. ↑ John has left the building - Passfield Games - http://passfieldgames.blogspot.com/2006/02/john-has-left-building-mar-3rd-2005.html
  7. ↑ Viva Pinata: Party Animals AU Interview - IGN - http://au.xbox360.ign.com/articles/809/809744p1.html

External Links

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