Insomniac Games
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| Insomniac Games
<tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align:center; padding:16px 0 16px 0;">Image:Insomniac.JPG</td></tr> | |
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1994 |
| Headquarters | Burbank, California, USA
<tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Key people</th><td>Ted Price (CEO)</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Industry</th><td>Computer and video game industry</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Slogan</th><td>N/A</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Website</th><td>Homepage</td></tr> |
Insomniac Games is an American video game developer. They created the first three Spyro the Dragon games, Disruptor, as well as the Ratchet & Clank series.
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[edit] Company overview
Insomniac was founded in 1994 as an independent video game developer and is now based in Burbank, California. Its initial game, a first-person shooter called Disruptor for the PlayStation, was released on November 20, 1996, and was a critical darling. Since then, the company has released seven more games in two series (both of which were created by the company) for the PlayStation and the PlayStation 2, and all have been both critical and commercial successes. After three Spyro games, the company went on to create the Ratchet & Clank series. The first Ratchet & Clank has the notable distinction of being the first Western-produced game to be officially bundled with the PS2 in Japan, a country notoriously fickle in its video game tastes.
The company is also considered one of the best small businesses to work at in America for their relaxed environment, flexible hours, yoga, Fragfest Fridays, movie nights, and indoor 7/11. The company took its entire workforce on a free cruise.
In 2006, Insomniac released a violent, M-Rated PS3 first-person shooter. It's an interesting return for the company that since Disruptor only made cartoon-like platformers. Its name during production was I-8, but it's then renamed Resistance: Fall of Man. It has been compared to the likes of Half-Life 2 because of its towering spider-like enemies. Futuristic weapons seem to owe to Ratchet & Clank.
[edit] Games
[edit] People
- Ted Price (President & CEO)
- Alex Hastings (Chief Technology Officer)
- Brian Hastings (Chief Creative Officer)
- Chad Dezern
- See also Team members
[edit] Relations with other Developers
[edit] Naughty Dog
Insomniac has had a close relationship with fellow developer Naughty Dog. They make games that are similar in style, which sometimes contain references to each other. (Look at some of the city walls in Jak II or check out the start-up menu in Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando). Demos for one company's games often appear on the other's releases. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage contained a demo of Crash Team Racing, for example. Also, Insomniac's Ratchet and Clank series utilized some technology from Naughty Dog's Jak and Daxter games. Because of their friendship, many fans have wondered if the two companies would collaborate on a game. However they have, in the past, publicly stated that they don't have plans for making a game together, although both Jak II and Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando featured billboard cameos of each others heroes (and a scene in Going Commando shows Ratchet playing both his games, both Jak games, and Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus). This is taken one step further in Jak X: Combat Racing and Ratchet: Deadlocked: both feature Ratchet and Jak respectively as unlockable skins.
[edit] Sucker Punch
Insomniac also shares some sort of relationship with Sucker Punch Productions due to Sucker Punch being listed in the credits list of Going Commando, Up Your Arsenal, and Deadlocked. Sucker Punch is known for its Sly Cooper franchise. Given the three companies' close ties to Sony Computer Entertainment and the fact that all three created platform games for the PS2, they have always been associated together.
[edit] Trivia
In Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando and Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal you can actually visit Insomniac Games on Planet Burbank. The Insomniac Museum easter egg has the actual layout of the Insomniac Games offices in Burbank, California.
