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Humongous Entertainment

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Humongous Entertainment, Inc.
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryVideo games
FoundedMarch 1992;32 years ago(1992-03)inWoodinville, Washington,US
Founder
DefunctAugust 22, 2005;19 years ago(2005-08-22)
FateClosed, assets sold
Headquarters
Bothell, Washington
,
US
ParentAtari(1996–2005)
Websitehumongous

Humongous Entertainment, Inc.was an Americanvideo game developerbased inBothell, Washington.Founded in 1992, the company developed multipleedutainmentfranchises, most prominentlyPutt-Putt,Freddi Fish,Pajama SamandSpy Fox,which, combined, sold over 15 million copies and earned more than 400 awards of excellence.[1]

Humongous Entertainment was acquired byGT Interactive(later renamed Infogrames, Inc., then Atari, Inc.) in July 1996. By October 2000, sales of Humongous games had surpassed 16 million copies.[2]GT sold the Humongous business to its parent company,Infogrames(later renamed Atari SA), in August 2005 and laid off the studio's employees. Infogrames held the assets under a new subsidiary, Humongous, Inc., until its bankruptcy in 2013, in which the assets were sold toTommo,who re-released some of its games ondigital distributionchannels using the Humongous name.

History

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Formation (1992–1996)

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Humongous Entertainment was formed byShelley DayandRon Gilbertin March 1992,[3]then based inWoodinville, Washington.[4]The name Humongous Entertainment was suggested by Gilbert's ex-LucasArtscolleague,Tim Schafer.[5]It became known for creating fourpoint-and-clickadventure game series intended for young children, branded collectively as "Junior Adventures", with the four series being thePutt-Putt,theFreddi Fish,thePajama Samand theSpy Foxseries. Despite all four series being developed and released in parallel, characters from one series do notcross overwith ones in another (except forPutt-Putt and Fatty Bear's Activity Pack,where Putt-Putt and Fatty Bear combined their Fun Packs) and instead appear ascameosorEaster eggsin any of the three other series. The company became the third largest children's educational-software company.[6]

In 1995, Gilbert and Day established a company division,Cavedog Entertainment,inSeattle,set to develop games of alternative genres, and releasedTotal Annihilation,a real-time strategy (RTS) game, in 1997. This was followed by two expansion packs in 1998, as well as a variation calledTotal Annihilation: Kingdomsplus an expansion pack in 1999.[7]

Acquisitions, decline, dissolution (1996–2006)

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In July 1996, Humongous Entertainment was purchased byGT InteractiveforUS$76 million.[8]In November 1997, Humongous Entertainment signed a five-year worldwide deal withNickelodeonto develop games based on the Nick Jr. series,Blue's Clues,making it the first and only time that Humongous has developed games based on a licensed character as opposed to its original characters.[9]The same year, Humongous released their firstBackyard Sportstitle,Backyard Baseball.Backyard Sportswould go on to become the company's longest-running series. In November 1999, GT Interactive was acquired byInfogramesand renamed to Infogrames, Inc. In 2000, Humongous Entertainment released aOne-Stop Fun Shopactivity center game for each Junior Adventure series, with the exception ofSpy Fox.[10]The co-founders tried to buy Humongous Entertainment back from Infogrames, Inc., using external funding, but the day of the planned purchase was the day of thedot-com collapse,wherefore the funding was pulled. The founders soon left Humongous, alongside many other key employees, and formed a new studio, Hulabee Entertainment, in 2001. In June 2001, Infogrames, Inc. laid off 82 personnel, over 40% of staff from Humongous Entertainment.[11]In May 2003, after Infogrames, Inc. purchasedHasbro Interactive,which owned the rights to theAtaribrand, the company was renamed Atari, Inc.

In August 2005, facing financial struggles, Atari, Inc. sold the Humongous Entertainment business to Infogrames for shares worthUS$10.3 million.As part of the deal, the assets were transferred to a new Infogrames subsidiary (Humongous, Inc.), while the employees of Humongous Entertainment were laid off. Infogrames expected to sell Humongous, Inc. further. Atari, Inc. signed an agreement with Humongous, Inc. to exclusively distribute the company's games in North America through March 2006.[12]

Post-closure asset handling (2006–present)

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In October 2005, Infogrames announced plans to relaunch the Humongous brand, beginning with new entries in theBackyard Sportsfranchise and followed up with a business strategy for reviving characters from theJunior Adventureseries.[13]Atari, Inc.'s distribution deal for Humongous titles was soon extended through March 2007.[14]

In April 2008, Infogrames purchased and merged with Atari, Inc.[15][16]Following this merger, Infogrames Entertainment's company name was changed to Atari SA, who would go on to publish numerous moreBackyard Sportstitles.[17]In August,Majesco EntertainmentpublishedWiiports of three Humongous titles: the first installments of eachJunior Adventureseries, exceptPutt-Putt.[18][19]The ports were developed by Mistic Software, but their availability was greatly limited bya legal conflict concerning their development.[20][1]In November of the same year, Humongous, Inc. released theNintendo DSgameFreddi Fish: ABC Under The Sea.[21]

Beginning in November 2011, in collaboration with Nimbus Games, Atari began releasing Android andiOSports of several Humongous EntertainmentJunior Adventuretitles.[22]These releases continued into 2012.[23]

In 2013, Atari SA filed bankruptcy for Atari, Inc.,Atari Interactive,and Humongous. As part of the resolution proceedings, the Humongous brand and most game assets were sold toTommoon July 19.[24]TheBackyard Sportsseries was acquired byThe Evergreen Group,[25]andMoonBase CommanderbyRebellion Developments.[26]

Beginning in 2014, the relaunched Humongous brand under Tommo began re-releasing the originalJunior AdventureandJunior Arcadetitles for Windows and Mac; ports for most of these titles were also released for mobile devices.[24]In early 2022, Humongous releasedNintendo Switchports of several of theJunior Adventuretitles, followed by ports of these titles for thePlayStation 4later that year.[27][28][29]A digital compilation of these releases, titled "Humongous Classic Collection" was released in December 2022 for both systems, while a Nintendo Switch exclusive physical compilation was released in 2023.[30][31][32]

Games developed

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References

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  1. ^ab"Majesco Brings Humongous' Best-Selling Children's Properties to Wii".GameZone. March 25, 2008.Archivedfrom the original on January 17, 2016.RetrievedJune 6,2015.
  2. ^Kubin, Jacquie (October 1, 2000)."There's Humongous Rewards in Edutaining Little Kids".Animation World Network.Archivedfrom the original on October 12, 2016.
  3. ^"Humongous Entertainment Fast Facts".Humongous Entertainment. August 26, 1997. Archived fromthe originalon February 10, 1998.
  4. ^"Humongous Entertainment's Child's Play Develops Maturity".Los Angeles Times.September 15, 1997.Archivedfrom the original on September 25, 2021.RetrievedFebruary 19,2021.
  5. ^Dave Grossman(June 19, 2009)."Q&A With the Team".Telltale Games.Archivedfrom the original on May 18, 2022.RetrievedFebruary 19,2021.True fact: It was Tim Schafer who suggested the name "Humongous Entertainment".
  6. ^Robert Sorbo."Cyber Elite - Shelley Day".Archived fromthe originalon April 9, 2009.RetrievedSeptember 4,2016.
  7. ^"Cavedog Entertainment".December 12, 1998. Archived fromthe originalon August 8, 2003.RetrievedApril 23,2015.
  8. ^"Company News; GT Interactive acquires Humongous Entertainment".New York Times.July 11, 1996.Archivedfrom the original on September 25, 2021.RetrievedJanuary 4,2017.
  9. ^"Nickelodeon and Humongous Entertainment Ink Exclusive Five-Year Worldwide Deal To Create CD-ROMs for Blue's Clues, Nick Jr.'s Top-Rated Preschool TV Show".Humongous Entertainment and Nickelodeon. November 6, 1997.Archivedfrom the original on October 31, 2000.RetrievedMarch 11,2021.
  10. ^"Humongous Entertainment's One-Stop Fun Shops".May 4, 2012.Archivedfrom the original on November 18, 2017.RetrievedJune 10,2017.
  11. ^"Humongous cuts 40% of its staff".Seattle Post-Intelligencer.June 15, 2001.Archivedfrom the original on August 14, 2017.RetrievedOctober 9,2006.
  12. ^"Atari Sells Humongous to Infogrames for $10.3 Million".Business Week.August 28, 2005.Archivedfrom the original on September 23, 2018.RetrievedJanuary 27,2014.
  13. ^"Infogrames Announces Relaunch for Humongous Brand".
  14. ^"Form 10-K".Atari, Inc.June 29, 2006.RetrievedDecember 4,2023– viaElectronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval.
  15. ^Infogrames Entertainment S.A. and Atari, Inc. Announce Agreement to Merge: Financial NewsYahoo! FinanceArchivedMay 27, 2008, at theWayback Machine
  16. ^"Atari GB".Corporate.infogrames. October 9, 2008. Archived fromthe originalon February 19, 2009.RetrievedJanuary 3,2018.
  17. ^"Infogrames Entertainment Fiscal Year 2008/2009 Earnings"(PDF).Infogrames. May 29, 2009.Archived(PDF)from the original on January 3, 2023.RetrievedJanuary 3,2023.
  18. ^"Majesco Entertainment and Interactive Game Group Bring Humongous' Best-Selling Children's Properties to Wii in the U.S."March 26, 2008.Archivedfrom the original on December 27, 2021.RetrievedDecember 27,2021.
  19. ^"TWiG 2008-08-25: A Week with the Shovel, PopMatters".popmatters.August 24, 2008.RetrievedJune 20,2024.
  20. ^Moss, Richard (January 16, 2012)."Maniac Tentacle Mindbenders: How ScummVM's unpaid coders kept adventure gaming alive".Ars Technica.Archivedfrom the original on February 23, 2016.RetrievedFebruary 16,2016.
  21. ^"Freddi Fish: ABC Under The Sea - Nintendo DS - GameSpy".ds.gamespy.RetrievedJune 11,2024.
  22. ^Atari."Atari Brings Award Winning HUMONGOUS Kids Edutainment Games to iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch for the First Time".prnewswire(Press release).RetrievedJanuary 17,2024.
  23. ^"Nimbus Games to bring their newest title, Spy Fox in Dry Cereal, to Android".Droid Gamers.May 16, 2012.RetrievedJanuary 17,2024.
  24. ^abClark, Nicole (May 9, 2019)."From 'Putt Putt' to 'Freddi Fish'—How Humongous Entertainment Made Edutainment Fun".Vice.RetrievedJanuary 8,2024.
  25. ^"The Evergreen Group Has Agreed to Acquire Backyard Sports Video Game Franchise".Business Week.July 24, 2013.Archivedfrom the original on February 8, 2014.RetrievedJanuary 12,2014.
  26. ^"Wargaming, Rebellion and Stardock all bid on Atari assets".Gamasutra.July 22, 2013.Archivedfrom the original on January 6, 2014.RetrievedJanuary 27,2014.
  27. ^Humongous [@HumongousEnt] (February 3, 2022)."Get your adventure on with four of the best games you've ever played, arriving for #NintendoSwitch on February 10th"(Tweet).RetrievedFebruary 10,2022– viaTwitter.
  28. ^Humongous [@HumongousEnt] (December 27, 2021)."Freddi Fish 3 and Putt-Putt Travels Through Time on January 3rd, 2022!"(Tweet).RetrievedJanuary 4,2022– viaTwitter.
  29. ^"Once trapped in fragile plastic diskettes..."Twitter.November 2, 2022.
  30. ^"Humongous Classic Collection".store.playstation.RetrievedJanuary 8,2024.
  31. ^"Amazon: Humongous Classic Collection - Nintendo Switch: Video Games".amazon.Archivedfrom the original on January 9, 2023.RetrievedJanuary 9,2023.
  32. ^"Humongous Classic Collection for Nintendo Switch - Nintendo Official Site".nintendo.RetrievedJanuary 8,2024.
  33. ^"Humongous Entertainment Brings a New Perspective to Children's Software; Putt-Putt's Newest Junior Adventure™ Puts Kids in the Driver's Seat Putt-Putt Enters the Race™ Hits Retail Stores This Week; Humongous Kicks off Online Launch Party for Putt-Putt on January 14"(Press release). Humongous Entertainment. January 5, 1999. Archived fromthe originalon October 2, 1999.
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