Cryo Interactive

Cryo Interactive Entertainment was a French video game development and publishing company founded in 1990, but existing unofficially since 1989 as a developer group under the name Cryo. The company gained recognition for its adventure games, such as the commercially successful titles Dune, Dragon Lore and Atlantis: The Lost Tales, along with the racing series MegaRace.

History

Cryo was formed by members of ERE Informatique who left Infogrames (proprietor of ERE since 1986) – among these were Philippe Ulrich,[1] Rémi Herbulot[2] and Jean-Martial Lefranc.[3]

The first game developed under the Cryo Interactive moniker was the hit Dune, which granted the newly formed software company both publicity and funding for further games under Virgin until 1996, when Cryo started self-publishing inside the European market, and in North America through then partially owned Canadian publisher

Cryo Networks

A Cryo Interactive subsidiary called Cryo Networks, aimed at developing and publishing online applications exclusively, was established in December 1997. Aside from online multiplayer games (Deo Gratias, FireTeam, Treasure Hunt 2001, Mankind and Scotland Yard being some of the titles released under this label), Cryo Networks also maintained a proprietary online multimedia development framework named SCOL (Standard Cryo On Line).[6]

Cryo Studios North America

Cryo Studios North America was a video game design studio based in Portland, Oregon, USA, and was a subsidiary of Cryo Interactive. Cryo Studios was founded as Dark Horse Interactive (DHI) in the late 1990s, a joint venture of Cryo Interactive and Dark Horse Comics, and based in Dark Horse's headquarters in Milwaukie, Oregon. In 1999, Cryo Interactive bought out Dark Horse's share of DHI and renamed it Cryo Studios, relocating its offices to the Central Eastside Industrial District of Portland. Cryo Studios existed entirely as Cryo Interactive's American subsidiary, producing games based on licensed properties.

Their first license (as DHI) was based on MTV's animated science fiction series Aeon Flux. However, the license agreement was terminated before development was completed and the game was re-adapted into its own fictional universe as Pax Corpus.[7] Shortly afterwards, DHI was granted the license to develop an interactive game based on Dark Horse's own comic book series, Hellboy, written and drawn by Mike Mignola. The Windows version of Hellboy: Dogs of the Night was completed in 2000 after nearly four years of production; the intended PlayStation version of this game was put on ice. Their next project was to be based on Universal Classic Monsters, which included Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Wolf Man. However, before any project made it out of pre-production, Cryo Interactive – quickly succumbing to the worldwide recession of 2001 – closed its North American branch. Cryo Interactive filed for bankruptcy a year later. In 2003, Canada-based Dreamcatcher Interactive – a former subsidiary of Cryo Interactive – finished development on and released the PlayStation version now retitled to Hellboy: Asylum Seeker in time for the theatrical release of the Hellboy movie, though the two are unrelated.

Demise and aftermath

By July 2002, not long after Frank Herbert's Dune flopped, the value of Cryo shares had plummeted and the financial situation of the company, which had closed its North American branch Cryo Studios the year before, was no longer sustainable. Cryo failed to negotiate a deal with its creditors,[8] consequently filing for insolvency and making over 80 percent of its workforce redundant.[9] Subsidiary Cryo Networks ceased operations shortly thereafter,[10] leaving its then-ongoing projects DUNE Generations and Black Moon Chronicles: Wind of War unfinished. In October 2002, the parent company was put on liquidation,[11] but subsequent negotiations ultimately caused DreamCatcher Interactive to absorb most of its assets and development teams, thus forming the base for DreamCatcher Europe.[12]

type	Private
fate	Bankruptcy, assets acquired by DreamCatcher Interactive, later acquired by Microïds
foundation	Paris, France (1990)
defunct	October 2002
location city	Paris
location country	France
key people	Philippe Ulrich
industry	Video games
products	Dune MegaRace Dragon Lore Lost Eden Atlantis: The Lost Tales

History

Cryo Networks

Cryo Studios North America

Demise and aftermath

Critical reception

See also

External links

References