W2K Los Angeles was an American video game developer based in Camarillo, California. Founded by Umrao Mayer in 1998, the company was part of Visual Concepts, which itself was a part of Sega. Both Kush Games and Visual Concepts were sold to Take-Two Interactive and subsequently became part of their new 2K label. Kush Games was renamed 2K Los Angeles in February 2007 before being shut down in 2008.
Wâge is a division of Avex Pictures as of July 10, 2017, a Japanese developer and publisher of adult video games and visual novels. âge was formerly known as Relic and developed video games for consoles. It gained fame following the release of its 2001 adult visual novel Kimi ga Nozomu Eien. It was founded by Hirohiko Yoshida, Baka Prince Persia, Nanpuureima, Spin Drill, and Carnelian. âge games are published under the brands Âge, Mirage, and Φâge.
WBlack Rock Studios Limited was a video game developer based in Brighton, England. It was a division of Disney Interactive Studios. The studio was founded by Tony Beckwith in 1998 as Pixel Planet. It was acquired by the Climax Group in 1999 and was renamed Climax Brighton. In 2004, it became Climax Racing, as the Climax Group rebranded its studios. On 28 September 2006, it was acquired by DIS and was eventually renamed Black Rock Studio in 2007. The last game the studio developed for the Climax Group was MotoGP '07, which was completed after its acquisition by Buena Vista Games. The name is derived from a district in Brighton. In early 2011, the company faced lay-offs and was forced to abandon sequels for Pure and Split/Second. Despite good reviews for both games, Disney turned down both sequels to focus on freemium content.
WBlue Fang Games was an American video game developer, most noted for its Zoo Tycoon series. The company closed down in 2011, after their contract with Microsoft ended.
WClap Hanz, Ltd. is a video game developer located in Japan. It is a second party company with strong ties with Sony Computer Entertainment and is the developer of the Everybody's Golf series. The company was established in 1998 and is headed by Masashi Muramori
Wcc Com2uS (Hangul:컴투스) is a South Korean mobile and online game development/publishing company established in 1998. Com2uS develops games for Android, iOS, and other platforms. The company's corporate offices are located in the United States, Korea, Japan, and China.
WCyberAgent Inc. is a Japanese digital advertising company, which was founded in 1998 by Susumu Fujita and headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo. It is owned by Susumu Fujita with 20.50% interest; Fujita is representative director, while Yusuke Hidaka is executive vice president.
WDark Energy Digital was a privately owned video game developer and publisher based in the United Kingdom. It was formed from members of Blade Interactive, which continues to operate as a separate company. On September 28, 2007, following the public announcement of Hydrophobia, it was announced that a deal had been made between Blade Interactive and Total Asset Limited and was to become a publisher in its own right and publish its own titles. On March 19, 2012, it was announced the company was closed due to low sales of Hydrophobia.
WEden Games, formerly known as Eden Studios, is a French video game developer based in Lyon, France that mainly focuses on the development of racing video games.
WEdge of Reality, Ltd. was an American video game developer founded in 1998 and based in Austin, Texas that developed video games for the Nintendo 64, GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox game consoles. It also had games in development for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 games consoles. It was best-known for developing Nintendo 64 ports of the first three Tony Hawk's games.
WGathering of Developers, Inc. was an American video game publisher based in New York City. Founded by Mike Wilson and associates in January 1998 and originally based in Dallas, the company was acquired by Take-Two Interactive in May 2000. Between May 2000 and March 2001, Gathering of Developers also operated a division, On Deck Interactive, which acted as their mass market label. In August 2001, Take-Two Interactive closed Gathering of Developers' Dallas headquarters and moved the label in-house, to New York City. The label was shut down in September 2004, with all assets consumed by Global Star Software.
WGlobal VR is company based in San Jose, California, that makes arcade games. The company once manufactured virtual reality stands as well. It has also developed electronic kiosks and offers development services for mobile platforms.
WGrasshopper Manufacture Inc. is a Japanese video game developer founded on March 30, 1998 by Goichi Suda. They are well known for creating titles such as killer7 and the No More Heroes series.
WGungHo Online Entertainment, Inc. is a Japanese video game developer and publisher. They are primarily known for hosting the Japanese server of Ragnarok Online, as well as their development of Ragnarok DS for the Nintendo DS. More recently, the company has reported huge financial success thanks to its mobile game Puzzle & Dragons, which, in 2013, was reportedly responsible for 91% of the company's $1.6 billion revenues for the year.
WKey is a Japanese visual novel studio known for making dramatic and plot-oriented titles. It was formed on July 21, 1998, as a brand under the publisher Visual Arts, and is located in Kita, Osaka.
WLegacy Games is a game publisher of casual titles for mobile devices and retail distribution. Its mobile games consist of match-3 titles such as Atlantis: Pearls of the Deep as well as four Crayola creativity tools, e.g., Crayola DJ. Legacy publishes PC game compilation discs, such as Terrifying Tales, Nancy Drew 2-Pack, and Fantastic Fables for Walmart stores.
WLegendo Entertainment is a Sweden-based entertainment company, led by CEO Björn Larsson. Founded under the name "Iridon Interactive," in 1998, the company adopted its current title of “Legendo Entertainment,” in 2004. Until late 2018, Legendo Entertainment was a dedicated video game company, taking on the creation, development and publishing of various third-party titles through external development teams. Legendo Entertainment titles have been made available in over 36 countries worldwide, including the United States, Canada, Japan, Russia and China.
WLevel-5 Inc. is a Japanese video game developer and publisher based in Fukuoka. The company was founded in October 1998 by Akihiro Hino after he departed from the now defunct Riverhillsoft. Early in its history, the company enjoyed a close relationship with Sony Computer Entertainment, with many of its games then funded by and produced in conjunction with them. Starting in 2007, the company started self-publishing its games in Japan, with other companies such as Nintendo handling publishing on the relevant platforms internationally. In more recent years, their games have been self-published. The company is best known for their Dark Cloud, Professor Layton, Inazuma Eleven, Ni no Kuni, Yo-kai Watch, and Snack World franchises.
WLoki Entertainment Software, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Tustin, California, that ported several video games from Microsoft Windows to Linux. It took its name from the Norse deity Loki. Although successful in its goal of bringing games to the Linux platform, the company folded in January 2002 after filing for bankruptcy.
WNintendo Software Technology (NST) is an American video game developer. NST was created by Nintendo as a first-party developer to create games for the North American market, though their games have also been released in other territories such as Europe and Japan. Although the development team is based in North America, there is a traditional Nintendo and Japanese-centric design applied to the development of the software. Co-founders Scott Tsumura and Claude Comair retired in 2002 and 2006, respectively. NST is currently headed by Shigeki Yamashiro, and is located inside of Nintendo of America's headquarters in Redmond, Washington.
WPandemic Studios was an American video game developer based in Los Angeles, California, with a secondary office in Brisbane, Australia. Founded in 1998, the studio was known for a variety of titles, including Full Spectrum Warrior, Star Wars: Battlefront, Dark Reign 2, Destroy All Humans!, Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, Star Wars: Battlefront II and The Saboteur.
WPolyphony Digital is an internal Japanese first-party video game development studio of Sony Interactive Entertainment, operated under SIE Worldwide Studios, which in turn is owned by multinational conglomerate Sony. Originally a development group within Sony Computer Entertainment known as Polys Entertainment, after the success of Gran Turismo in Japan, they were granted greater autonomy and their name changed to Polyphony Digital. Polyphony currently has 5 studios in Japan, the Netherlands, and the United States.
WRockstar Games, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in New York City. The company was established in December 1998 as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, using the assets Take-Two had previously acquired from BMG Interactive. Founding members of the company were Sam and Dan Houser, Terry Donovan and Jamie King, who worked for Take-Two at the time, and of which the Houser brothers were previously executives at BMG Interactive. Sam Houser heads the studio as president.
WRockstar Vancouver Inc. was a Canadian video game developer and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Vancouver. The company was founded as Barking Dog Studios in May 1998, by six developers formerly of Radical Entertainment. The company started out with developing the Beta 5 version of Counter-Strike, which released in December 1999, together with designer Minh Le. Its following projects included Homeworld: Cataclysm (2000), a stand-alone expansion for Homeworld, Global Operations (2002), a tactical first-person shooter, and Treasure Planet: Battle at Procyon (2002), a real-time strategy game based on the Treasure Planet film.
WSarbakan is a Canadian video game studio based in Quebec City, Quebec. Ten years after its foundation in 1998 by Guy Boucher, Sarbakan had delivered over 600 games, mostly web-based, and started shifting its focus from flash game development to console digital download gaming.
WStarbreeze Studios AB is a Swedish video game developer and publisher based in Stockholm. Notable games developed include The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, Payday 2 and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. Founded by members of the demogroup Triton, the company was merged with O3 Games in 2002 wherein the Starbreeze name was retained. The company produced titles including Enclave and Knights of the Temple: Infernal Crusade. In the early 2000s, cancellations of their projects due to conflicts with publishers and a failed acquisition led to a severe financial crisis, resulting in staff lay-offs during the development of Starbreeze's fourth game, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. This game received critical acclaim and helped Starbreeze establish a reputation for producing a good licensed game. The company worked on The Darkness, whose sales were considered satisfactory.
WStudio e.go! was a Japanese eroge company which used to produce fantasy games of various genres for computers, including role-playing video games, SRPGs, and visual novels. The cutscenes of these games were illustrated by Kazue Yamamoto.
WTencent Holdings Ltd., also known as Tencent, is a Chinese multinational technology conglomerate holding company. Founded in 1998, its subsidiaries globally market various Internet-related services and products, including in entertainment, artificial intelligence, and other technology. Its twin-skyscraper headquarters, Tencent Seafront Towers are based in the Nanshan District of Shenzhen.
WTroika Games was an American video game developer co-founded by Jason Anderson, Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky. The company was focused on role-playing video games between 1998 and 2005, best known for Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines.
WType-Moon is a Japanese game company, best known for their visual novels, co-founded by author Kinoko Nasu and illustrator Takashi Takeuchi. It is also known under the name Notes Co., Ltd. for its publishing and corporate operations, as it is the company official name, while Type-Moon is a brand name as a homage to the original doujin group. After creating the popular visual novel Tsukihime as a doujin soft circle, Type-Moon has since incorporated and produced the also popular visual novel Fate/stay night. The latter has also been adapted into anime and manga series that have amassed a global fanbase.
WVisceral Games was an American video game developer studio owned by Electronic Arts. The studio is best known for the Dead Space series.
WWargaming Group Limited is a Belarusian video game company headquartered in Nicosia, Cyprus.