43 Video game companies established in 1997

2K Czech, s.r.o. was a Czech video game developer based in Brno. Founded as Illusion Softworks in 1997 by Petr Vochozka and Jan Kudera. The company was acquired by Take-Two Interactive in January 2008 and subsequently organised under the 2K label, becoming 2K Czech. The company was merged into 2K's Hangar 13 in 2017. The company is best known for creating the Mafia series.

2015 Games, LLC, also known as 2015, is an American video game development company, best known for developing the highly successful video game Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, published by Electronic Arts.

ACE Team is a Chilean video game developer based in Santiago. Founded in the late 1990s by brothers Andres, Carlos and Edmundo Bordeu, the company started out by developing total conversions before turning to commercial game development. All operations were halted between 2003 and 2007 while Andres and Carlos were employed by Wanako Games.

CCP hf., doing business as CCP Games, is an Icelandic video game developer based in Reykjavík. Novator Partners and General Catalyst had previously collectively owned a majority stake in the company, and in September 2018, CCP was acquired by South Korean video game publisher Pearl Abyss for $425 million. CCP Games is best known for developing Eve Online, which was released in 2003 and has since been maintained.

Cinemax is an independent Czech video game developer and publisher. The studio was founded by Lukáš Macura. The studio focuses on computer, mobile and console games.

The Collective, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Newport Beach, California. Founded in 1997 by ex-Virgin Entertainment employees, the company merged with Backbone Entertainment in 2005 to create Foundation 9 Entertainment. Under Foundation 9, The Collective was merged with Shiny Entertainment and into Double Helix Games in October 2007.

Conspiracy Entertainment is an American third-party developer video game publisher, publishing games from smaller companies that would face difficulties distributing games themselves. The company has also developed a few games of its own.

Contrail was a Japanese video game production company best known for their work on Legend of Legaia and Wild Arms 2.

Crave Entertainment was an American video game publisher founded in 1997 by Nima Taghavi. Its headquarters was in Newport Beach, California. It was acquired by Handleman Company in 2005 in a deal valued up to $95,000,000 but was then sold to Fillpoint LLC in early 2009 for only $8,100,000 due to Handleman's bankruptcy and pending liquidation. During its lifetime it published games for Dreamcast, Wii, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 64, Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Xbox, and Xbox 360. Crave mainly focused on budget titles, and imported games such as Tokyo Xtreme Racer: Drift. The company went bankrupt in 2012.

Daybreak Game Company LLC is an American video game developer based in San Diego. The company was founded in December 1997 as Sony Online Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment, but was spun off to an independent investor in February 2015 and renamed Daybreak Game Company. On December 1, 2020, Daybreak Game Company entered into an agreement to be acquired by Enad Global 7.

Idol Minds, LLC, since 2017 doing business as Deck Nine, is an American video game developer based in Westminster, Colorado. The studio was founded in April 1997 by Mark Lyons and Scott Atkins. Lyons serves as president and chief technology officer of the company.

Entertainment Software Publishing, Inc. (ESP) was a Japanese video game publisher headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo. It was founded in 1997 as a publisher for games developed by the Game Developers Network (GD-NET). GD-NET, which included companies such as Treasure and Game Arts, was established due to concerns over smaller developers not having the same financial backing like larger game companies did, as production of console games was beginning to rise. ESP was best known for publishing shoot 'em ups and role-playing games. While primarily a publisher, ESP also developed a handful of games internally.

Grin was a video game developer based in Stockholm, Sweden. Founded by Bo and Ulf Andersson in 1997, Grin worked on numerous titles for the PC, consoles and arcade. The company became defunct in 2009, and its founders went on to create Overkill Software.

Guerrilla Cambridge was a British video game developer based in Cambridge, England. The studio was founded under Sony Computer Entertainment in July 1997 through the buyout of the game development division of CyberLife Technology. In 2010, SCE Studio Cambridge was restructured as a sister studio to Guerrilla Games under the name Guerrilla Cambridge and shut down in 2017. The studio is best known for developing the MediEvil series.

Human Head Studios, Inc. was an American video game developer located in Madison, Wisconsin.

indieszero Corporation, Ltd. is a video game development company headquartered in Musashino, Tokyo, Japan. It was founded on April 21, 1997, and has developed video games for other video game companies, including Nintendo, SEGA, and Square Enix.

Irem Software Engineering is a Japanese video game console developer and publisher, and formerly a developer and manufacturer of arcade games as well. The company has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo.

Irrational Games was an American video game developer founded in 1997 by three former employees of Looking Glass Studios: Ken Levine, Jonathan Chey, and Robert Fermier. Take-Two Interactive acquired the studio in 2006. The studio was known for its games System Shock 2, Freedom Force, SWAT 4, and most notably, two of the games in the BioShock series. In 2014, following the release of BioShock Infinite, Levine opted to significantly restructure the studio from around 90 to 15 employees and focus more on narrative games. In February 2017, the studio announced that it had been rebranded as Ghost Story Games and considered a fresh start from the original Irrational name, though still operating at the same business subsidiary under Take-Two.

Lionhead Studios Limited was a British video game developer founded in July 1997 by Peter Molyneux, Mark Webley, Tim Rance, and Steve Jackson. The company is best known for the Black & White and Fable series. Lionhead started as a breakaway from developer Bullfrog Productions, which was also founded by Molyneux. Lionhead's first game was Black & White, a god game with elements of artificial life and strategy games. Black & White was published by Electronic Arts in 2001. Lionhead Studios is named after Webley's hamster, which died not long after the naming of the studio, as a result of which the studio was very briefly renamed to Redeye Studios.

Luxoflux was an American video game developer founded by Peter Morawiec and Adrian Stephens in January of 1997, and was based in Santa Monica.

Marvelous Entertainment Inc. (MMV) was a multinational corporation that produced animation, music, video games and television series. MMV is known for its involvement in the Story of Seasons series. They merged with AQ Interactive in 2011 and became Marvelous AQL.

Mucky Foot Productions Limited was a British video game developer, which existed from 1997 to 2003.

NCSoft Corporation is an international video game developer and publisher headquartered in Pangyo, Seongnam, South Korea, primarily known for the distribution of massively multiplayer online role-playing games such as Lineage and Guild Wars.

NetDevil Ltd. was an American developer of massively multiplayer online games, based in Louisville, Colorado and owned by Gazillion Entertainment.

NetEase, Inc. is a Chinese Internet technology company providing online services centered on content, community, communications and commerce. The company was founded in 1997 by Ding Lei. NetEase develops and operates online PC and mobile games, advertising services, email services and e-commerce platforms in China. It is one of the largest Internet and video game companies in the world. The company also owns several pig farms.

Outrage Games was an American video game developer based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in December 1997 by Matt Toschlog as part of the split-up of Parallax Software, the company developed Descent 3 and Alter Echo (2003). The company was acquired by THQ in April 2002 and shut down in 2003.

Panic Inc. is an American software and video game company based in Portland, Oregon. The company specializes in macOS and iOS applications and began publishing video games in 2016.

Paradigm Entertainment was an American video game development company. Paradigm is perhaps best known for its vehicle simulation games. Founded as a 3D computer graphics company in 1990, Paradigm primarily worked on realistic flight simulation technology for major space and aviation clients. The company got its start in game development when it was contacted by Nintendo in 1994 to aid in the creation of one of the Nintendo 64's launch titles, Pilotwings 64. The game was a critical and commercial success for the developer, causing the simulation and entertainment divisions of Paradigm to separate and focus on their respective products. The newly independent Paradigm Entertainment continued to develop for Nintendo's 64-bit console. After a short partnership with Video System, Paradigm was acquired as a wholly owned subsidiary of Infogrames in 2000 and began developing games for sixth-generation video game consoles. Paradigm was sold to THQ in 2006 and was ultimately closed in 2008.

Piranha Bytes GmbH is a German video game developer based in Essen. Founded in 1997, they are best known for their Gothic and Risen series of role-playing video games. As of May 2019, the studio has 32 employees and is a subsidiary of THQ Nordic.

Red Orb Entertainment was a publishing division created by the Broderbund software company to market its video game titles, distinguishing them from its library of edutainment titles, which it marketed to schools. Launched on May 21, 1997 and based in Novato, California, the name comes from the first six letters of "Broderbund," which spell "Red Orb" when reversed.

Reflexive Entertainment was a video game developer based in Lake Forest, California. The company was cofounded by Lars Brubaker, Ernie Ramirez, James Smith and Ion Hardie in 1997. They developed nineteen games independently, published two games, started distribution of downloadable casual games on their online Arcade, created a division of their Arcade entirely devoted to Mac games for Mac users and started hosting ad supported free online web browser games. In 2005, Reflexive's Wik and the Fable of Souls won three awards at the 2005 Independent Games Festival which included Innovation in Visual Art, Innovation in Game Design and the Seumas McNally Award For Independent Game Of The Year. In October 2008, Reflexive Entertainment was acquired by Amazon.com. On February 3, 2009, Amazon.com began hosting casual game content for internet download.

Reto-Moto ApS is a Danish video game developer based in Copenhagen. Founded in 1997, its staff formed IO Interactive as a joint venture in September 1998. Following a decade of inactivity, some founders reformed Reto-Moto in April 2008, and the company developed Heroes & Generals, which was released in September 2016.

Rockstar Leeds Limited is a British video game developer and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Leeds. The company was founded as Möbius Entertainment in December 1997, by Gordon Hall, Jason McGann, Dave Box and Ian J. Bowden. The company developed numerous titles for Game Boy Advance, including an adaptation of Remedy Entertainment's Max Payne (2001), which was published by Rockstar Games in late 2003. In April 2004, Rockstar Games' parent company, Take-Two Interactive, announced that they had acquired Möbious Entertainment. As part of the agreement, the company became part of the Rockstar Games label, and was renamed Rockstar Leeds.

Savage Entertainment was an American video game developer founded in 1997 by Tim Morten and Chacko Sonny.

SCS Software s.r.o. is a Czech video game development company based in Prague, Czech Republic. It primarily produces simulation games for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux, including the 18 Wheels of Steel and Truck Simulator series.

Sidhe is a developer of video games, founded and incorporated in May 1997. The company is a licensed developer for Microsoft, Sony Computer Entertainment, Nintendo of America, and Apple Inc.. It is also a co-founding member of the New Zealand Game Developers Association and the New Zealand Institute of Screen Innovation. The largest game production studio in New Zealand, Sidhe has produced more than 20 titles, including Shatter, GripShift, Madagascar Kartz, Hot Wheels Battle Force 5, and Speed Racer. It has also developed multiple games based on the National Rugby League (NRL) franchise.

Snowblind Studios was an American video game developer located in Kirkland, Washington. They were founded in 1997, specializing in role-playing video games.

Stainless Steel Studios (SSSI) was a video game developer, started in 1997 by Rick Goodman and Dara-Lynn Pelechatz. The company was based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and focused on the development of real-time strategy games.

Sucker Punch Productions is an American first-party video game developer and part of SIE Worldwide Studios. It is best known for the franchises Sly Cooper and Infamous.

Triumph Studios is a Dutch video game developer based in Delft, Netherlands, founded in 1997. The studio is known for their Age of Wonders and Overlord series and has developed several games for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Ubisoft Divertissements Inc., doing business as Ubisoft Montreal, is a Canadian video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Montreal.

Wargaming Chicago-Baltimore is an American game developer that operates in Chicago, Illinois and Hunt Valley, Maryland.

Warthog Games Limited was a British video game developer, located in Cheadle Hulme, Stockport, with studios in Sweden and the USA.