Kuju (company)

Kuju Entertainment Ltd. was a British video game developer. It is a successor to Simis, which was formed in 1989 and purchased by Eidos Interactive in 1995. Kuju was formed in 1998 in Shalford, Surrey, England, after a management buyout of Simis from Eidos. Kuju merged with Curve Games in 2016.[1]

Kuju released titles across different devices, ranging from Art Academy on the Nintendo DS, The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest and Battalion Wars 2 for the Wii, and an Xbox One title, Powerstar Golf.

History

Ian Baverstock and Jonathan Newth opened Simis in 1989 and produced a number of flight simulator programs like MiG-29 Fulcrum. In 1995, the company was purchased by Eidos and operated as an in-house development studio. In 1998, Baverstock and Newth led a management buyout of the studio from Eidos Interactive, forming Kuju Ltd.

The name "Kuju" originates from the initials of the founders’ first names: Ian Baverstock and Jonathan Newth. Jonathan was leafing through a Japanese dictionary when he found the numbers nine and ten – "ku" and "ju" – corresponding to the positions of "I" and "J" in the English alphabet.

Studios

Headstrong Games

The studio was formed in 2000 as Kuju London. In 2008, it was rebranded as Headstrong Games.[7]

Headstrong Games has developed versions of The House of the Dead: Overkill, The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest and Top Gun: Hard Lock. Original intellectual properties include Art Academy, which was developed for and owned by Nintendo. They also developed the Battalion Wars series, installments in Nintendo's Wars series.

Doublesix

The studio was formed from the team that made Geometry Wars: Galaxies. They also made the zombie themed shooter, Burn Zombie Burn!. The company has received awards and nominations since its inception; notably that of the develop "Best New UK Studio 2008" and a nomination for best hand-held game (Geometry Wars: Galaxies) at the 2009 BAFTAs. They also worked on a successor to Burn Zombie Burn!, entitled All Zombies Must Die!.[8] On 1 September 2010, Doublesix left Kuju label and became a separate entity.[9] The studio side of Doublesix was closed in 2012 after handing development of Strike Suit Zero to Born Ready Games.[10]

Vatra Games

Vatra Games was a Czech video game studio founded in 2009[11][12] when Kuju Entertainment was seeking developers to establish a new studio. At the same time, several developers from 2K Czech were retiring. These developers decided to form a new studio, which became Vatra Games. In July 2012, four months after the March release of Silent Hill: Downpour, Kuju Entertainment Limited terminated its contract with Vatra Games. In September 2012, Vatra Games was declared bankrupt.[13]

Zoë Mode

In 2003, Kuju Entertainment hired the Wide Games team to create the video games studio Kuju Brighton.[14] In 2007, Kuju Brighton was rebranded to Zoë Mode.[15][16] The studio's first release under its new name was Crush for Sega.[16] In 2009, Zoë Mode released the puzzle game Chime, produced by the non-profit OneBigGame.[17][18] In 2011, the studio signed the deal to develop Zumba Fitness 2.[19]

Previous Kuju Studios

Kuju Surrey
Kuju Sheffield (latterly rebranded as Chemistry)
Nik Nak Games
Kuju America
Kuju Manila

type	Subsidiary
predecessor	Simis
foundation	1998
industry	Video games
parent	Catalis Group (2007–present)
subsid	Headstrong Games (2000–2017) Doublesix (2009–2010) Vatra Games (2009–2012) Zoë Mode (2004–2016)
homepage	kuju.com

History

Studios

Headstrong Games

Doublesix

Vatra Games

Zoë Mode

Previous Kuju Studios

Games

Canceled

External links

References