2015 (company)

2015, Inc.

Company type	Private
Industry	Video game development
Founded	1997 (1997)
Founder	Tom Kudirka
Headquarters	Tulsa, Oklahoma Omaha, Nebraska
Key people	Tom Kudirka (CEO)
Products	SiN: Wages of Sin Medal of Honor: Allied Assault Men of Valor
Subsidiaries	Trainwreck Studios Tornado Studios
Website	2015games.net

2015, Inc. also known as 2015 (pronounced "twenty-fifteen") and 2015 Games 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.

History

2015, Inc. was founded by Tom Kudirka in 1997 with no money, no office, no employees, no contract, nothing. He assembled a team of developers by researching people who were participating in the FPS MOD community. After months of working online and mostly only communicating via ICQ instant messenger his team created a Quake Mod as a playable demo to show off their talent. Kudirka sent the demo to Activision who was so impressed with their work they awarded 2015 a contract developing the expansion pack to their upcoming game entitled SiN, currently being developed by Ritual Entertainment.

Kudirka moved all of his team members to Tulsa, Oklahoma to begin work on the expansion pack SiN: Wages of Sin. For the first time the seven developers who spent over six months online creating the demo met one another for the first time. Three of the seven developers lived in a house rented by Kudirka where the living-room made up the development studio. The team was Tom Kudirka, Ken Turner, Zied Reike, Carl Glave, Benson Russel, Paul Glave and Michael Boon, who Kudirka relocated from Tasmania Australia to Tulsa, Oklahoma.

SiN: Wages of Sin

Wages of Sin was the official expansion pack for Ritual Entertainment’s game SiN. The game was published by Activision and released for the Windows platform in February 1999. The game was greeted with critical acclaim with many considering it better than the original game. The game ultimately sold more units than the original title, thus showing the amount of piracy at that time.

In 1999 during E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) Kudirka met developers from Valve Software at a Microsoft party. They expressed how much they liked Wages of Sin and wanted 2015 to work on an expansion pack to Valve's mega-hit video game Half-Life. Gearbox Software was currently working on the first expansion pack, Half-Life: Opposing Force so a meeting was setup with Gabe Newell. Terms were soon agreed upon and development began on the second expansion pack for Half-Life. To assist in the development of the project Kudirka hired developers such as Steve Fukuda, Justin Thomas, Preston Glenn, Robert Field, Todd Alderman, Earl Hammon Jr., Brad Allen, Jon Olick, Adam Bellefeuil and Jeff Heath.

After the success with SiN: Wages of Sin and Kudirka was in a position to hire someone who had previous experience in the video game industry. Kudirka was the Producer for the game but overloaded with biz stuff he needed a full time Producer in order to grow the company. In September 1999 Kudirka hired Vince Zampella as 2015's Producer.

In late 1999 Kudirka created a separate development division of 2015 called Trainwreck Studios. A subsidiary specializing in mid-price to budget games. Under that name, two smaller title where created Laser Arena and CIA Operative: Solo Missions.

The development of the expansion pack was going very well. The development team was evolving into a group of very talented developers. The team was confident the second expansion pack would again exceed expectations. 90 days from going gold the project was cancelled.

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault

In May 2000 Kudirka received a phone call from someone claiming to be from DreamWorks. They wanted to know if 2015 would be interested in developing a World War II first-person shooter video game with a story-line created by Steven Spielberg. Kudirka immediately hung up the phone. When the phone rang again Kudirka listened. DreamWorks Interactive wanted to discuss the development of a PC version of new video game franchise called Medal of Honor. The first Medal of Honor game was released six months earlier for the PlayStation console. A week later Electronic Arts flew out to Tulsa. A deal was soon reached and development began on Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. To assist in the development of such a high profile title Kudirka hired additional developers such as Nathan Silvers, Paul Messerly, Keith Bell, Mackey McCandlish, Chance Glasco, Jason West and Radomir Kucharski who Kudirka relocated from Katowice, Poland. An interesting note is if the second Half-Life expansion pack was not cancelled 2015 would never of worked on Allied Assault.

The game, abbreviated MoHAA, was published by Electronic Arts and released for the Windows platform. on January 22, 2002 in North America and on February 15, 2002 in Europe. The game was a critical and financial success with many considering MoHAA to have pioneered the cinematic first person shooter genre. The game provided a substantial push for Electronic Arts' Medal of Honor series.

Following the release, a group of developers left 2015 to form Infinity Ward, a studio that would become known for the Call of Duty series based around the same concept.

Men of Valor

In 2002, 2015 began development on its own IP: Men of Valor (abbreviated MOV), a first person shooter simulating infantry combat during the Vietnam era. Men of Valor follows Dean Shepard and his squad of Marines from the 3rd Battalion of the 3rd Marine Division through 13 missions of the Vietnam War, including missions at the height of the Tet Offensive. In historically-based scenarios, the player assumes a variety of roles in which they man the door gun on a Huey helicopter, steer a riverboat along enemy-infested shores, battle their way through enemy tunnel complexes, and call down fire as a forward observer. Mission types include pilot rescues, recon patrols, POW rescue, and search-and-destroy ops.

Men of Valor was published by Vivendi Universal and released for Xbox on October 19, 2004 in North America and on November 5, 2004 in Europe. The game was released for Windows on October 29, 2004 in North America and November 12, 2004 in Europe.

In August 2008, Kudirka opened a new development company called Tornado Studios focused on casual games for the mass market. "The success of Nintendo's latest consoles, and the recent growth of the casual games market as a whole, has provided an incredible opportunity for us to reach a whole new audience," said 2015 founder Tom Kurdika. On September 24, 2008, he stated that his studio will continue developing the kind of games with which it is associated, stating, "We're still passionate about action games and shooters, in particular, and will continue to make them under the 2015 label."

On April 14, 2015, it was announced that Nordic Games had closed an asset purchase agreement with 2015 to acquire the Men of Valor IP.

Games developed

Year	Game	Publisher	Genre	Platform(s)
				Windows	Mac OS	Xbox	Nintendo DS
1999	SiN: Wages of Sin	Activision	First-person shooter	Yes	Yes	No	No
2000	Laser Arena (as Trainwreck Studios)	ValuSoft	First-person shooter	Yes	No	No	No
2001	CIA Operative: Solo Missions (as Trainwreck Studios)	ValuSoft	First-person shooter	Yes	No	No	No
2002	Medal of Honor: Allied Assault	Electronic Arts	First-person shooter	Yes	Yes	No	No
2004	Men of Valor	Vivendi	First-person shooter	Yes	No	Yes	No
2007	Time Ace (as Trainwreck Studios)	Konami	Combat flight simulator	No	No	No	Yes

External links

Official website