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Majesco Entertainment

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Majesco Entertainment
IndustryVideo games
Founded1986
HeadquartersUnited States Edison, New Jersey, USA
Websitehttp://www.majescoentertainment.com/

Majesco Entertainment (Nasdaq: COOL) is a video game publisher founded in 1986. It first made a name as a reissuer of old titles that had been abandoned by their original publisher. By cutting the prices dramatically and, eventually, arranging the rights to self-manufacture games for both Nintendo and Sega systems, the company found a sustainable market niche.[citation needed] It has its headquarters in Edison, New Jersey, United States.[1][2]

Later, Majesco arranged with Sega to manufacture a version of its Mega Drive (known as Genesis in North America) 16-bit console, which had been superseded by the 32-bit Saturn. It released this in 1998 as the Genesis 3 and followed up with a version of the handheld Game Gear called the Game Gear Core System.

The company's focus shifted to in-house game development — initially under the brand Pipe-Dream Interactive since few believed they could make the transition successfully. Majesco focused on developing for then-current generation systems, such as Nintendo's GameCube and Game Boy Advance, Microsoft's Xbox, and Sony's PlayStation 2. A few of the titles it released, involving popular characters, included a few Bomberman titles for the Gamecube and Game Boy Advance. Majesco also published PC games with Terminal Reality as the developer, such as BloodRayne and BloodRayne 2.

In 2003, Majesco was slated to publish Black9, but forced the producers, Taldren, Inc., to shut down when the game was about 85% complete.[3]

The publisher had reached financial trouble with its larger-budget games, such as Psychonauts, which sold poorly despite receiving several awards and critical acclaim, and Advent Rising, which generated intense hype but was ultimately panned by critics for being released prematurely and without adequate bug testing. Its best-selling titles in the last few years have been the series of GBA Videos for the Game Boy Advance. It also published the game Jaws Unleashed.

In January 2006, the company's financial situation worsened to the degree that it had to cancel two games it was going to publish: Demonik, developed by Terminal Reality, and Taxi Driver, a sequel to the movie. Majesco's president, Jesse Sutton, said that in the future the company would "focus primarily on publishing value and handheld video games."[1] Since that announcement, the company has followed through with publishing successful budget titles in North America like Cooking Mama for the DS.

On September 14, 2006, Majesco released Advent Rising and re-released BloodRayne and BloodRayne 2 on Steam.

On November 6, 2007, Majesco announced the opening of a new development facility in the Los Angeles area dedicated to the development of casual game products and properties.[4]

On December 10, 2007, Majesco announced that they would be publishing a rhythm-based game, Major Minor's Majestic March, exclusively for the Wii developed by NanaOn-Sha.[2]

Majesco has announced that it will be launching an internet version of Bananagrams on August 18, 2008 that will be available on Facebook, a social networking website.[5]

On November 4, 2009, Majesco released Advent Rising, BloodRayne and BloodRayne 2 on Good Old Games.

List of published video games

References

  1. ^ "Contact Us." Majesco Entertainment. Retrieved on October 20, 2009.
  2. ^ "Company Profile." Majesco Entertainment. Retrieved on October 20, 2009.
  3. ^ "Cyberpunked: the Fall of Black9". The Escapist Magazine. Retrieved 2008-06-04.
  4. ^ "Majesco Announces New Casual Game Studio, Appoints Former Sega Exec In Lead Role". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2007-11-06.
  5. ^ playthings.com

See also

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