Encore Software, LLC ("Encore") is a

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

limited liability company focused on software sales, distribution and software development. In November 2008, Encore announced an expanded license with

Riverdeep Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Learning Technology, originally started as Riverdeep Interactive Learning, is a publishing house for educational online and CD-ROM products based in San Francisco, Boston and Dublin, Ireland. Founded in 1995, Riverdeep w ...

. Under the terms of the agreement, Encore now manages the Broderbund family of products as well as Broderbund's direct to consumer business. In May 2010, Encore acquired the assets of Punch! Software. Previously, Encore was a wholly owned subsidiary of WYNIT Distribution, LLC which acquired the majority of Encore's assets from Speed Commerce, Inc. (previously Navarre Corporation) on approximately July 9, 2014. Navarre Corporation, had initially acquired Encore's assets from the

United States Bankruptcy Court United States bankruptcy courts are courts created under Article I of the United States Constitution. The current system of bankruptcy courts was created by the United States Congress in 1978, effective April 1, 1984. United States bankruptcy ...

for the

Central District of California The United States District Court for the Central District of California (in case citations, C.D. Cal.; commonly referred to as the CDCA or CACD) is a federal trial court that serves over 19 million people in Southern and Central California, m ...

in August 2002. As a result of bankruptcy case 17-42726 of WYNIT Distribution, LLC, substantially all of Encore's assets were sold at auction on November 9, 2017, to Sereno Ventures, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, with offices in

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

, California. Shortly after the sale, Encore's main office in

Eden Prairie, Minnesota Eden Prairie is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. It had a population of 64,198 at the 2020 census, making it the 16th-largest city in Minnesota. The city is adjacent to the north bank of the Minnesota River, upstream fro ...

was closed. Encore continues to operate a sales call center in

Cedar Rapids, Iowa Cedar Rapids is a city in Linn County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. The population was 137,710 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Iowa, second-most populous city in Iowa. The city lies o ...

, while technical support and software development is managed by senior management in the US with the help of offshore staff in

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

Titles

Among the brands published by Encore for the retail market: * Punch! Home Design Software *

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company ( ; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, and reference works. The company is based in the Financial District, Boston, Boston Financial District. It was fo ...

Broderbund Broderbund Software, Inc. (stylized as Brøderbund) was an American maker of video games, educational software, and productivity tools. Broderbund is best known for the 8-bit video game hits '' Choplifter'', '' Lode Runner'', '' Karateka'', and ...

and

The Learning Company The Learning Company (TLC) was an American educational software company founded in 1980 in Palo Alto, California and headquartered in Fremont, California. The company produced a grade-based line of learning software, edutainment games, and ...

: distributes primarily through the Broderbund website owned by Encore. Series include ''Adventure Workshop'',

Carmen Sandiego ''Carmen Sandiego'' (sometimes referred to as ''Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?'') is a media franchise based on a Carmen Sandiego (video game series), series of computer video games created by the American software company Broderbund. Whi ...

, ClickArt, Disney Fun & Skills, Mavis Beacon, '' The Oregon Trail'', ''

The Print Shop The Print Shop is a desktop publishing software package originally published in 1984 by Broderbund. It was unique in that it provided libraries of clip art and templates through a simple interface to build signs, posters and banners with househo ...

'', ''

PrintMaster PaintMaster is a greeting card and banner creation program for Commodore 64, Amiga, Apple II and IBM PC computers. '' PaintMaster'' sold more than two million copies. History In 1986, the first version of PrintMaster was the target of a lawsuit by ...

'', and

Reader Rabbit ''Reader Rabbit'' is an educational video game franchise created in 1984 by The Learning Company. The series is aimed at children from infancy to the age of nine. In 1998, a spiritual successor series called ''The ClueFinders'' was released f ...

. * ''

Hoyle Card Games ''Hoyle Card Games'' is a Game Boy Color-only video game that was developed by Sandbox Studios and published by Sierra On-Line under their Sierra Attractions label. Gameplay The package includes eight competitive card games, such as cribbage an ...

'', ''

Hoyle Casino ''Hoyle Casino'' is a virtual casino video game series released from 1996 to 2016 as a spin-off of the ''Hoyle's Official Book of Games'' series developed and published by Sierra Entertainment. After 2005, publication of the series moved to Encore ...

'' and ''Hoyle Puzzle & Board Games'' * ''

Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead g ...

'' and '' Wheel of Fortune'' PC/Mac games *

PlayFirst PlayFirst, Inc. is a Delaware based American publisher of casual games founded in 2004 by industry veterans. PlayFirst produced the ''Diner Dash'' series, which won the 2008 Annual Casual Game Awards. and has seen over 550 million downloads. ...

titles *

Runic Games Runic Games was an American video game developer based in Seattle. It was formed by former Flagship Studios developers in August 2008. In 2009, the company released ''Torchlight'', a single-player action role-playing game. It was acquired by Perf ...

' ''

Torchlight ''Torchlight'' is an action role-playing hack and slash dungeon crawler video game developed by Runic Games and published by Perfect World Entertainment. It was originally released for Windows in October 2009. The fantasy-themed game is set in ...

'': distributed to the North American retail market by Encore *

Panda Security Panda Security is a Spanish-French cybersecurity software company. Panda Security's core offering is antivirus software and other cybersecurity software. This includes security products and services for both businesses and home users, as well a ...

software *

WildTangent Gamigo Inc., doing business as WildTangent, is an American video game developer based in Round Rock, Texas. In April 2019, it was acquired by the German games company . Games Approximately 30 of the games in the WildTangent catalog were produc ...

games, including '' Fate: The Traitor Soul''

References

External links

*
Encore, Inc.
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controlle ...

American companies established in 1994 Software companies based in California Video game companies based in California Software companies of the United States Video game publishers {{US-media-company-stub