Kaboom Studios Limited (formerly Geoff Brown Holdings Limited) was a British

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

established by Geoff Brown in January 1997 to pursue

video game development Video game development (sometimes shortened to gamedev) is the process of creating a video game. It is a multidisciplinary practice, involving programming, design, art, audio, user interface, and writing. Each of those may be made up of more speci ...

investment.

History

In December 1996, Geoff Brown acquired a 75% stake in

Silicon Dreams Studio Silicon Dreams Studio Limited was a British video game developer based in Adderbury, England. History Silicon Dreams Studio was founded by Geoff Brown in March 1994 as the in-house development team for video game publisher U.S. Gold, also ...

for at least . Silicon Dreams Studio was founded by Brown in March 1994, as in-house development team for his publishing company,

U.S. Gold U.S. Gold Limited was a British video game publisher based in Witton, Birmingham, England. The company was founded in 1984 by Anne and Geoff Brown in parallel to their distributor firm, CentreSoft, both of which became part of Woodward Brown H ...

, until the entire

CentreGold Eidos Interactive Limited (formerly Domark Limited) was a British video game publisher based in Wimbledon, London. Among its franchises were '' Championship Manager'', ''Deus Ex'', ''Hitman'', ''Thief'' and ''Tomb Raider''. Domark was founded b ...

umbrella (including U.S. Gold and Silicon Dreams) was sold to

Eidos Interactive Eidos Interactive Limited (formerly Domark Limited) was a British video game publisher based in Wimbledon, London. Among its franchises were '' Championship Manager'', '' Deus Ex'', ''Hitman'', '' Thief'' and ''Tomb Raider''. Domark was founded ...

in April 1996. In January 1997, Brown also acquired

Attention to Detail Attention to Detail Ltd (ATD) was a British video game developer based in Hatton, Warwickshire, Hatton. Founded by University of Birmingham graduates in September 1988, it was acquired by Kaboom Studios in January 1997. The studio shut down in ...

, and opened Geoff Brown Holdings to manage the majority ownerships in the two studios. A

motion capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mocap or mo-cap, for short) is the process of recording high-resolution motion (physics), movement of objects or people into a computer system. It is used in Military science, military, entertainment, sports ...

studio, Audiomotion, was established under the Geoff Brown Holdings umbrella in 1997, and

Pivotal Games Pivotal Games Limited was a British video game developer based in Corston, Somerset, Corston, England. History Pivotal Games was founded in March 2000, by fifteen employees formerly of Pumpkin Studios (the developer of ''Warzone 2100''), led ...

, another developer, was acquired by the company in August 2000. In 2003, Kaboom Studios faced major financial issues, resulting in the closure of Attention to Detail and Silicon Dreams Studio on 28 August 2003 and 3 September 2003, respectively. Meanwhile, Audiomotion's Mick Morris performed a

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management- and/or leveraged buyouts became noted phenomena of 19 ...

for the company, in order for Audiomotion to "reboot" itself and avoid closure. Kaboom Studios went into

receivership In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver – a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights" – especia ...

on 9 September 2003, with all assets being transferred to

Ernst & Young EY, previously known as Ernst & Young, is a multinational corporation, multinational professional services partnership, network based in London, United Kingdom. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and PwC, it is one of the Big Four accounting firms, Big F ...

, of which the still-active Pivotal Games was put up for sale. On 29 September 2003,

SCi Games SCi Games Limited (formerly The Sales Curve Limited and SCi (Sales Curve Interactive) Limited) was a British video game publisher based in London. The company was founded in 1988 by Jane Cavanagh and floated on the stock exchange in 1996. In Ma ...

acquired Pivotal Games from Ernst & Young for a total of .

References

Defunct video game companies of the United Kingdom Video game companies established in 1997 Video game companies disestablished in 2003 Eidos {{UK-videogame-company-stub