Mastertronic Group Limited was a

software publisher A software publisher is a publishing company in the software industry between the developer and the distributor. In some companies, two or all three of these roles may be combined (and indeed, may reside in a single person, especially in the case ...

formed as a result of a merger between The Producers and Sold Out Sales & Marketing in 2004. Frank Herman, one of the founders of the original

Mastertronic Mastertronic was originally a publisher and distributor of low-cost computer game software founded in 1983. Their first games were launched on April 2, 1984. At its peak the label was one of the largest software publishers in the UK, achieved ...

and former

chairman The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the gro ...

of Sega Europe, was involved in negotiations to buy back the name from Sega in 2003. Frank Herman died in 2009 and the company was run by MD Andy Payne and Garry Williams. Mastertronic Group licensed, published and distributed value PC software under the Sold Out, M.A.D. and PC Gamer Presents labels. They also owned the Everyone Can Play and Great Indie Games labels. Mastertronic closed in November 2015.

History

Mastertronic Group Limited was formed in 2004 out of a merger between The Producers Limited and Sold Out Sales & Marketing Limited. The 'Sold Out' label was retained and used to sell software at the £5 (frequently "3-for-£10") price-point. The company also distributed software under the original 'M.A.D.' imprint, as well as another label associated with

PC Gamer ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games m ...

magazine. Games on these labels were typically sold for £10 (or "3-for-£20"). Just Flight and Just Trains, both specialist simulation publishers were acquired by the Mastertronic Group in 2008. In 2009, Mastertronic Group started the Great Indie Games publishing label to spread independent games, only available on the internet, to shops. Later that year, Mastertronic Group founder Andy Payne entered into a joint venture with Rupert Loman MD of

Eurogamer Network Gamer Network Limited (formerly Eurogamer Network Limited) is a British digital media company based in London. Founded in 1999 by Rupert and Nick Loman, it owns brands—primarily editorial websites—relating to video game journalism and ot ...

and formed Get Games Go (known as Get Games) to market and sell PC games by direct download. In early 2014, in response to the changing games industry, the Group focused its efforts on its publishing activities. As part of the process, the sales team was spun out to re-form Sold Out Sales & Marketing Ltd led by Garry Williams and James Cato. Sold Out was later acquired by Toadman Interactive in November 2019. Mastertronic Group had also become the sole owner and operator of Get Games.

Business units

Mastertronic Group had five business units; Mastertronic Games, The Producers (

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer ...

and fulfilment), Just Flight (Flight and Train Simulations), Blast Entertainment, and Get Games.

Mastertronic Games

Published PC & console games under a range of labels including

Presents, M.A.D., Sold Out, Everyone Can Play and Great Indie Games. Recently the brand has increased output of indie-developed digital titles such as 10 Second Ninja, Epanalepsis, 0RBITALIS, Tango Fiesta, Richard & Alice and Concursion.

Get Games

An online retail outlet for digital-download PC/Mac/Linux games from a number of various publishers, both large and small. Get Games also offered periodic bundle sales under th
Get Loaded
brand.

Just Flight & Just Trains

Publishes and develops add-on content for the major flight simulation packages such as

Microsoft Flight Simulator ''Microsoft Flight Simulator'' is a series of Flight simulation video game, flight simulator programs for MS-DOS, Classic Mac OS, and Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was an early product in the Microsoft application portfolio and diff ...

, Lockheed Martin Prepar3D and

X-Plane (simulator) X-Plane is a Flight simulation video game, flight simulator initially launched by Laminar Research in 1995. Commercial Desktop computer, desktop versions are sold for macOS, Windows, and Linux. A mobile version has been available for Android (o ...

. The internal development team recently completed work on its

English Electric Canberra The English Electric Canberra is a British first-generation, jet-powered medium bomber. It was developed by English Electric during the mid- to late 1940s in response to a 1944 Air Ministry requirement for a successor to the wartime de Havilla ...

PR9 add-on and has begun development of a

Panavia Tornado The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep wing multi-role combat aircraft, jointly developed and manufactured by Italy, the United Kingdom and Germany. There are three primary #Variants, Tornado variants: the Tornado IDS ...

add-on. In a similar vein to Just Flight, Just Trains publishes and develops add-on content for train simulation packages, primarily

RailWorks ''Train Simulator Classic 2024'' (originally ''RailWorks'' and ''Train Simulator'') is a train simulation game developed by Dovetail Games. It is the successor to ''Rail Simulator'', and was released online on 12 June 2009 and in stores on 3 J ...

(Train Simulator).

The Producers

Provided manufacturing, fulfilment and distribution services to the group and third parties.

Blast! Entertainment

Blast! Entertainment was a publishing joint-venture between Mastertronic and Disky Communications that published budget-priced, licensed-based video games for the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PA ...

, PC,

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America, and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...

, and

Nintendo DS The is a foldable handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens worki ...

aimed at younger players. The partnership was announced in April 2006, and the company sold its remaining stock 2009. Their output included games commissioned by budgeted British developers, which included ''

Casper's Scare School ''Casper's Scare School'' (also known as ''Casper's Scare School: The Movie'') is a 2006 animated television film based on the Harvey Comics cartoon character Casper the Friendly Ghost. The film premiered on Cartoon Network on October 20, 2006. ...

'', ''

Casper and the Ghostly Trio The Ghostly Trio (consisting of Stretch, Fatso, and Stinkie, formerly Fatso, Fusso, and Lazo) are fictional characters appearing in Harvey Comics. They are the uncles of Casper the Friendly Ghost. Their first animated appearance was in ''Fright f ...

'', '' Little Britain: The Video Game'', ''

Charlotte's Web ''Charlotte's Web'' is a book of children's literature by American author E. B. White and illustrated by Garth Williams. It was published on October 15, 1952, by Harper & Brothers. It tells the story of a livestock pig named Wilbur and his frie ...

'', ''

An American Tail ''An American Tail'' is a 1986 American animated musical adventure comedy-drama film directed by Don Bluth and written by Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss from a story by David Kirschner, Freudberg and Geiss. The film stars the voices of Phi ...

'', and ''

Mr. Bean ''Mr. Bean'' is a British sitcom created by Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis, produced by Tiger Aspect Productions and starring Atkinson as the title character. The sitcom consists of 15 episodes that were co-written by Atkinson alongside ...

''. Games published by Blast! were often panned by critics for outdated graphics, unfaithfulness to license, and short length; many titles were labelled as "

shovelware Shovelware is a type of video game or software bundle known more for the quantity of what is included than for its quality or usefulness. The metaphor implies that the creators showed little care for the quality of the original software, as if t ...

Sold Out

A publishing label that published

indie games An indie video game or indie game (short for independent video game) is a video game created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large Video game publisher, game publisher, in contrast to ...

References

External links

Official websites

* * * * * * {{webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020806165934/http://www.sold-out.co.uk/unshock/soldout/index.html, title=Sold Out (non-Flash website) Defunct video game companies of the United Kingdom Video game companies established in 2004 Video game companies disestablished in 2015