Stainless Steel Studios (SSSI) was a

video game developer A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with em ...

, started in 1997 by

Rick Goodman Rick Goodman is a video game designer and the founder and owner of the now-defunct Stainless Steel Studios. He is best known for the real-time strategy (RTS) games he designed, such as Age of Empires and Empire Earth. Career In 1995 Goodman co ...

and Dara-Lynn Pelechatz. The company was based in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

, and focused on the development of

real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games that does not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time." By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, tur ...

games.

History

Stainless Steel was started in October 1997 by Rick Goodman and Dara-Lynn Pelechatz, the latter of who served as director of operations. The name "Stainless Steel" was thought up by Goodman on a returning flight from

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. Pelechatz said in an interview with ''

GameSpy GameSpy was an American provider of online multiplayer and matchmaking middleware for video games founded in 1999 by Mark Surfas. After the release of a multiplayer server browser for Quake, QSpy, Surfas licensed the software under the GameS ...

'':

While returning on a flight from California, Rick saw the
Sky Mall SkyMall is a specialty publishing firm headquartered in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey, best known for once publishing a self-titled in-flight publication, ''SkyMall'', that at one point had an annual circulation of approximately 20 million copies ...
catalog. Well he decided he was going to open the book and put his finger on the first item he saw, hence that would be the name of his new company. The item Rick located was a
stainless steel Stainless steel, also known as inox, corrosion-resistant steel (CRES), or rustless steel, is an iron-based alloy that contains chromium, making it resistant to rust and corrosion. Stainless steel's resistance to corrosion comes from its chromi ...
shower head.

The logo was designed by Stainless Steel with Jam Design, it is a silver ball with a

salamander Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All t ...

on top of it. On November 25, 2005,

Gamasutra ''Game Developer'' (known as ''Gamasutra'' until 2021) is a website created in 1997 that focuses on aspects of video game development. It is owned and operated by Informa TechTarget and acted as the online sister publication to the print maga ...

reported that Stainless Steel Studios quietly ceased operations and laid off its employees. The content of the official website was removed in November. Former SSSI employees Bob Scott and Daniel Higgins confirmed rumors appearing on the HeavenGames Rise & Fall

fan site A fansite, fan site, fan blog or fan page is a website created and maintained by a fan of or devotee to a celebrity, thing, or particular cultural phenomenon. Fansites may offer specialized information on the subject (e.g., episode listings, ...

forum Forum or The Forum may refer to: Common uses *Forum (legal), designated space for public expression in the United States *Forum (Roman), open public space within a Roman city **Roman Forum, most famous example * Internet forum, discussion board ...

. Higgins wrote in reply to questions about the credibility of the rumors:

This is true, SSSI is no more. I can't give details as to why, but I can tell you the product is in excellent shape, the team was in high morale and plowing ahead at full steam, and we were just weeks from
gold disk Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...
.

The game was later completed by

Midway Games Midway Games Inc. (formerly Midway Manufacturing and Bally Midway, and commonly known simply as Midway) was an American video game company that existed from 1958 to 2010. Midway's franchises included ''Mortal Kombat'', ''Rampage (franchise), Ra ...

and release on 12 June 2006. Shortly after, it was learned that Stainless Steel was closed because of cuts in funding from publisher Midway Games, its most important client. Since Stainless Steel's closure, Sierra closed ''Empire Earth''s server, so it is impossible to play online or update the game.

Technology

Games

References

External links

Official website
via

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

Stainless Steel Studios
profile on

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 ...

Stainless Steel Studios
profile on

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

Stainless Steel Studios
profile on

GameFAQs GameFAQs is a video gaming website that hosts guides and other resources, as well as an active Internet forum, message board forum. It was created in November 1995 by Jeff Veasey and has been owned by Fandom (website), Fandom, Inc. since October ...

Defunct video game companies of the United States Video game companies established in 1997 Video game companies disestablished in 2005 Video game development companies {{US-videogame-company-stub

History

Technology

Games

See also

References

External links