Starwave was a

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

-based

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

and website company, founded in 1993 by

Paul Allen Paul Gardner Allen (January 21, 1953 – October 15, 2018) was an American businessman, computer programmer, and investor. He co-founded Microsoft, Microsoft Corporation with his childhood friend Bill Gates in 1975, which was followed by the ...

, co-founder of

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

and led by CEO Mike Slade. The company produced original CD-ROM titles, including ''

Muppets Inside ''The Muppet CD-ROM: Muppets Inside'' is a 1996 video game based on The Muppets franchise produced by Starwave for Windows. The title is a play on Intel's advertising slogan, "Intel Inside". The game's plot consists of several Muppets characters g ...

'', and titles for

Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western (genre), Western TV series ''Rawhide (TV series), Rawhide'', Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Ma ...

, Sting, and

Peter Gabriel Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and human rights activist. He came to prominence as the original frontman of the rock band Genesis. He left the band in 1975 and launched a solo career wit ...

. They were the original developers of ''

Castle Infinity ''Castle Infinity'' is a discontinued Massively multiplayer online game, the first intended for children. It was launched by Starwave Corporation in 1996, and features personalized avatars, an embedded message system and live chat in a 2D side sc ...

'', the first massively multiplayer online role-playing game for children, but Starwave's most lasting mark was in the area of web content sites. They developed

ESPN.com ESPN.com is the official website of ESPN. It is owned by ESPN Internet Ventures, a division of ESPN Inc. History Since launching in April 1995 as ESPNET.SportsZone.com (ESPNET SportsZone), the website has developed numerous sections including ...

, ABCNEWS.com, Outside Online, and Mr. Showbiz.com among other sites, setting the standard for much of the commercial Internet explosion of the late 1990s. Starwave also developed the first site and publishing system for

Jim Cramer James Joseph Cramer (born February 10, 1955) is an American television personality, author, entertainer, and former hedge fund manager. He is the host of ''Mad Money'' on CNBC, and an anchor on ''Squawk on the Street''. After graduating from Ha ...

's TheStreet.com.

Disney

The company merged with

Infoseek Infoseek (also known as the "big yellow") was an American internet search engine founded in 1994 by Steve Kirsch. Infoseek was originally operated by the Infoseek Corporation, headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. Infoseek was bought by The W ...

and was later sold to

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

. In April 1998, Disney purchased the outstanding shares of Starwave from Allen after an initial buy of about 30% in 1997. The new entity, Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) developed the

Go.com Go.com (also known as The Go Network) is a portal for Disney content and a single sign-on system that was created after The Walt Disney Company acquired the search engine Infoseek. Go.com is operated by Disney Interactive's Disney Online. It ...

portal. In 2004, Disney re-activated the Starwave identity as Starwave Mobile, which published

casual game A casual game is a video game targeted at a mass market audience, as opposed to a hardcore game, which is targeted at hobbyist gamers. Casual games may exhibit any type of gameplay and genre. They generally involve simpler rules, shorter sessio ...

s for mobile phones. They published several '' Scarface'' licensed games including '' Scarface: Money. Power. Respect.'' and games from Capybara Games including '' Critter Crunch''.

References

External links

Starwave Takes the Web ... (Seriously) , Fast Company

Starwave in Disneyland , Salon

Starwavers
List of Former Starwave Employees

by Patrick Naughton, who left Sun for Starwave {{Authority control American companies established in 1993 American companies disestablished in 1998 Companies based in Bellevue, Washington Defunct software companies of the United States Defunct video game companies of the United States Disney acquisitions Software companies established in 1993 Software companies disestablished in 1998 Video game companies established in 1993 Video game companies disestablished in 1998 Software companies based in Seattle