VIS Entertainment Limited (formerly known as VIS Interactive) was a British

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 ...

based in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. Chris van der Kuyl and Peter Baillie established the company in 1996. In 2003, VIS Entertainment faced financial struggles and closed its studios in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

, while downsizing its VIS iTV

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

. After BAM! Entertainment acquired the studio in May 2004, VIS Entertainment was placed into

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. ** Administrative assistant, traditionally known as a se ...

in April 2005, subsequently being

liquidated Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a company is brought to an end. The assets and property of the business are redistributed. When a firm has been liquidated, it is sometimes referred to as wound-up or dissolved, although di ...

and dissolved.

History

Chris van der Kuyl founded VIS Interactive in 1996, alongside Peter Baillie, some former developers from

DMA Design Rockstar North (Rockstar Games UK Limited; formerly DMA Design Limited) is a British video game developer and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Edinburgh. The studio is best known for creating the ''Lemmings (series), Lemmings'' and ''Grand ...

, and other "techy people" from outside the

video game industry The video game industry is the tertiary industry, tertiary and quaternary industry, quaternary sectors of the entertainment industry that specialize in the video game development, development, marketing, distribution (marketing), distribution, ...

. A

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

native, van der Kuyl headed the company as

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

and

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

. In 2000, VIS Interactive was renamed VIS Entertainment. In April 2003, the company acquired the

-based development studio of BAM! Entertainment. In the same year, VIS Entertainment faced financial issues as reimbursements to investors meant that it could not finance its active projects. As a result, the company closed its studio on the

in July of that year, laying off all staff. The company further announced the impending closure of its London studio in September 2003, citing project delays and cancellations. In November, VIS iTV, a Dundee-based

between VIS Entertainment and cable operator

Telewest Telewest (previously Telewest Broadband and Telewest Communications) was a cable internet, broadband internet, telephone supplier and cable television provider in the United Kingdom. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange, and was also ...

, laid off 75% of its staff. Jane Karowoski, VIS Entertainment's

chief operating officer A chief operating officer (COO), also called chief operations officer, is an executive in charge of the daily operations of an organization (i.e. personnel, resources, and logistics). COOs are usually second-in-command immediately after the C ...

whose task it was to implement

cost reduction Cost reduction is the process used by organisations aiming to reduce their costs and increase their profits, or to accommodate reduced income. Depending on a company’s services or products, the strategies can vary. Every decision in the produ ...

s, subsequently announced her resignation. VIS iTV's sole product, the "interactive virtual

horseracing Horse racing is an equestrian performance activity, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its bas ...

" project ''I-Race'', was to debut on the newly established sports

satellite channel Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location.ITU Radio Regulations, Section IV. Radio Stations and Systems ...

iSports TV, but these plans never materialised and VIS iTV was placed into

in December 2004. In January 2005, Bellwether Group, a California-based

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

group, acquired VIS iTV and ''I-Race'' and hired five of its previous staff, intending to market the product in the United States. On 18 February 2004, BAM! Entertainment announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire VIS Entertainment and its

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

State of Emergency Development, which had been set up to fund development for '' State of Emergency 2'', for

shares In financial markets, a share (sometimes referred to as stock or equity) is a unit of equity ownership in the capital stock of a corporation. It can refer to units of mutual funds, limited partnerships, and real estate investment trusts. Sha ...

worth roughly . The acquisition was completed by 25 May 2004. Despite the acquisition, VIS Entertainment was placed into administration on 7 April 2005. Tom Maclennan and Kenny Craig of Tenon Recovery were installed as administrators. Subsequently, VIS Entertainment's Dundee studio was shut down down and its 26 employees laid off. Another 28 positions were cut at the Edinburgh headquarters, with the remaining 42 "sent home" during the administration process. VIS Entertainment founder van der Kuyl established

4J Studios 4J Studios Limited is a British video game developer based in Dundee. It has a second office located in East Linton. Founded in April 2005 by VIS Entertainment alumni Chris van der Kuyl, Paddy Burns and Frank Arnot, the company is best known ...

on 19 April. The rights to ''State of Emergency 2'' were sold to

DC Studios DC Studios is an American film and television production company that is a division of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). It is responsible for the production of live-action and animated films and television series, as well as video games, based ...

announced in May 2005, and the company intended to hire between 10 and 40 former VIS Entertainment developers. The administration ended in March 2007 and, following its

liquidation Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a Company (law), company is brought to an end. The assets and property of the business are redistributed. When a firm has been liquidated, it is sometimes referred to as :wikt:wind up#Noun, w ...

, the entity was dissolved in July 2014.

Games

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1996 establishments in Scotland 2007 disestablishments in Scotland Companies that have entered administration in the United Kingdom Defunct companies of Scotland Defunct video game companies of the United Kingdom Video game companies disestablished in 2007 Video game companies established in 1996 Video game development companies