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Warthog Games Limited, or Warthog plc, was a British video game developer, located in
Cheadle Hulme Cheadle Hulme () is a suburb in the large village of Cheadle, Greater Manchester, Cheadle in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. It lies in the Historic counties of England, historic county of Cheshire, south-wes ...
,
Stockport Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...
, with studios in Sweden and the United States. The developer later developed titles as
Gizmondo Europe The Gizmondo is a handheld gaming console developed by Gizmondo Europe. Its development was led by Swedish entrepreneur Carl Freer, who served as chairman of its parent company, Tiger Telematics. The device was originally launched on 19 March 2 ...
, before the company disbanded; key staff formed Embryonic Studios and the brand was relaunched by CFAO as Warthog Entertainment.


Subsidiaries

*Warthog: Texas: A subsidiary in Austin, Texas, US. On February 5, 2003, Warthog plc announced the acquisition of Fever Pitch Studios. On February 6, 2003, Fever Pitch Studios was renamed to Warthog: Texas. *Warthog Sweden/42-bit AB: Originally Atod AB, and became Warthog Sweden/42-bit AB after being acquired in 2002. *Zed Two: Acquired in 2002.


History

Warthog was founded in April 1997, the core of the development team composed of ex-Electronic Arts personnel responsible for, amongst other titles, the hit '' Privateer 2: The Darkening''. With this as the basis, Warthog began to develop something of a speciality in space-flight sims, with follow-up titles ''
Starlancer ''Starlancer'' is a space-based science fiction flight simulator computer game, created by Erin and Chris Roberts, and developed by Warthog Games under the auspices of Digital Anvil. Plot It is the year 2160. Mankind has colonized the Solar ...
'' (which sold over 330,000 units, mainly on PC) and '' Star Trek: Invasion'' (achieving over 230,000 units on
PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...
). Since 1999, the company also developed expertise in children's titles, with releases based upon well known franchises such as ''
Tom and Jerry ''Tom and Jerry'' is an American Animated cartoon, animated media franchise and series of comedy short films created in 1940 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Best known for its 161 theatrical short films by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the series ...
'', ''
Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American media franchise produced and distributed by Warner Bros. The franchise began as a series of animated short films that originally ran from 1930 to 1969, alongside its spin-off series ''Merrie Melodies'', during t ...
'', ''
Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven Fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...
'' and ''
Asterix ''Asterix'' ( or , "Asterix the Gauls, Gaul"; also known as ''Asterix and Obelix'' in some adaptations or ''The Adventures of Asterix'') is a Franco-Belgian comics, French comic album book series, series about a Gaulish village which, thanks ...
''. Warthog was one of the companies considered to develop the
game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games which generally includes relevant libraries and support programs such as a level editor. The "engine" terminology is akin to the term " software engine" u ...
for
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
's game show ''
FightBox ''FightBox'' is a game show that aired on BBC Three from 13 October to 10 November 2003 and is hosted by Lisa Snowdon and Trevor Nelson with Paul Dickenson as commentator. Format Contestants design their fighters and submit them to the BBC. Ou ...
''. In 2004, Warthog itself was acquired by
Tiger Telematics Tiger Telematics, or Tiger, was a Swedish electronics company, best known for the failed Gizmondo handheld game console. History In 2000, Carl Freer formed Eagle Eye Scandinavian, a small electronics distribution business in Sweden. In 2002 th ...
and became a part of Gizmondo Studios. Collectively, the Cheadle and newly acquired Sweden studios became known as
Gizmondo Europe The Gizmondo is a handheld gaming console developed by Gizmondo Europe. Its development was led by Swedish entrepreneur Carl Freer, who served as chairman of its parent company, Tiger Telematics. The device was originally launched on 19 March 2 ...
, with the recently acquired Warthog Texas becoming Gizmondo Texas. Their focus from then on would be on the
Gizmondo The Gizmondo is a handheld gaming console developed by Gizmondo Europe. Its development was led by Swedish entrepreneur Carl Freer, who served as chairman of its parent company, Tiger Telematics. The device was originally launched on 19 Marc ...
handheld console. After
Gizmondo The Gizmondo is a handheld gaming console developed by Gizmondo Europe. Its development was led by Swedish entrepreneur Carl Freer, who served as chairman of its parent company, Tiger Telematics. The device was originally launched on 19 Marc ...
went bankrupt, key staff from the original team established a new development company, Embryonic Studios. Warthog were affiliated with the
Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester Metropolitan University is located in the centre of Manchester, England. The university has 40,000 students and over 4,000 members of staff. It is home to four faculties (Arts and Humanities, Business and Law, Health and Education ...
course Computer Games Technology. They provided feedback on course content and a selection of placement jobs for third-year students.


List of games


Cancelled titles

*''BattleBots'' *''Momma Can I Mow the Lawn'' *''Johnny Whatever'' *''X10'' *''Conquest 2: The Vyrium Uprising'' *''Wrath & Skeller'' *''Fallen Kingdoms'' ''BattleBots'' was a video game based on the ''
BattleBots ''BattleBots'' is an American robot combat television series and company. The show is an adaptation of the American Robot Wars competitions hosted in the mid–late 1990s by Marc Thorpe, in which competitors design and operate remote-controlled ...
'' license for PlayStation 2 and GameCube. It got fairly far in development. Many screenshots were released to media outlets and it obtained a rating from the
ESRB The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is a self-regulatory organization that assigns age and content ratings to consumer video games in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The ESRB was established in 1994 by the Entertainment Softw ...
, but it was ultimately cancelled after the show was cancelled. However, prototypes of the game were sold on the BattleBots website for $299.98. Additionally, photographic evidence of the game being played proves that there are copies in existence, so the game could be brought to the Internet in the form of a ROM. It has been the dream of lead designer Zuby Ahmed to one day recreate this canceled game. ''Momma Can I Mow The Lawn'' is a video game which started off in development for formats such as the PlayStation 2, but after the developer Warthog Games was purchased by Tiger Telematics to produce titles for the Gizmondo handheld console, it was moved to the Gizmondo. Tiger Telematics went bankrupt in 2006 when the Gizmondo was discontinued, and the status of this game is publicly unknown. It was most likely cancelled. ''Johnny Whatever'' was announced on 20 July 2004 but was later cancelled. It was planned as an action game in a third-person environment, following a punk hero in a futuristic city who used his guitar as his weapon against villains. It started off in development for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, but became a Gizmondo exclusive when the developer was purchased by Tiger Telematics, makers of the Gizmondo. The game was scheduled for a September 2006 release. A demo for the Gizmondo was made, but it was never released. Upon liquidation of Tiger Telematics and their UK subsidiary Gizmondo Europe in February 2006, the ownership of Johnny Whatever was sold back to the CEO of Warthog Games.


References

{{Reflist, 2


External links


Warthog Games Ltd/Warthog plcWarthog: TexasWarthog Sweden/42-Bit AB
Defunct video game companies of the United Kingdom Defunct companies of England Video game companies established in 1997 Video game companies disestablished in 2006 Companies based in Stockport