Is Stardock the oldest remaining private game studio?

from JoeUser Forums

A quick question:

Are there any privately held game studios older than Stardock still in business?

Stardock’s first game was released in 1994 (Galactic Civilizations) and was incorporated in 1993.

I don’t mean hobbyists but actual studio with full time employees.

Anyone know?

37,409 views 16 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

You very well may be..........you old fart!  }:)

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

I was going to say Maxis but they merged with EA quite a while ago if I remember correctly.

Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

You're even older than Spiderweb software, by 1 year. That was the only other one I could think of. Kaser has been around longer, but has no employees. 

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

DELETE.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Stardock’s first game was released in 1994 (Galactic Civilizations) and was incorporated in 1993.
End of quote

When in 1993?  Ambrosia Software, maker of the great Escape Velocity series, was founded August 18, 1993.

 

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

They're not that rare. LucasArts was the first company I checked, and it was founded in 1982.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

LucasArts is part of LucasFilm.  Codemasters, though seems to be privately held. I'd say that counts.

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

LucasFilm is privately held. Although, if you included subsidiaries of privately held companies, then you'd also need to include all the Valve and ZeniMax studios, so that's probably cheating.

Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top

Valve is privately held. But it's not that old of a studio.

Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top

Yeah, I was wondering if any of their subsidiaries were older. Guess not.

Did some quick Wikipedia research. Apparently, 1C is privately held. And produces a heck of a lot more than games. 

Reply #12 from Elemental Forums Top

why privately held?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koei

koei was founded in 1978... 1st game in 1983 but merged with techmo a few years ago. but it's a publicly traded company..

Reply #13 from Elemental Forums Top

Ah Koei, they use to be something special...

Reply #14 from Elemental Forums Top

the Logic Factory, founded 1993, but they created only Ascendancy and Tone Rebellion that I know, the company is still alive, Ascendancy has become an iPod game

Reply #15 from Sins Forums Top

This is an interesting thing to think about...

Do you think, Brad, that staying as a private company will be viable for SD in the future?  I'm not a video game market expert, but when you asked this question, it made me think...a lot of the private companies I grew up with are now gone, bought out/merged, or publicly traded...doesn't take an expert to see the trend, but the exact reasoning for it is beyond me...