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Guerrilla Games

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Guerrilla B.V.
Guerrilla Games
FormerlyLost Boys Games (2000–2003)
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryVideo games
Predecessors
  • Orange Games
  • Digital Infinity
  • Formula Game Development
Founded1 January 2000; 24 years ago (2000-01-01)
Founders
Headquarters
Amsterdam
,
Netherlands
Key people
  • Jan-Bart van Beek (studio director)
  • Joel Eschler (studio director)
  • Hella Schmidt (studio director)
Products
Number of employees
360[1] (June 2021)
Parent
Websiteguerrilla-games.com

Guerrilla B.V. (trade name: Guerrilla Games) is a Dutch first-party video game developer based in Amsterdam and part of PlayStation Studios. The company was founded as Lost Boys Games in January 2000 through the merger of three smaller development studios as a subsidiary of multimedia conglomerate company Lost Boys. Lost Boys Games became independent the following year and was acquired by Media Republic in 2003, renaming the studio to Guerrilla Games before being purchased by Sony Computer Entertainment in 2005. As of June 2021, the company employs 360 people[1] under the leadership of joint studio directors Jan-Bart van Beek, Joel Eschler and Hella Schmidt. It is best known for the Killzone and Horizon game series.

History

[edit]

Guerrilla is the result of a merger between three Dutch video game studios: Orange Games, Digital Infinity, and Formula Game Development.[2][3] Orange Games was founded in 1993 by Arjan Brussee, the co-designer of the 1994 game Jazz Jackrabbit;[4] Digital Infinity was founded by Arnout van der Kamp in 1995;[3] and Formula was founded by Martin de Ronde in 1998 and sold to Lost Boys (a multimedia conglomerate company owned by Michiel Mol) in 1999.[5][6] The three studios merged, forming Lost Boys Games as a subsidiary of Lost Boys on 1 January 2000.[2][7][8] With de Ronde as managing director, the new company employed 25 people, growing to 40 by November 2000.[5][7] Hermen Hulst was hired from a consulting firm to replace de Ronde as managing director the following year.[2][9] In 2001, when Lost Boys merged with Swedish media company IconMediaLab, Lost Boys Games was spun off into an independent entity, though under the continued ownership of Mol.[5][10]

Lost Boys Games began developing Game Boy Color games with original characters, but the studio found that publishers would rather release games including licensed characters.[2] Because the studio did not want to compromise on significantly altering the characters it had created, it was unable to find a publisher for them.[2] Consequently, Lost Boys Games moved on to work-for-hire projects, creating four handheld games: Dizzy's Candy Quest (Game Boy Color, 2001), Rhino Rumble (Game Boy Color, 2002), Black Belt Challenge (Game Boy Advance, 2002), and Invader (Game Boy Advance, 2002).[2] The latter two games were published by Xicat Interactive.[11] Mol later established a new media company, Media Republic, which acquired 75% of Lost Boys Games in 2003.[6][10][12] Shortly thereafter, in July 2003, Lost Boys Games was renamed Guerrilla to reflect the style of its new parent company.[13]

The developer soon began work on its two titles: Killzone (in development for Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2) and Shellshock: Nam '67 (in development for Eidos Interactive for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Microsoft Windows).[14] Both titles would be released the following year to mixed reception, however Killzone enjoyed pre-release hype and anticipation, and despite some backfire effect due to the media hype, Killzone went on to sell over a million copies worldwide, earning Greatest Hits and Platinum status in North America and Europe respectively.[15] Guerrilla signed an exclusive development agreement with Sony Computer Entertainment in March 2004, that would see future development solely for Sony's line of video game consoles, the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3.[16][17]

By late 2005, many companies, like Eidos Interactive, eyed purchasing Guerrilla; ultimately, Sony Computer Entertainment bought out the entirety of Guerrilla in December 2005.[12][17][18] Guerrilla went on to release Killzone: Liberation for the PlayStation Portable in October 2006, Killzone 2 for the PlayStation 3 in February 2009, and Killzone 3 for the PlayStation 3 in February 2011.[19]

By February 2012, co-founder Brussee had left the studio to join Visceral Games.[20] As of June 2018, Guerrilla employs 250 people in its Amsterdam offices; it planned to move into a new building on Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal in early 2019 and expand to at least 400 employees in this new location.[21] In November 2019, Hulst was appointed the head of Worldwide Studios and Angie Smets, Jan-Bart van Beek and Michiel van der Leeuw became joint studio heads in his place.[22]

During the 2015 E3 conference, Guerrilla unveiled a new intellectual property, Horizon Zero Dawn described as a "post-apocalyptic open world action role-playing game that follows the story of Aloy, a young huntress who inhabits a world that is overrun by machines, and attempts to journey across several lands to uncover her past."[23]

In 2017, Guerrilla released Horizon Zero Dawn on the PlayStation 4.[24] The game received widespread positive acclaim from various critics.[25] An expansion, The Frozen Wilds, was released in November 2017.[26] By February 2018, over 7.6 million copies had been sold,[27] increasing to over 10 million a year later, making it one of the best-selling PlayStation 4 games.[28] In March 2020, Hermen Hulst confirmed in an interview that Horizon Zero Dawn would receive a PC port. The PC version was released on 7 August 2020.[29][30]

The next game in development, Horizon Forbidden West, was first revealed at the 2020 PS5 Future of Gaming event on 11 June 2020.[31] It is a sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn.[32][33] The game released on 18 February 2022.[34][35][36] In August 2020, Guerrilla Games moved into their new studio space.[37] On 4 January 2022, Guerilla and Firesprite revealed that a new Horizon game is in the works for PlayStation VR2 titled Horizon Call of the Mountain. In December 2022, Sony announced that an expansion for Horizon Forbidden West named Burning Shores will be releasing on 19 April 2023 on the PlayStation 5.[38]

In April 2023, Guerrilla Games announced multiple changes to its studio management. Co-studio head Angie Smets left the studio to become the new Head of Development Strategy at PlayStation Studios, with co-studio head Michiel van der Leeuw changing roles in which he would focus on the continuing development of the Decima engine. As part of these changes, Joel Eschler and Hella Schmidt joined Jan-Bart van Beek as the studio's new studio directors.[39]

Technology

[edit]
Main article: Decima (game engine)

Guerrilla uses a proprietary game engine now known as Decima.[40] The Decima engine is also used by other developers, such as Kojima Productions who use it for the Death Stranding series. In April 2023, Guerrilla Games announced that the studio's technical director Michiel van der Leeuw would be focusing on the development of the engine.[39]

Games developed

[edit]

As Lost Boys Games

[edit]
Year Title Platform(s)
2001 Dizzy's Candy Quest Game Boy Color
2002 Rhino Rumble
Black Belt Challenge Game Boy Advance
Invader

As Guerrilla Games

[edit]
Year Title Platform(s) Note(s)
2004 Shellshock: Nam '67 PlayStation 2, Windows, Xbox
Killzone PlayStation 2
2006 Killzone: Liberation PlayStation Portable
2009 Killzone 2 PlayStation 3
2011 Killzone 3
2013 Killzone Shadow Fall PlayStation 4
2017 Horizon Zero Dawn PlayStation 4, Windows
2022 Horizon Forbidden West PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows
2023 Horizon Call of the Mountain PlayStation 5 Co-developed with Firesprite
2024 Lego Horizon Adventures PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Windows Co-developed with Studio Gobo[41]
TBA Horizon Online Project TBA [42]
Unnamed Horizon project [39]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Maessen, Len (28 June 2021). "Gameontwikkelaar: 'Ik wil futuristische werelden maken'". NRC Handelsblad (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 28 June 2021. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Almaci, Hasan Ali (9 May 2011). "Studio Profile: Guerrilla Games, Page 1 of 3". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 29 December 2017. Retrieved 29 September 2019.
  3. ^ a b 't Hooft, Niels (17 July 1999). "Het bloed en de shotgun voorbij" [Beyond the blood and the shotgun]. NRC Handelsblad (in Dutch).
  4. ^ Hakker, Bas (27 January 2016). "Droombaan: gameontwikkelaar Arjan Brussee (43)" [Dream job: game developer Arjan Brussee (43)]. Intermediair (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 25 September 2019. Retrieved 29 September 2019.
  5. ^ a b c Culculoglu, Eylem (12 June 2011). "The Man Behinnd Killzone". Startup Magazine. Archived from the original on 2 June 2012. Retrieved 29 September 2019.
  6. ^ a b Kuiken, Ben; Mulders, Robert (2003–2004). "Software is king". MT.nl (in Dutch).
  7. ^ a b "Game-industrie zoekt jong ontwerptalent" [Game industry is looking for young design talent]. Computable (in Dutch). 1 November 2000.
  8. ^ IGN Staff (1 September 2000). "Lost Boys and Sony Hook Up for PS2". IGN. Archived from the original on 29 September 2019. Retrieved 29 September 2019.
  9. ^ Terpstra, Arjan (11 November 2014). "Tien jaar knallen. Hoe doet Guerilla dat?" [Party for ten years. How does Guerilla do that?]. NRC Handelsblad (in Dutch).
  10. ^ a b "Spaceman: in conversation with Michiel Mol". The Player International. No. 19. 30 November 2011.
  11. ^ Lake, Max (5 November 2001). "Lost Boys Games Find Publisher in Xicat". Nintendo World Report.
  12. ^ a b van Leeuwen, Rob (15 July 2011). "Hollands Glorie – Killzone" [Dutch Glory – Killzone]. MT.nl (in Dutch).
  13. ^ Calvert, Justin (16 July 2003). "Lost Boys find Guerrilla". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 2 August 2003.
  14. ^ Lenting, Tom (April 2019). Gamegeschiedenis van Nederland 1978–2018 (in Dutch). Karel van Mander Academy. pp. 46–47. ISBN 978-90-90-31716-8.
  15. ^ Terpstra, Arjan (1 March 2016). Killzone Visual Design: Celebrating 15 Years of Killzone. Cook & Becker. ISBN 978-90-824576-0-5.
  16. ^ Jenkins, David (23 March 2004). "Sony Sign Guerrilla Exclusivity Deal". Gamasutra.
  17. ^ a b Carless, Simon (7 December 2005). "Sony Acquires Guerrilla Games". Gamasutra.
  18. ^ Almaci, Hasan Ali (9 May 2011). "Studio Profile: Guerrilla Games, Page 3 of 3". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 29 June 2017. Retrieved 29 September 2019.
  19. ^ Lenting, Tom (February 2020). Guerrilla Games – een kleine geschiedenis van de grootste gameontwikkelaar uit Nederland (in Dutch). Karel van Mander Academy. ISBN 978-90-90-32882-9.
  20. ^ Brown, Nathan (23 February 2012). "Guerrilla co-founder quits for Visceral". Edge. Archived from the original on 24 February 2012.
  21. ^ Stil, Herman (18 July 2018). "Oud-Telegraafgebouw wordt uitvalsbasis Guerrilla Games" [The Oud-Telegraaf building becomes the Guerrilla Games base]. Het Parool (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 21 July 2019. Retrieved 29 September 2019.
  22. ^ Dring, Christopher (7 November 2019). "Guerrilla Games' Hermen Hulst is PlayStation's new head of Worldwide Studios". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on 7 November 2019. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
  23. ^ Farokhmanesh, Megan (24 June 2015). "Horizon Zero Dawn aims to fill the open-world gap between GTA and Skyrim". Polygon. Vox Media. Archived from the original on 24 June 2015.
  24. ^ Makuch, Eddie (31 January 2017). "Horizon: Zero Dawn Goes Gold". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on 4 June 2017.
  25. ^ "Horizon: Zero Dawn PlayStation 4". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on 4 June 2017.
  26. ^ Loveridge, Sam (1 November 2017). "Horizon Zero Dawn: Frozen Wild's new skill tree is focused on making your mount more useful". GamesRadar. Archived from the original on 3 March 2018.
  27. ^ Nunneley, Stephany (28 February 2018). "Horizon Zero Dawn has sold over 7.6 million units, celebrates first anniversary with goodies". VG247. Archived from the original on 28 February 2018.
  28. ^ Hulst, Hermen (28 February 2019). "Horizon Zero Dawn Celebrates Second Anniversary, 10 Million Copies Sold Worldwide". PlayStation Blog. Archived from the original on 1 March 2019.
  29. ^ Chin, Monica (10 March 2020). "Sony confirms Horizon Zero Dawn is coming to PC". The Verge. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  30. ^ Welch, Chris (3 July 2020). "Sony's PS4 hit Horizon Zero Dawn is coming to PC on August 7th". The Verge. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  31. ^ Sarkar, Samit (11 June 2020). "Horizon Forbidden West announced for PS5". Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  32. ^ Tolbert, Samuel (12 June 2020). "Some high-quality Horizon Forbidden West screenshots show underwater environments and more on PS5". Android Central. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  33. ^ Dornbush, Jonathon (11 June 2020). "Horizon 2: Forbidden West Announced for PS5". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  34. ^ Sarkar, Samit (25 August 2021). "Horizon Forbidden West launching in February 2022". Polygon. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
  35. ^ Bonifacic, Igor (16 September 2020). "'Horizon Forbidden West' is also coming to PS4". Engadget. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  36. ^ Gartenberg, Chaim (17 June 2020). "Horizon Forbidden West aiming for a 2021 launch on PS5". The Verge. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
  37. ^ Barker, Sammy (6 August 2020). "Random: Guerrilla Games Moved into Its New Office, And Raised a Flag in Dramatic Fashion". Pushsquare. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  38. ^ "Horizon Forbidden West DLC 'Burning Shores' announced for PS5". 8 December 2022. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
  39. ^ a b c "A message from Guerrilla studio management". 24 April 2023. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  40. ^ Maessen, Len Mariken (21 January 2019). "Why Guerrilla Games stubbornly built its amazing game engine from scratch". The Next Web. Archived from the original on 2 July 2019. Retrieved 29 September 2019.
  41. ^ "LEGO Horizon Adventures launches Holiday 2024". PlayStation Blog. 7 June 2024. Retrieved 7 June 2024.
  42. ^ "Guerrilla Games makes its rumoured Horizon online project official". Eurogamer.net. 16 December 2022. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
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