Krome Studios is an Australian video game company. Its headquarters were in Brisbane and it previously had offices in Adelaide and Melbourne. Krome Studios was best known for their Ty the Tasmanian Tiger games and for revitalising the Spyro the Dragon series. The company was founded in 1999 by Robert Walsh, who is the CEO, Steve Stamatiadis, the creative director and John Passfield, the design director who left the company in 2005. Krome has created games for the Xbox, Nintendo GameCube, Wii, Game Boy Advance, Dreamcast, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and PC. Krome has also developed for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii and PlayStation Portable.
With studios located in Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide, Krome Studios employed over 300 full-time employees and is “responsible for approximately 25% of the professional game development workforce in Australia” (Krome Studios, 2006). Since establishment a decade ago Krome Studios are award winning developers that have created 19 titles on multiple platforms and languages consisting of 40 SKUs, including Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, Krome’s own IP and Platinum selling global videogame franchise.
In 2007, Krome Studios places on the Develop 100 List at #94 being the only Australian game development studio to make the list this year after releasing The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning the year before (2006). Three years later in 2010, Krome Studios was awarded the number 52 spot in the Develop 100 list, placing them alongside developers such as Sierra Entertainment, LucasArts, Epic Games, Activision, Blizzard Entertainment and Electronic Arts. Also in this year Krome Studios merged with Emergent Game Technologies, making them a leader in 3D video game engines.
On 18 August 2010, it was reported that Krome had closed down their Adelaide studios and made significant staff cuts to their Melbourne and Brisbane offices, with as many as 100 staff let go. On 18 October 2010, it was reported that all remaining staff were let go; however, on 1 November CEO Robert Welsh responded to a email sent by IGN stating that Krome Studios had not closed down.
Read more about Krome Studios: Games Developed