Shiny Entertainment - History

History

David Perry, a veteran game developer, was developing for Probe Software in London on the Terminator movie video game for the Mega Drive/Genesis. The game was to be published by Virgin Games in Irvine, CA. After a proposal was done to him, Perry agreed to complete the work in the United States and so moved over in 1991 to join the Virgin Games USA development team. While in the states he developed McDonald's Global Gladiators (Sega's Game of the Year) and 7-Up's Cool Spot, did early development work on Disney's The Jungle Book (which was eventually completed by Eurocom) and finally programmed Disney's Aladdin in a joint venture of Virgin Games USA with Sega of America. Disney's Aladdin became a number 1 hit around the world.

At this time Perry got a US Green Card and decided to form Shiny Entertainment Inc. To fund it, he signed a three game distribution deal with Playmates Interactive Entertainment, the three games became Earthworm Jim, Earthworm Jim 2 and MDK. All three games were well reviewed, won awards and were highly profitable.

The first Shiny release was Earthworm Jim, which won the Sega Game of the Year award and put Shiny front-row center as a developer to be watched. A TV show deal was signed with Universal Cartoon Studios, a TV output deal was signed with the Warner Kids Network, Playmates Toys made a complete action figure toy line, a home video collection was made by MCA/Universal Home Video, Carl's Jr. made a kids meal, Del Taco made a kids meal, Marvel Comics made the official comic books, Fruit of the Loom made clothing and bed coverings, there were even lunch-box, strategy guide, sticker deals etc.

In 1997, former Shiny employees Nick Bruty (President) and Bob Stevenson (CEO) left to form the company Planet Moon Studios.

After a sequel and a remake (Earthworm Jim 2 and Earthworm Jim Special Edition for Sega CD and Windows 95), Shiny decided to move into the world of 3D with the game MDK. At this time Interplay Entertainment Inc. (who had published Earthworm Jim for Sega CD) bought Shiny so co-published MDK with Playmates Interactive Entertainment.

In 2002, during the development of Enter the Matrix, Shiny was acquired by Infogrames (which later changed its name to Atari), for $47 million. Atari purchased only the team and the rights to the Matrix franchise.

Perry kicked off a yet-to-be-announced game, Earthworm Jim on Sony's PlayStation Portable, and a new fighting Game called Age of Elements at E3 2006 on Sony PSP.

Atari announced their interest in selling off all their development studios, so Perry resigned in an attempt to help Atari find a quality buyer. On October 2, 2006, Foundation 9 Entertainment acquired Shiny Entertainment. In October 2007, Foundation 9 merged Shiny Entertainment with The Collective to form Double Helix Games.