Teen Titans Magazine Vol. 5 issue 1 Final-3 | Seite 27

Insomniac Games: The
Black Sheep of Gaming.
By Zeke C.
Staff Member,
Grade 7
Insomniac Games is a video game company that
has been known for making video game classics like the
Spyro the Dragon series and the Ratchet and Clank
series. But this company has a history that has long
been forgotten. Allow me to lecture you on the history
of Insomniac Games.
Insomniac Games was founded in 1994 by Ted
Price, and was originally named Xtreme Software.
Xtreme Software made their first game in 1996 called
“Disruptor” for the Playstation 1 with the publisher
Universal Interactive Studios. It was a first person
shooter game where you go around on a planet killing
bug aliens. The game did poorly in the critics eyes, and
if Xtreme Software didn’t make a game soon, they
would go bankrupt.
Then, in the year 1998, the name Xtreme
Software was gone and was replaced with the name
Insomniac games, along with a new video game called
Spyro the Dragon. Spyro became a huge hit, becoming
one of the classics of the PS1. You see, Sony was trying
to have a popular mascot to rival the game company
powerhouses that were Nintendo and SEGA and their
own Mario and Sonic respectively. Some of their tries
were Crash Bandicoot, Ratchet and Clank, Jak and
Daxter, PaRappa the Rapper, and more. Spyro was one
of these mascots.
Spyro then blew up in popularity with his first
game, and fans wanted more. Now, Spyro was created
by Insomniac, but was published by Universal
Interactive Studios and was owned by Sony, so Sony
told Insomniac that they had to make a sequel. So, in
1999, Insomniac made the second Spyro game, “Ripto’s
Revenge.” This game was better than the first by critic’s
standards. The fans loved the game, and wanted more.
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