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nStigate Games

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nStigate Games
FormerlyNihilistic Software (1998–2012)
IndustryVideo games
FoundedMarch 1998; 26 years ago (1998-03)
Defunct2012; 12 years ago (2012)
HeadquartersMarin County, California
ProductsVampire: The Masquerade – Redemption
Websitenihilistic.com

nStigate Games (formerly Nihilistic Software) was an American video game developer based in Novato, California.

History

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Nihilistic was founded in March 1998 by Ray Gresko, Robert Huebner, and Steve Tietze. Gresko and Huebner had formerly worked at LucasArts, and Tietze had worked at Rogue Entertainment. Many of Nihilistic's employees were drawn from LucasArts, working on games such as Jedi Knight.[1]

The first game produced by Nihilistic was Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption, set in a role-playing world created by White Wolf. Released in 2000, Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption was published by Activision for Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh computers.

For their next project, Nihilistic began to develop StarCraft: Ghost, supervised by StarCraft creator Blizzard Entertainment. In mid-2004, Nihilistic ceased working on StarCraft: Ghost, although the circumstances behind this are not entirely clear. The project was taken up by Swingin' Ape Studios, which was later bought by Blizzard. Finally in March 2006, Blizzard Entertainment announced that StarCraft: Ghost was placed on indefinite hold.

Meanwhile, in 2005, Nihilistic completed development on Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects, a fighting game based on Marvel Comics' various superheroes. Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects was published by Electronic Arts, for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube.

Nihilistic released their first 'next-gen' title, Conan for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game consoles. According to a preview article in the March 2007 issue of Game Informer, Conan is an action/adventure game based on Robert E. Howard's famous sword and sorcery hero, Conan the Barbarian. This title was released by the publisher THQ on October 23, 2007.

In the fall of 2009, Konami published Nihilistic Software's first downloadable game, Zombie Apocalypse on Xbox Live for the Xbox 360 and on the PlayStation Network for the PlayStation 3. Zombie Apocalypse is multiplayer, arcade-style dual stick shooter with zombies as the opponent.

They developed PlayStation Move Heroes for the PlayStation 3 (for the PlayStation Move) which was released in March 2011.[2]

On May 29, 2012, Nihilistic released Resistance: Burning Skies for the PlayStation Vita.[3]

On October 17, 2012, Nihilistic reorganized their business to focus on mobile gaming, changing their name to nStigate.[4]

On November 13, 2012, nStigate released Call of Duty: Black Ops – Declassified for the Vita.[5] The game was widely panned critically for poor design and crippling technical problems.[6]

The company announced that they'd began to restructure the studio once more and announced that they’d be focusing on developing digital and mobile titles,[7] yet due to the failure of Declassified the company was unable to reach any agreements with major companies and would be forced to close the following month.[8]

Games

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Game title Release Platform Metacritic Notes
Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption 2000 Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh 74/100
Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects 2005 PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube 53/100 (PS2),
58/100 (Xbox),
54/100 (GameCube)
Conan 2007 PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 69/100
Zombie Apocalypse 2009 PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 61/100 (PS3),
66/100 (Xbox 360)
PlayStation Move Heroes 2011 PlayStation 3 (PlayStation Move) 53/100
Resistance: Burning Skies 2012 PlayStation Vita 60/100
Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified 2012 PlayStation Vita 33/100

References

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  1. ^ "StarCraft: Ghost - What Went Wrong". Polygon. July 5, 2016. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  2. ^ Sony Computer Entertainment Staff. "Heroes On The Move - Games & Media". PlayStation.com. Sony Computer Entertainment. Retrieved 16 June 2010.
  3. ^ James Ransom-Wiley. "Resistance NGP being developed by Nihilistic, isn't a port". Joystiq. AOL Inc. Retrieved 27 January 2011.
  4. ^ "Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified developer Nihilistic reorganizing to focus on online and mobile games". Polygon. Vox Media Inc. 2012-10-18. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
  5. ^ Moriarty, Colin (14 August 2012). "Call of Duty's Vita Developer Has Been Revealed". IGN.
  6. ^ Metacritic. "Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified". Metacritic. Retrieved 2020-01-27.
  7. ^ "Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified dev Nihilistic ditches retail boxed games, rebrands". Eurogamer.net. 19 October 2012.
  8. ^ "Nihilistic: Why We're Shutting up Shop". 18 October 2012.
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