Mass Media, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Moorpark, California formed by David Riordan and David Todd.
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| Formerly | Phillips P.O.V. Entertainment Group (1991-1995) |
|---|---|
| Type | Subsidiary |
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | 1991 |
| Headquarters | Moorpark, California, U.S. |
| Parent | THQ (2007–2008) 2K (2018–present) |
| Website | massmedia |
History
editMass Media began in the 1980s at Cinemaware when David Riordan and David Todd worked at the company.[1] In 1991, as Cinemaware was going bankrupt, they formed a production unit at Philips Interactive Media, called Philips P.O.V. Entertainment Group.[2][3] The company made its big break with Voyeur, a successful interactive movie game that was a huge hit for CD-i and earned critical acclaim.[3][4]
In 1995, the company was reorganized, becoming more independent and renamed as Mass Media during the production of Thunder in Paradise Interactive.[5] Mass Media soon left Philips in 1995 and the company became an exclusive developer for Time Warner Interactive after David Riordan left Philips for Time Warner.[6]
After Time Warner halted their interactive division and was sold to Midway Games, Mass Media became an independent developer.[7][1] Mass Media's first game as an independent developer was developing The Game of Life for Hasbro Interactive, which was released in 1998 in association with developer The Collective.[8] The company expanded by luring away staff from the former ashes of the game developer V.R.T.O. (another company formed by ex-Cinemaware alumunus).[9]
In late 1998, the company expanded to work for the Nintendo 64 platform,[10][11] while the company first met THQ to develop a Bass Masters game for Nintendo 64,[12] and in 2001, supported the Game Boy Advance platform.[13] The company was also an early supporter of Nintendo GameCube's development tools.[14]
In 2003, the company worked with Blizzard Entertainment for porting classic games to Game Boy Advance for development of titles under the Classic Arcade label.[15][16] The company also developed a party game engine, which was used for Muppets Party Cruise and Shrek: Super Party.[17][18]
It was acquired by THQ in February 2007[19] who closed the studio in November 2008.[20][21] The company started back up immediately, focusing on developing for the Sony platforms, including the PlayStation 3. On the PlayStation 3, they developed content and spaces for its social gaming network PlayStation Home including the games The Midway, The Midway 2, and The Midway 3 which were three game spaces with ten mini-games in each with ten rewards per mini-game. The Green Ticket, used to play the games in the three Midways, was consistently the best selling item in PS Home.[22][23]
Mass Media has also continued to develop game engine technology for PlayStation 3 and other platforms. Notably this includes one of the first non-Sony PlayStation 3 implementations of fully SPU based GPU rendering command generation, significantly reducing rendering overhead on the main CPU (used in Saints Row 2 and subsequent PS3 titles). In 2018, Mass Media was acquired by 2K.[24]
Games
editMass Media has developed over forty titles and currently has additional titles in various stages of development. All of their titles were developed with their development tool set called BOLT.
References
edit- 1 2 "Mass Media Games". www.massmedia.com. Archived from the original on December 12, 2013. Retrieved June 29, 2026.
- ↑ Russell, Jamie (2012). Generation Xbox: how videogames invaded Hollywood. Yellow Ant. ISBN 9780956507242.
- 1 2 "Voyeur Review". CD-i Magazine. September–October 1994. pp. 10–30. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
- ↑ "Peeping Toms can make an impact as Voyeurs..." Computer Game Review. February 1994. p. 114. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ "Thunder in Paradise". CD-i Magazine. March 1995. p. 12. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ Harmon, Amy (October 1, 1995). "COLUMN ONE : High-Tech Hidden Persuaders : Subliminal messages are now being used in some software--as a means for self-improvement. But others worry that mind control--and concealed ads--may be next". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ Archives, L. A. Times (March 8, 1996). "TECHNOLOGY - March 8, 1996". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ Staff, I. G. N. (October 22, 1998). "Game of Life". IGN. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ "Bernard Whang - LinkedIn". Retrieved June 20, 2026.
- ↑ "First Look: Namco Museum 64". GameSpot. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ Staff, I. G. N. (June 10, 2000). "Three Whole New Games". IGN. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ Staff, I. G. N. (September 16, 1998). "THQ Goes Fishing". IGN. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ Staff, I. G. N. (April 19, 2001). "Namco's US Launch Title". IGN. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ Staff, I. G. N. (November 10, 2000). "Massively Cubed". IGN. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ Harris, Craig (December 11, 2002). "Blizzard's Classic Arcade". IGN. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ "Blizzard Q&A". GameSpot. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ Staff, I. G. N. (May 12, 2003). "E3 2003: Muppets Party Cruise". IGN. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ Hwang, Kaiser (September 25, 2002). "A Party on Xbox". IGN. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ Ransom-Wiley, James (February 2, 2007). "Mass Media joins THQ family". Engadget. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ "Mass Media, Inc". MobyGames. Archived from the original on March 28, 2009. Retrieved October 22, 2009.
- ↑ "THQ Closes Five Studios (Updated)". Shacknews. November 3, 2008. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ "Top Ten Playstation®Home Sales for January 2011 « gamerindepth.net". gamerindepth.net. Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ↑ Staff, I. G. N. (December 10, 2010). "PlayStation Home Celebrates Two Years as a Leading Social Game Platform". IGN. Retrieved June 29, 2026.
- ↑ "Mass Media Games | LinkedIn".