History Creator / BlitzGamesStudios

In 2000 they finally changed the company's name to '''Blitz Games''', and decided to almost exclusively focus their business on making {{licensed game}}s based on notable [=IPs=] like TV shows and movies, in addition to BTeamSequel[=s=] to well-established game franchises. During this period the studio started hiring more and more staff to keep up with the workload, leading to various internal teams with their own staff being formed that had their own codenames and made their own games concurrently with each other; usually they can be identified during the ending credits where their name appears as "A Team [codename] Production". They also made their own UsefulNotes/GameEngine called [=BlitzTech=] that was used in many of their titles.

It was founded in 1990 under the name '''Dizzy Enterprises''' by twin brothers Andrew and Philip Oliver, known collectively as The Oliver Twins, who previously worked for Creator/{{Codemasters}} during the 1980s as programmers and designers on various computer games, most famously creating the ''VideoGame/{{Dizzy}}'' series which became very popular across Europe and a symbol of the UK gaming scene. As the console market started to grow during the 1990s the twins wanted to start making games for systems like the [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]] and [[UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis Sega Genesis]], so they formed their own company so they could hire more people and work with Codemasters and other companies to make more ''Dizzy'' games for a variety of platforms, resulting in various previous games in the series getting ported to consoles and new exclusive games being made concurrently for both computers and consoles.

* '''Blitz Arcade''': with the advent of the UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation Network}}, UsefulNotes/XboxLiveArcade and smartphones, this division focused on making small but original downloadable games for digital services (though their first four games were based on licensed properties and the first three were released on disc at the last minute).

!!Notable games developed by Blitz Games Studios along with their respective teams/divisions when available.

* ''[[VideoGame/TheFairlyOddparentsShadowShowdown The Fairly OddParents: Shadow Showdown]]'' ([=PS2=] and GC versions) (Team Cosmo)

* ''VideoGame/ReservoirDogs'' (Volatile Games)

* ''[=SpongeBob=]'s Surf & Skate Roadtrip'' (Xbox 360 Kinect version; [[EndOfAnAge last SpongeBob game published by THQ]])

* ''Film/TheMummyReturns''

Around 1992, Codemasters started having legal and financial troubles over the creation of the VideoGame/GameGenie, in addition to various plans for the ''Dizzy'' series being either scrapped or altered leading to heavy disagreements between them and the Olivers, all of this leading to the twins ending their partnership with Codemasters. In 1994 they renamed their company to '''Interactive Studios''' and started doing work-for-hire for various publishers in a variety of games, while occasionally making their own original games like ''Firo & Klawd'' and, most notably, ''VideoGame/{{Glover}}''.

** Even ''Dead to Rights: Retribution'' manages to be this within its franchise, [[BloodierAndGorier which really is]] [[UpToEleven an achievement]].

* ''Film/WarGames Defcon 1''

* ''VideoGame/PacManWorld 3'' (Team Paku)

In 2000 they finally changed the company's name to '''Blitz Games Studios''', and decided to completely focus their business in making {{licensed game}}s based on notable [=IPs=] like TV shows and movies, in addition to BTeamSequel[=s=] to well-established game franchises. During this period the studio started hiring more and more staff to keep up with the workload, leading to various internal teams with their own staff being formed that had their own codenames and made their own games concurrently with each other; usually they can be identified during the ending credits where their name appears as "A Team [codename] Production". They also made their own UsefulNotes/GameEngine called [=BlitzTech=] that was used in many of their titles.

In 2006 the company started being split into multiple sub-divisions:

* '''Creator/BlitzGames''': the main and biggest division, focused on making family-friendly games (with [[Film/BadBoysII one exception]]) based on licensed and well-known [=IPs=].

[[caption-width-right:350:[[{{Slogans}} Passionate about Games]]]]

* ''WesternAnimation/ChickenRun''

* '''Creator/BlitzGames''': the main and biggest division, focused on making family-friendly games (with one exception) based on licensed and well-known [=IPs=].

By the time of their peak in the mid to late 2000s the company had made dozens of games and had a staff of over 230 employees, making it one of the biggest and most successful independent game developers in the UK. However some problems started to arise during the early 2010s: game development in general became very expensive, the market for licensed games, their main speciality, started to dry up due to the aforementioned development costs, the association of these types of games with UsefulNotes/{{Shovelware}} by the growing gaming and tech-savvy crowd leading to many people not buying them, and they failed to adapt to either the mobile or core gaming markets which led to the them being unable to get work from other publishers, with even ones they had a close relationship with like Creator/{{THQ}} getting closed due to financial troubles. And thus with no money for future projects it was announced that the studio was officially shutting down in September 2013, leading to the loss of their at the time over 170 employees, though some of them did since find new jobs at other UK studios like [[Creator/{{Rebellion}} Rebellion Developments]].

* ''[[Film/BadBoysII Bad Boys]]: Miami Takedown''[[labelnote:*]]released in Europe as ''Bad Boys II''[[/labelnote]] (The only [[RatedMForManly mature rated]] game released under the family-friendly Blitz banner)

** When they were making ''Bad Boys: Miami Takedown'' to tie-in with the DVD release of ''Bad Boys II'', they received notes from the publisher saying that while they had acquired the rights for the movie and the characters' names, [[InNameOnly they somehow didn't have the rights for the plot, the likeness of the actors, the vehicles]], or even the personal approval of the [[Creator/MichaelBay director]]. As a result they were just told to make [[TheThemeParkVersion a generic action game about cops in Miami]]. Then near the end they also got the rights to the movie's theatrical poster to use as the game's box art, leading the staff to joke about the game being more based on the '''poster''' then the movie itself.

** ''Bad Boys: Miami Takedown'', the only [[MatureRating M-rated]] title ever released using the main Blitz logo.

By the time of their peak in the mid to late 2000s the company had made dozens of games and had a staff of over 230 employees, making it one of the biggest and most successful independent game developers in the UK. However some problems started to arise during the early 2010s: game development in general became very expensive, the market for licensed games, their main speciality, started to dry up due to the aforementioned development costs, the association of these types of games with UsefulNotes/{{Shovelware}} by the growing gaming and tech-savvy crowd leading to many people not buying them, and they failed to adapt to either the mobile or core gaming markets which led to the them being unable to get work from other publishers, with even ones they had a close relationship with like Creator/{{THQ}} getting close due to financial troubles. And thus with no money for future projects it was announced that the studio was officially shutting down in September 2013, leading to the loss of their at the time over 170 employees, though some of them did since find new jobs at other UK studios like [[Creator/{{Rebellion}} Rebellion Developments]].

* ''[[VideoGame/SniperEliteV2 Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 2]]'' (in development at both Blitz and Rebellion and nearly finished before they closed down and stopped the project; later released by Rebellion alone)

** ''[=The Fairly OddParents=]: Shadow Showdown'' is one of their few direct sequels to a game that they also previously made, ''Breakin' da Rules'', and as such a ''lot'' of assets were reused likely so they could just [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools focus on improving the game]] instead of wasting time making new graphics from scratch.

* SlidingScaleOfSillinessVersusSeriousness: Within their catalog and not counting the mature games, ''Frogger 2'' and ''Tak and the Guardians of Gross'' fit the former while ''Pac-Man World 3'' and ''[=SpongeBob SquarePants=]: Creature from the Krusty Krab'' fit the latter when compared to the general tone of their respective franchises. ''[=The Fairly OddParents=]'' games may also arguably count, with ''Breakin' da Rules'' being very silly with only a loosely connected plot while ''Shadow Showdown'' has a (slightly) more serious and focused plot that really comes together in its latter half.

* StockSoundEffects: They had their own library of sound effects that were reused in every game, mostly for trampolines and breakable boxes.

** When they were making ''Bad Boys: Miami Takedown'' to tie-in with the DVD release of ''Bad Boys II'', they received notes from the publisher saying that while they had acquired the rights for the movie and the characters' names, [[InNameOnly they somehow didn't have the rights for the plot, the likeness of the actors, the vehicles]], or even the personal approval of the [[Creator/MichaelBay director]]. As a result they were just told to make [[TheThemeParkVersion a generic action game about cops in Miami]]. Then near the end they also got the rights to the movie's theatrical poster to use as the game's box art, leading the staff to joke about the game being more based on the movie's '''poster''' then the movie itself.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[Main/{{Slogans}} Passionate about Games]]]]

It was founded in 1990 under the name '''Dizzy Enterprises''' by twins brothers Andrew Oliver and Philip Oliver, known as The Oliver Twins, who previously worked for Creator/{{Codemasters}} during the 1980's as programmers and designers on various computer games, most famously creating the ''VideoGame/{{Dizzy}}'' series which became very popular across Europe and a symbol of the UK gaming scene. As the console market started to grow during the 1990's the twins wanted to start making games for systems like the [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]] and [[UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis Sega Genesis]], so they formed their own company so they could hire more people and work with Codemasters and other companies to make more ''Dizzy'' games for a variety of platforms, resulting in various previous games in the series getting ported to consoles and new exclusive games being made concurrently for both computers and consoles.

In 2000 they finally changed the company's name to '''Blitz Games Studios''', and decided to completely focus their business in making [[Main/LicensedGame Licensed Games]] based on notable [=IPs=] like TV shows and movies, in addition to [[Main/BTeamSequel B-Team Sequels]] to well established game franchises. During this period the studio started hiring more and more staff to keep up with the workload, leading to various internal teams with their own staff being formed that had their own codenames and made their own games concurrently with each other, usually they can identified during the ending credits where their name appears as "A Team [codename] Production". They also made their own UsefulNotes/GameEngine called [=BlitzTech=] that was used in many of their titles.

* '''Creator/BlitzGames''': the main and biggest division, focused on making family-friendly games (with one exception) based on licensed and well know [=IPs=].

* '''Volatile Games''': basically their equivalent to Creator/TouchstonePictures, focused on making mature games that wouldn't fit with the main Blitz label. They only made two games with a third one becoming Main/{{Vaporware}}.

* '''Blitz Arcade''': with the advent of the [[UsefulNotes/PlayStationNetwork PlayStation Network]], UsefulNotes/XboxLiveArcade and smartphones, this division focused on making small but original downloadable games for digital services (though their first four games were based on licensed properties and the first three were released on disc at last minute).

* '''[=TrueSim=]''': made [[Main/SimulationGame Simulation]] [[Main/ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Games]] with academic and training focus.

By the time of their peak in the mid to late 2000's the company had made dozens of games and had a staff of over 230 employees, making it one of the biggest and most successful independent game developers in the UK. However some problems started to arise during the early 2010's: game development in general became very expensive, the market for licensed games, their main speciality, started to dry up due to the aforementioned development costs, the association of these types of games with UsefulNotes/{{Shovelware}} by the growing gaming and tech-savvy crowd leading to many people not buying them, and they failed to adapt to either the mobile or core gaming markets which led to the them being unable to get work from other publishers, with even ones they had a close relationship with like Creator/{{THQ}} getting close due to financial troubles. And thus with no money for future projects it was announced that the studio was officially shutting down in September 2013, leading to the loss of their at the time over 170 employees, though some of them did since find new jobs at other UK studios like [[Creator/{{Rebellion}} Rebellion Developments]].

Almost a week later, The Oliver Twins tried opening a new studio called '''Radiant Worlds''' along with 50 former Blitz staff who were already working on a then unannounced game called ''Project V''. The game was officially revealed a year later as ''[=SkySaga=]: Infinite Isles'' and stayed in DevelopmentHell until being cancelled in August 2017. The studio was then bought by Rebellion in January 2018 and turned into a subsidiary called '''Rebellion Warwick'''.

* '' Glover 2'' (A-Team) ([[Main/WhatCouldHaveBeen Cancelled]])

* ''WesternAnimation/TitanAE'' (Cancelled, [[Main/KeepCirculatingTheTapes though there exists a demo disc of it]])

* ''[[Film/BadBoysII Bad Boys]]: Miami Takedown'' (The only [[Main/RatedMForManly mature rated]] game released under the family-friendly Blitz banner)

* ''Franchise/{{Bratz}} series'' (Team Banshee)

* ''Possession'' (Main/{{Vaporware}}, would have been the first game made by the Volatile Games division)

* ''Advertising/TheBurgerKing Games'' (First games made by the Blitz Arcade division, though they still use the normal Blitz logo)

* ''VideoGame/KaraokeRevolution series'' (Team Voodoo) (From ''Series/AmericanIdol'' in 2007 until the 2009 reboot; previous games were developed by Creator/{{Harmonix}})

* ''The House of the Dead: OVERKILL – [[Main/UpdatedRerelease Extended Cut]]'' (Licensed their [=BlitzTech=] engine for use in the game)

* ''[=SpongeBob=]'s Surf & Skate Roadtrip'' (Xbox 360 Kinect version; [[Main/EndOfAnAge last SpongeBob game published by THQ]])

* ''[[VideoGame/SniperEliteV2 Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 2]]'' (in development at both Blitz and Rebellion and nearly finished before they closed down and stopped the project, later released by Rebellion alone)
* ''The Typing of the Dead: OVERKILL'' (PC port of ''The House of the Dead: OVERKILL – Extended Cut''; in development at Blitz for about four months before they closed down and stopped the project, later finished by a few of their former programmers who [[Main/StartMyOwn formed their own development studio]] called Modern Dream)
* ''[=SkySaga=]: Infinite Isles'' (in development at Blitz for about six months before they closed down and stopped the project, later transferred to Radiant Worlds before being cancelled)

* BTeamSequel: A very recurrent job for them from publishers was to make sequels to established game franchises without the previous developers' involvement, like ''Frogger'', ''Pac-Man World'', ''Karaoke Revolution'' and ''Tak'' (the last two coincidentally being caused by their original devs [[Main/ScrewedByTheLawyers getting bought by another company and thus legally unable to continue the series on their own]]).

** The music in their games usually have some instance of Main/VariableMix.
** At least one segment where [[Main/UnexpectedGameplayChange the gameplay suddenly changes]], [[Main/GameplayRoulette if not constantly]].

* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Pac-Man World 3'' and ''[=SpongeBob SquarePants=]: Creature from the Krusty Krab'' are notable for being this within their respective franchises.
** ''Bad Boys: Miami Takedown'', the only [[Main/MatureRating M rated]] title ever released using the main Blitz logo.

** Even ''Dead To Rights: Retribution'' manages to be this within its franchise, [[Main/BloodierAndGorier which really is]] [[Main/UpToEleven an achievement]].

* GirlShowGhetto: Briefly discussed by The Oliver Twins during an interview where at one point they talk about the negative reviews they got for ''Barbie Horse Adventures: Wild Horse Rescue'', and they counter them by saying that most of them were written by 20-year old men who were not accepting of something that [[Main/ItsNotSupposedToWinOscars was largely aimed at little girls.]]

* LicensedGame: The bread and butter of their business alongside [[Main/BTeamSequel B-Team Sequels]].

* PropRecycling: ''[=The Fairly OddParents=]: Shadow Showdown'' is one of their few direct sequels to a game that they also previously made, ''Breakin' Da Rules'', and as such ALOT of assets were reused likely so they could just [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools focus on improving the game]] instead of wasting time making new graphics from scratch.

* SlidingScaleOfSillinessVersusSeriousness: Within their catalog and not counting the mature games, ''Frogger 2'' and ''Tak and the Guardians of Gross'' fit the former while ''Pac-Man World 3'' and ''[=SpongeBob SquarePants=]: Creature from the Krusty Krab'' fit the latter when compared to the general tone of their respective franchises.
** ''[=The Fairly OddParents=]'' games may also arguably count, with ''Breakin' Da Rules'' being very silly with only a loosely connected plot while ''Shadow Showdown'' has a (slightly) more serious and focused plot that really comes together in its latter half.
* SpiritualSuccessor: ''Zapper: One Wicked Cricket!'' was intentionally made as a successor to ''Frogger 2'' after Creator/{{Konami}} took back the rights for the series which [[Main/DivorcedInstallment killed their chances of making a direct sequel to it.]]

* TroubledProduction: Most of their sequels suffered from this but ''Pac-Man World 3'' takes the cake due to it [[Main/NoBudget running out of budget]] and being rushed due to Namco's financial troubles at the time that led to them [[Creator/BandaiNamcoEntertainment being bought by Bandai shortly after]].
** When they were making ''Bad Boys: Miami Takedown'' to tie-in with the DVD release of ''Bad Boys II'', they received notes from the publisher saying that while they had acquired the rights for the movie and the characters' names, [[Main/InNameOnly they somehow didn't have the rights for the plot, the likeness of the actors, the vehicles]], or even the personal approval of the [[Creator/MichaelBay director]]. As a result they were just told to make [[Main/TheThemeParkVersion a generic action game about cops in Miami]]. Then near the end they also got the rights to the movie's theatrical poster to use as the game's box art, leading the staff to joke about the game being more based on the movie's '''poster''' then the movie itself.
** In November 2012 they were hired by Jagex to help develop a new version of ''Ace of Spades'' using the code from its original freeware version while [[Main/{{Retool}} doing various changes]] to make the game appealing to a wider audience, and were given many restrictions and a deadline of just [[ChristmasRushed 8 WEEKS]].
* VariableMix: Most levels in their platforming games have variations of its music: a normal theme for when exploring the level, a fast-paced and intense battle theme for when you come in contact with an enemy, and sometimes even a slow relaxing idle theme for when you [[Main/MundaneMadeAwesome stand around doing nothing]].
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: So many things... like a sequel to ''Glover'' that was 80% complete before getting cancelled, ''Dragon Sword 64'' and ''Possession'' being abandoned due to them not finding a publisher, a failed pitch for a ''ComicBook/SinCity'' game, early concepts for ''Tak 4'' and much more.
** There were talks of them being bought by Jagex but it didn't happen at the very last minute.

[[caption-width-right:350:''Passionate about Games'']]

* SpiritualSuccessor: ''Zapper: One Wicked Cricket!'' was intentionally made as a successor to ''Frogger 2'' after Creator/{{Konami}} took back the rights for the series which killed their chances of making a direct sequel to it.

* DenserAndWackier: ''Frogger 2'' and ''Tak and the Guardians of Gross'' are this within their respective franchises, and for context the first game in latter involves the main villain turning people into sheep...

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Zapper}} Zapper: One Wicked Cricket]]'' (Team Antics)

* SpiritualSuccessor: ''Zapper: One Wicked Cricket'' was intentionally made as a successor to ''Frogger 2'' after Creator/{{Konami}} took back the rights for the series which killed their chances of making a direct sequel to it.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Most of their early titles as Interactive Studios were just ports of pre-existing games, like ''Marko's Magical Football'' for Sega CD and ''VideoGame/JudgeDredd'' for Game Boy and Game Gear.

* KickedUpstairs: Intentionally or not, the leader of Team [=RocFISH=] was promoted to "Studio Development Director" after ''Tak and the Guardians of Gross'', making it the last game directly made by him and the team.

Blitz Games Studios is a VideoGame developing company. Its founding date is 2004 and it remains active to the present day.

!!Video games developed by this company:
* Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader: Make the Grade
* Buccaneer: The Pursuit of Infamy
* Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two (Xbox 360, UsefulNotes/PlayStation3, PC (Cancelled), Macintosh (Cancelled))
* Fantastic Pets
* Karaoke Revolution (w/Microphone)(Wii, [=PlayStation=] 3, Xbox 360)
* Kumo Lumo (iPhone/iPad, [=PlayStation=] 3 (TBA), Xbox 360 (TBA))
* Mole Control
* Sky Captain: Flying Legion Air Combat Challenge
* The Biggest Loser Challenge
* The Biggest Loser: Ultimate Workout
* Weapon of Choice (TBA)
* Yoostar 2: In The Movies ([=PlayStation=] 3, Xbox 360)
----

* Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC (Cancelled), Macintosh (Cancelled))

* Karaoke Revolution (w/Microphone)(Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
* Kumo Lumo (iPhone/iPad, PlayStation 3 (TBA), Xbox 360 (TBA))

* Yoostar 2: In The Movies (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)