Forums > MobyGames > Company splits/merges - 2017
S Olafsson (60140) on 3/13/2017 10:48 AM · edited · Permalink · Report
Mimicing Freeman's dev thread
S Olafsson (60140) on 3/13/2017 10:50 AM · Permalink · Report
All the same?
http://www.mobygames.com/company/bizarre
http://www.mobygames.com/company/bizzare
http://www.mobygames.com/company/bizarre-computer-productions
S Olafsson (60140) on 3/13/2017 3:17 PM · Permalink · Report
Bizarre is the odd one out, long name is Bizarre Developments and it is responsible for Classic Arcadia & Baby Arcadia (Bizarre for 007 seems to be a contributor typo).
S Olafsson (60140) on 3/13/2017 6:21 PM · Permalink · Report
http://www.mobygames.com/company/adventure-software
S Olafsson (60140) on 3/13/2017 6:32 PM · Permalink · Report
http://www.mobygames.com/company/blitz-games-studios-ltd
http://www.mobygames.com/company/interactive-studios-limited
S Olafsson (60140) on 3/20/2017 4:07 PM · Permalink · Report
Continuing the monologue:
While researching some Blitz games and adding some company history I realized it looks like the development studio Blitz Games was created first at this site and the parent company Blitz Games Studios Ltd. later.
The history at the former really seems to belong with the latter.
Rwolf (23137) on 3/19/2017 6:59 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
Coyote Development Ltd = Coyote Wireless + Coyote Handheld + Coyote Console + Coyote Art-work divisions.
Only the main company and Wireless division are currently listed (the latter with a wrongly assigned game, actually belonging to the Console division together with the logo.)
Either each division needs a separate entry, or they could all go together into the main company entry, with AKA:s for the divisions. (My suggestion is the latter)
Sciere (930967) on 4/2/2017 2:38 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
Done, only Coyote Development Ltd remains now. Mainly because not a single game used the aka Coyote Console and only a single one Coyote Wireless. However, divisions are usually listed separately as company entries, so this may return in the future if it is proved for a specific game.
You lean very much towards lumping everything together for the sake of convenience, while the habits generally go against a 'published by Ubisoft, developed by Ubisoft' scenario. These separate divisions, either next to each other or succeeding each other, are noteworthy to document and trump the convenience of a single company name/entry. If they are confusing to choose, consider it an incentive to research and clarify their dates and overviews further.
Sciere (930967) on 4/2/2017 2:31 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
You can't have two identical names for a single company. They are two separate company entities, either for different divisions, locations or for periods in time. Merging them would not clear up anything, so that needs to be researched.
Patrick Bregger (303232) on 4/2/2017 6:10 PM · Permalink · Report
They changed their name in November 2013.
Rwolf (23137) on 4/2/2017 6:57 PM · Permalink · Report
Good find, I could not locate the time for the owner switch, but I suspected it had to do something with this.
Also, now in 2017 Telepool took over 100% of the company, according to the news on their site, but so far no new name change was announced.
S Olafsson (60140) on 4/26/2017 6:18 PM · Permalink · Report
firefang9212 (81837) on 5/12/2017 8:17 AM · Permalink · Report
The entries for CD Projekt Czech and Computer Games Distribution should be merged as they are the same company.
S Olafsson (60140) on 5/14/2017 9:57 AM · Permalink · Report
You are probably better off submitting a correction. There is no-one acting on this thread.
Rwolf (23137) on 5/15/2017 10:58 PM · Permalink · Report
Excalibur Games & Excalibur Publishing Ltd. looks to be the same company.
http://www.mobygames.com/company/excalibur-publishing-limited
http://www.mobygames.com/company/excalibur-games
Both entries use the same company page, games and website are using the Excalibur Games as a label, and I don't see them as mentioned there as developers. The domain and presentation refers only to the Excalibur Publishing ltd. as a company.
The presentation say they published their first game in 2004, but the logo on moby says 2001 was first use?
firefang9212 (81837) on 5/20/2017 8:07 PM · Permalink · Report
Icon Games Entertainment and Super Icon are the same company. They changed their name to Super Icon in 2012.
Back Catalogue - a PDF from Super Icon's website listing all the games they worked on under their old name.
Icon Games and Super Icon on Companies House.
firefang9212 (81837) on 7/27/2017 5:57 PM · Permalink · Report
RK Games and Bearbit Studios appear to be the same developer. The name seems to have been changed to Bearbit Studios near the end of 2015 after developer Remco Kortenoever, who had been developing games by himself up until this point, bought on his brother Mario Kortenoever to help with the artwork in his games.
Bearbit Studios - the companies official website which shows both Remco and Mario.
Facebook - the Bearbit Studio Facebook page with was created in November 2015.
Google Play - Google Play store page for Smashy Road: Wanted, which originally listed RK Games as the developer, but has since been changed to Bearbit Studios.
chirinea (47507) on 8/30/2017 4:17 AM · Permalink · Report
Please, I'd like to ask for these two companies to be merged:
Company 1 was acquired by Zeebo and renamed as company 2 in June 2010 (there is history info on file). Name one should go until June 2010 and name two from June 2010 on. I can sort the games after the merging is done.
firefang9212 (81837) on 9/5/2017 9:12 PM · Permalink · Report
PQube Ltd and PQube Limited are the exact same company and should be merged.
firefang9212 (81837) on 5/10/2019 2:06 AM · Permalink · Report
Merged, Gamelife was a French/Belgium video game production company. You can see there old site here.
They seem to only be the producer for most of the games there credited in, with publishing duties handed off to companies like Deep Silver. In addition the development credits for the My Hero games are incorrect. My Hero: Doctor was developed by DreamOn Studio, and My Hero: Firefighter was developed by Mad Monkey Studio. I've amended the release infos with this information.
S Olafsson (60140) on 11/6/2017 7:37 PM · Permalink · Report
Freeman (65146) on 11/12/2017 3:27 AM · Permalink · Report
Asuka Technologies should be merged with Atlus USA - it was the original company name.
flip diving on 11/14/2017 4:34 AM · edited · Permalink · Report
[spam removed]
S Olafsson (60140) on 11/23/2017 11:36 AM · Permalink · Report
firefang9212 (81837) on 12/12/2017 6:03 PM · Permalink · Report
Merge Games Ltd. and Merge Games Limited are the same company and should be merged.
Kennyannydenny (128157) on 7/17/2018 9:51 AM · Permalink · Report
Seems this was already done by someone without posting here. Just posting this comment to let everyone know.
firefang9212 (81837) on 3/6/2018 12:41 AM · Permalink · Report
Suzhou Snail Electronic Co., Ltd. and Suzhou Snail Digital Technology Co., Ltd. are the same company and should be merged. Suzhou Snail Electronic renamed itself to Suzhou Snail Digital in 2013 based on an archive of their about page.
Kennyannydenny (128157) on 7/17/2018 9:46 AM · edited · Permalink · Report
Thanks! I've merged the companies and kept the newest name as the company name, with the other as an alternative title.
I can't add the ending date (2013) to the alternative title (the old one) as I need a starting date for that title too then. Wikipedia seems to be incorrect with their date: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snail_(company) and I cannot access their official site, it just says "forbidden".
firefang9212 (81837) on 5/24/2018 3:39 PM · Permalink · Report
Front Wing Co., Ltd. and Frontwing are the same company and should be merged.
Kennyannydenny (128157) on 7/17/2018 9:43 AM · edited · Permalink · Report
I've merged the companies, and used the name Front Wing Co., Ltd. as the correct name, as per the official site: http://en.frontwing.jp/company/
I've kept the other as alternative name, but maybe that just needs rejecting? What do you think?
Oh, and does the title of http://www.mobygames.com/company/frontwing-usa need changing? That's now simply Frontwing USA, but maybe that should be different?
firefang9212 (81837) on 5/27/2018 12:54 AM · Permalink · Report
PQube Ltd and PQube Limited need to be merged AGAIN, because checking whether a company already exists is apparently too difficult.
Kennyannydenny (128157) on 7/17/2018 9:35 AM · Permalink · Report
I've merged the two companies using the title DoubleTap Games as main one, as they seem to use that one the most on the official site: http://doubletap.games/
The little print at the bottom does say: "Double Tap Games Limited" and LLC == "Limited liability company" so the other title is probably correct too, so kept that one as an alternative title.
Please let me know if that is incorrect.
firefang9212 (81837) on 7/7/2018 1:20 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
Edit: Oops, repeat.
firefang9212 (81837) on 7/7/2018 8:21 PM · Permalink · Report
Tru Blu Entertainment Pty Ltd and Tru Blu Games are the same company and need to be merged.
Kennyannydenny (128157) on 7/17/2018 9:31 AM · edited · Permalink · Report
I've merged the two companies, keeping the Tru Blu Entertainment name as it seems that one is the one being used on the official site: https://www.trublu.com.au/
Kept the other as alternative title as that also seems to be used. Let me know if this is incorrect.
firefang9212 (81837) on 7/17/2018 3:06 AM · Permalink · Report
Recotechnology S.L. and Recotechnology S.L are the same company and need to be merged.
Kennyannydenny (128157) on 7/17/2018 9:30 AM · Permalink · Report
Thanks firefang, I've merged the two companies. Made sure the title is now Recotechnology S.L. as the other was just missing a full stop at the end.
S Olafsson (60140) on 7/28/2018 8:40 AM · Permalink · Report
Don't really understand what's going on here:
Consult Software Ltd.
Consult Computer Systems
firefang9212 (81837) on 5/9/2019 5:56 PM · Permalink · Report
These are definitely the same company (various other sources online list them by both names), so it has been merged.
firefang9212 (81837) on 7/28/2018 5:28 PM · Permalink · Report
Fox Kids Europe and Jetix Europe are the same company and should be merged. Fox Kids Europe was rebranded to Jetix Europe in January 2004. (Source 1, 2)
firefang9212 (81837) on 7/28/2018 7:11 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
Fuse Games Limited and Silverball Studios are the same company and should be merged. Based on the LinkedIn of company co-fouder Adrian Barritt, the company changed names on November 2009. (About, LinkedIn)
Edit: Silverball was incorporated as a separate company, so I will leave this be.
firefang9212 (81837) on 7/29/2018 12:29 AM · edited · Permalink · Report
Endemol UK plc and Endemol UK Limited are the same company and should be merged. The company was called as Endemol UK plc from 2002 to 2011, then was called Endemol UK Limited from 2011 to 2018, and is currently called Endemol Shine UK Limited (this is currently a pending name submission on the entry for Endemol UK Limited). (Source: Companies House)
Edit: merged.
firefang9212 (81837) on 9/4/2018 5:45 PM · Permalink · Report
Ubisoft Ukraine LLC and Ubisoft Kiev are the same developer and should be merged.
firefang9212 (81837) on 9/5/2018 12:04 AM · Permalink · Report
Playism and AGM PLAYISM are the same company and should be merged.
firefang9212 (81837) on 9/10/2018 1:52 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
Barnstorm and Barnstorm Games are the same company and should be merged.
Silverball Studios and Silverball Studios need to be merged also (don't know how the submitter missed this considering they credited both versions for Pro Pinball Ultra).
Edit: merged.
S Olafsson (60140) on 9/23/2018 6:49 PM · Permalink · Report
I have reasonable grounds to believe that these are the same company:
ASP = Advance Software Promotions
This is what put me on track:
WoS Tubaruba
CPC Power Tubaruba
Kabushi (261303) on 9/23/2018 7:12 PM · Permalink · Report
ASP Software Ltd was a label of Argus Specialist Publications, a division of the magazine publisher Argus Press: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argus_Press
The ASP credited for Tubaruba is Advance Software Ltd. though - WoS lists the wrong company.
S Olafsson (60140) on 9/23/2018 8:21 PM · Permalink · Report
Thanks Kab, that also makes sense ;)
firefang9212 (81837) on 11/8/2018 6:21 PM · Permalink · Report
EightPixelsSquare and Eight Pixels Square are the same company and should be merged.
firefang9212 (81837) on 11/15/2018 2:11 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
Magnin & Associates and Ed Magnin and Associates are the same company an should be merged. Magnin & Associates is the correct name.
Edit: merged.
firefang9212 (81837) on 11/16/2018 4:02 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
Ultra Co., Ltd. and MuuMuu Co., Ltd. are the same company and should be merged. Ultra changed their name to MuuMuu some point between the release of Jumping Flash and Jumping Flash 2. You can see a full list of the games they worked on on their official website.
Edit: merged.
firefang9212 (81837) on 11/22/2018 3:58 AM · edited · Permalink · Report
MobilityWare Inc and MobilityWare are the same company and should be merged.
Edit: merged.
firefang9212 (81837) on 11/28/2018 10:35 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
Cypron Studios and Cypronia are the same company and should be merged. Cypron Studios appears to have changed their name to Cypronia in 2010, as that is when the Cypronia website was launched, their original website was abandoned at the very end of 2009. If you look at the games section on the Cypronia website you will see that they list all the games currently credited to Cypron Studios on MobyGames.
Edit: It appears they are actually registered as separate companies. Why they abandoned Cypron Studios and refounded under the new name I don't know. For now I'll leave it be.
firefang9212 (81837) on 12/21/2018 2:14 AM · Permalink · Report
Argos Labs and Argos Labs, S.L. are the same company and should be merged.
Freeman (65146) on 1/3/2019 2:25 AM · Permalink · Report
Should Chris Gray Enterprises be merged with Gray Matter Inc.? Our overview for Gray Matter mentions Infiltrator, which is credited to CGE. Also Chris Gray, on his LI profile, simply mentions 1985 as the start of Gray Matter which makes CGE a natural predecessor.
Duc Nguyen (264) on 12/2/2020 5:19 AM · Permalink · Report
Thank you. It's merged.
Freeman (65146) on 12/2/2020 5:46 AM · Permalink · Report
I was replying in the other thread so I'll just move my response here.
I've now merged these companies. Road Raider (1987) was (c) Chris Gray Enterprises while Techno Cop (1988) was (c) Gray Matter. This seems to imply that the name change happened some time between '87-88. However, the packaging for Captain Planet (1991) is (c) Chris Gray Enterprises. This seems to be a one-off, though, as both Mad Max & Dirty Harry, two other NES games from 1990, are released under Gray Matter.
Freeman (65146) on 1/7/2019 4:06 AM · Permalink · Report
Suntech should be merged with SunTech Company Limited. The former has the same homepage and no games associated with it.
firefang9212 (81837) on 1/8/2019 6:32 PM · Permalink · Report
Dixons and Dixon's are the same company (know simply as "Dixons Ltd." at the time of release of the games credited) and should be merged. They are a former UK electronics retailer. (Companies House | Wiki)
firefang9212 (81837) on 1/13/2019 2:30 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
Cellco Partnership and Verizon Wireless are the same company and should be merged. Cellco Partnership is Verizon Wireless' official name, as the company was a joint venture between Verizon and Vodafone. (Source)
Edit: merged
Freeman (65146) on 3/14/2019 7:20 PM · Permalink · Report
Should Shadowmasters Design be merged with MicroProse Chapel Hill? ShadowMasters being the predecessor to the Chapel Hill studio came up in this interview with Dave Ellis who was at the studio and 'creative supervisor of the entire X-COM series'.
As an aside, I don't know whether 'Shadowmasters', as we currently have it, or ShadowMasters, as seen here, is the proper capitalization. The one credited title used all caps so it isn't much help.
Plok (219272) on 5/11/2019 1:30 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
Activision-Blizzard France SAS (formerly Cendant Software)
Same modus operandi, same country of location.
firefang9212 (81837) on 5/11/2019 6:06 PM · Permalink · Report
Merged.
Deleted (13944) on 7/25/2019 12:48 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
At the moment we have just "Nintendo EAD". However, (before Nintendo EAD was merged into Nintendo EPD) there was a Nintendo EAD Kyoto division and a Nintendo EAD Tokyo division. The Tokyo division consisted of 3 development teams (Team 1. Team 2 and Team 3) whilst the Kyoto division consisted of 5 development teams (Team 1, Team 2 etc).
So, would it be worth splitting Nintendo EAD into Nintendo EAD Kyoto and Nintendo EAD Tokyo? Or should it be split into each individual development team? I personally don't think it should stay as it is currently is as it isn't exactly accurate to list them all as one developer.
firefang9212 (81837) on 10/29/2019 8:23 PM · Permalink · Report
The company's record on Maryland Business Express lists it as "Micro Users Software Exchange Inc." established August 1st 1978 and forfeited October 7th 1987, they are also listed as such in their trademark filing for "MUSE". Its filing history suggests the company never changed its name at any point, so both "Muse Software" and "Muse Co." are likely just shortened names which the company commonly used. As far as MobyGames' standards are concerned, "Micro Users Software Exchange Inc." should be the only name tied to that company entry.
Havoc Crow (29904) on 12/11/2019 2:00 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
Our entry for Blue Valley Software seems to confuse two companies:
-
a development firm called "Blue Valley Software" (based in the U.S.) which released a game back in 1993
-
a group called "Blue Valley", which is credited with creating music for a number of titles developed between 1998 and 2005 by the German company BWM Software GmbH
A split seems necessary...
EDIT: Oh right, I can just sent a correction. Forgot I could do that :)
EDIT: This is now done!
Freeman (65146) on 1/13/2020 2:42 AM · edited · Permalink · Report
We have separate pages for ASC Games & American Softworks Corporation. Were these actually separate companies or was ASC Games just the publishing label? eg. This game has the ASC Games logo on the packaing while the game is (c) to American Softworks Corporation. On Wiki, they both re-direct to the same page.
firefang9212 (81837) on 1/14/2020 1:05 AM · Permalink · Report
These were not separate companies, ASC Games was a trademark of American Softworks Corporation as indicated by the packaging you linked and by the USPTO. I have merged the two together.
Infernos (44409) on 2/17/2020 11:53 AM · Permalink · Report
Softvision Co., Ltd. and Soft Vision International Co., Ltd. Aren't these the same company?
Freeman (65146) on 2/18/2020 6:23 AM · Permalink · Report
I went through the titles credited to Soft Vision International Co., Ltd. and the only one with that company name on the packaging is World Cup Golf: Hyatt Dorado Beach (in both English & Japanese). The four other titles just have 株式会社ソフトビジョン (Softvision Co., Ltd.) listed and are (c) Soft Vision. It's hard to say more than that since there seems to be very little information about them out there (at least in English).
Deleted (13944) on 3/1/2020 5:27 PM · Permalink · Report
I just realised, we have a company called "NOA Product Testing" - is this actually needed as a company? "NOA" is Nintendo of America (it's own separate company) and the product testing team are just a department inside of that company, not an actual company itself.
And if we do need this as its own company, should the same be done for NOE Quality Assurance? For example, Smash Bros Ultimate credits: https://www.mobygames.com/game/switch/super-smash-bros-ultimate/credits
Foxhack (32099) on 3/1/2020 7:34 PM · Permalink · Report
[Q --start Thomas Dowding wrote--]I just realised, we have a company called "NOA Product Testing" - is this actually needed as a company? "NOA" is Nintendo of America (it's own separate company) and the product testing team are just a department inside of that company, not an actual company itself.
And if we do need this as its own company, should the same be done for NOE Quality Assurance? For example, Smash Bros Ultimate credits: https://www.mobygames.com/game/switch/super-smash-bros-ultimate/credits [/Q --end Thomas Dowding wrote--]I would say yes, keep the company. Seems they worked on Bravely Second: End Layer (Squeenix) so they might be farmed out to some companies on a needed basis.
Freeman (65146) on 3/1/2020 10:47 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
I disagree - they're not a 'company'; they're the internal QA division at NoA. The reason why they're credited on Bravely Second: End Layer is because Nintendo published the game worldwide (outside of Japan). See the packaging here.
Edit: Just to be clear, I agree with Thomas that they shouldn't be listed as a separate company. It should be assumed that they will be involved in any game where NoA has publishing duties.
firefang9212 (81837) on 3/3/2020 6:49 PM · Permalink · Report
Ditto to this. Even if they were credited with testing for a game they didn't publish, the main NoA entry should just be given the testing credit instead.
Tracy Poff (2095) on 3/5/2020 7:23 PM · Permalink · Report
I don't think it's necessarily a problem to credit internal groups--we have e.g. Nintendo EAD, and the standards support crediting internal groups whenever they are credited in-game, etc.
Freeman (65146) on 3/7/2020 7:52 PM · Permalink · Report
I suppose the difference here is that there are multiple internal development teams at Nintendo, but only the one product testing group. So, while there might be interest to know which team worked on a NCL title, every title published by NoA will be tested by NOA Product Testing. It would be like if we had a separate company for Capcom's Consumer Games Sales Department.
Deleted (13944) on 3/9/2020 10:32 AM · edited · Permalink · Report
I fully agree with this. Different development teams inside of Nintendo are responsible for developing different titles, and this would be of interest to the user.
NOA Product Testing, on the other hand, is one team fully responsible for testing every single NOA-published game. If a game is published by NOA it can be assumed that NOA Product Testing were involved.
There isn't a need to overcomplicate with an additional company called NOA Product Testing, especially considering that sometimes these companies don't even get added to release info, giving the impression that they weren't involved in some games. Just recently I've went through a large number of Nintendo games, checked their credits and then edited the release info to add such companies. In the case of Breath of the Wild, there was a LOT missing.
Rik Hideto (473451) on 3/9/2020 10:17 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
I believe the NOA Product Testing page is on file since ages ago...
And only very few contributors are interested in adding companies to the release info. Surely there are more company freaks out there, it's just that they don't have the tools or "privileges" to promptly add them.
Foxhack (32099) on 3/11/2020 3:02 AM · edited · Permalink · Report
[Q --start リカルド・フィリペ wrote--]I believe the NOA Product Testing page is on file since ages ago...
And only very few contributors are interested in adding companies to the release info. Surely there are more company freaks out there, it's just that they don't have the tools or "privileges" to promptly add them. [/Q --end リカルド・フィリペ wrote--]That's not the only problem; a lot of these companies are only listed in the end credits, and not anywhere else, so most folks who add games never realize they're credited.
And I add companies whenever I can. I don't bother with corrections if I say, submit the credits at the same time, I just go ahead and edit games to add them.
BillBull (3) on 4/10/2020 2:00 AM · edited · Permalink · Report
The game Blind Justice ( https://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/blind-justice ) is published by R.A.W. Entertainment, Inc. ( https://www.mobygames.com/company/raw-entertainment-inc ), but when you click the link it doesn't list any other games published by them. However, there's a 2nd page for a RAW Entertainment ( https://www.mobygames.com/company/raw-entertainment-inc_ ) that does list their other releases, but not Blind Justice.
These two RAW Entertainment pages should be merged together, and Blind Justice added to their list of games published. Below is a link to a video of the game Blind Justice booting to the title screen, with the publisher logo: https://youtu.be/VE2WoFfz2hs
tcooke182 (5922) on 5/10/2020 1:17 PM · Permalink · Report
I believe Sigma Enterprise https://www.mobygames.com/company/sigma-enterprise-inc should have been Sigma Enterprises https://www.mobygames.com/company/sigma-enterprises-inc
Freeman (65146) on 5/14/2020 3:09 AM · Permalink · Report
Thanks. 'Sigma Enterprise' was used on Arcade-history's page for R2D Tank. But the flyer on file credits シグマ商事株式会社, which is the JP spelling for Sigma Enterprises.
This flyer also has 'under license from Sigma Enterprises, Inc.'
S Olafsson (60140) on 5/19/2020 10:13 AM · Permalink · Report
Are those really separate entities
https://www.mobygames.com/company/mastertronic-games-ltd
https://www.mobygames.com/company/sold-out-sales-and-marketing-limited
Patrick Bregger (303232) on 5/21/2020 9:02 AM · Permalink · Report
Yes
mocagh.org (1850) on 5/21/2020 12:44 PM · Permalink · Report
In that case, the entries need cleaning up. I did the really easy ones. (It is way to easy to confuse the two during entry).
Patrick Bregger (303232) on 5/21/2020 10:30 PM · Permalink · Report
I'm not really happy with the old Sold Out company entry, though. We usually list publishing labels separately and therefore the old company should, in my opinion, just be filed as Sold Out Software.
S Olafsson (60140) on 6/5/2020 2:20 PM · Permalink · Report
Hi, Arcade1Up is a brand/label of the parent company Tastemakers LLC that make the Arcade1Up scale arcade cabinets/dedicated consoles.
Who should be the publisher? Currently the site uses (Moby) Tastemakers, LLC
Whatever is decided, I submitted an incorrectly named (Moby) Arcade1 Up (notice the space in the name).
This needs to be either renamed, merged or deleted,
Lampbane (22152) on 8/1/2020 3:27 AM · edited · Permalink · Report
With the conclusion of Homestuck, it appears that What Pumpkin Studios changed its name to What Pumpkin Games:
https://www.mobygames.com/company/what-pumpkin-studios
https://www.mobygames.com/company/what-pumpkin-games-inc
The official site lumps everything together: http://whatpumpkin.com/
The fan wiki also puts them on the same page:
https://mspaintadventures.fandom.com/wiki/What_Pumpkin_Studios
firefang9212 (81837) on 8/28/2020 1:49 PM · Permalink · Report
As far as I can tell, What Pumpkin Studios, LLC and What Pumplin Games, Inc. are separate entities (at least on paper) which are both currently in operation.
Cantillon (78544) on 8/30/2020 4:21 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
Phosphor Studios and Phosphor Games are the same company. Here it says Copyright 2011 Phosphor Games, LLC at the bottom. Here it says Copyright 2017 Phosphor Studios.
Duc Nguyen (264) on 11/8/2020 7:24 AM · Permalink · Report
Should Free Radical Software and Incredible Technologies be merged?
Were they really the same company? I believe I verified it on David Thiel's C64 interview and Rock-Ola's interview with the artists that it turns out that FRS is the old name for IT, and Championship Wrestling is made by the same team as on Incredible Technologies' games.
firefang9212 (81837) on 12/3/2020 4:55 PM · Permalink · Report
Merged
Duc Nguyen (264) on 12/2/2020 5:17 AM · edited · Permalink · Report
From VGMPF's Dark Technologies page (http://www.vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php/Dark_Technologies) What do programmers Richard Naylor and Stephen Hey and artist Paul J. McKee have in common? So they are Enigma Variations, Dark Technologies, Phoenix Interactive Entertainment, G3 Interactive and Spellbound Interactive, so they are nearly identical via employment.
Imagitec Design Ltd., Imagitec Design Inc. and DreamWeavers Ltd. (The company is the same)
Imagineering, Inc. and Absolute Entertainment, Inc. (The company is the same)
Motivetime Ltd. and Elite Systems Ltd. (Quite sure the same company)
Tradewest, Inc. and Midway Home Entertainment, Inc. (It is possible that it was the same company)
RSP, Inc. and RWS, Inc. (Most likely the same company, since it was based in Tuscon since 1991)
firefang9212 (81837) on 12/3/2020 6:37 PM · Permalink · Report
So a lot of these are not the same, keep in mind that a companies subsidiaries should have separate entries on the site, not be merged together.
Enigma Variations, G3 Interactive, and Spellbound Interactive are all separate companies. Dark Technologies and Phoenix COULD be the same, but he mentions both of them separately in this interview and he is the only person I can find involved in both of them so I think they should remain separate until more conclusion info is found.
Imagitec Design Inc. is the US division of the UK based Imagitec Design Ltd. A company operating a office in a different country to its HQ has to register that entity as a individual company in said country. There is also no record of Imagitec ever changing its name to Dreamweavers (in fact I can't find any record of Dreamweavers existance period) an article from 1997 in Sega Saturn Magazine talking about them being acquired by Gremlin still refers to them as Imagitec at that time.
Imagineering is a subsidiary of Absolute, subsidiaries are not merged with their parent companies on the site.
Elite Systems and Motivetime are separate companies.
RWS was founded as an offshoot of RSP, they are separate companies.
Duc Nguyen (264) on 12/3/2020 6:06 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
Merge Visionware Inc. and Visual Concepts Entertainment Inc.
It is believed that Visionware is the old name for Visual Concepts, as shown on the article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_of_Sodan#Unreleased_Apple_IIGS_port
firefang9212 (81837) on 12/3/2020 7:18 PM · Permalink · Report
The link between these two appears to be based solely on Scott Patterson being credited in an unreleased Sword of Sodan port. Visionware appears to have been founded a year prior to Visual Concepts being founded, so I'm pretty sure they're not the same.
Foxhack (32099) on 1/20/2021 10:39 PM · Permalink · Report
Associated Production Music - https://www.mobygames.com/company/associated-production-music-llc
APM Music - https://www.mobygames.com/company/apm-music-llc
Are actually Associated Product Music, LLC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APM_Music
They're the same company, they provide licensed stock music for games, movies and TV shows. Could someone please merge these?
Rwolf (23137) on 1/20/2021 11:11 PM · Permalink · Report
Done, the merged entry is: https://www.mobygames.com/company/associated-production-music-llc_
Rwolf (23137) on 1/21/2021 12:08 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
Hmm...it still seems that the merge result was duplicated, and two entries remain for the same company, even though I double checked everything when I merged them:
https://www.mobygames.com/company/associated-production-music-llc_
https://www.mobygames.com/company/apm-music-llc
Someone smarter than me might explain what happened?
But I don't see any missing data from the two originals, so I hope what you mean about 'retroactively adding' is that you need to add new release information to existing games?
Foxhack (32099) on 1/21/2021 7:03 PM · Permalink · Report
There seems to be some new code on the site that redirects merged profiles to the new one; I first noticed that when going through the profile dupe / split thread last month. I wonder if it's being applied to companies now, too?
As for this,
But I don't see any missing data from the two originals, so I hope what you mean about 'retroactively adding' is that you need to add new release information to existing games?
Yes. I'm going through Google searching for hits for APM Music and adding them to release infos for games on the site, for the platforms where I can prove they were credited. Would that cause issues like that? I hope not. :(
Deleted (15789) on 2/10/2021 2:24 PM · Permalink · Report
Please merge Odencat and Odencat Inc.
I created the latter when I was adding an entry for Mousebusters, however, Ms. Tea beat me to it so I abandoned my submission but the company still remains. :)
Foxhack (32099) on 2/12/2021 8:57 PM · Permalink · Report
Eclipse Entertainment (has a logo) and Eclipse Entertainment (has more games.)
Not sure why we have two companies...
Deleted (15789) on 3/16/2021 9:28 PM · Permalink · Report
According to GDRI, Argent was Agenda's brand name for games, shouldn't we merge the two companies?
Koterminus (255596) on 5/14/2021 12:02 PM · Permalink · Report
The Norn / Miel entry should probably be split/merged into our separate entries for Norn and Miel. According to the Japanese Wikipedia, Norn and Miel are both publishing brands of ZOO Corporation. I'm not sure why we have an entry for both brands combined when we already have separate entries for each.
Rik Hideto (473451) on 5/14/2021 1:17 PM · Permalink · Report
Yeah, lights out party already submitted a bunch of corrections. The page will be deleted soon, no worries.
Koterminus (255596) on 6/22/2021 6:58 PM · Permalink · Report
U・Me Soft, U･Me Soft, and UMe SOFT all appear to be the same company. Here's their VNDb page.
Koterminus (255596) on 7/5/2021 7:04 AM · Permalink · Report
1C Online Games and 1C Online Games Ltd. are probably the same company.
Duc Nguyen (264) on 8/7/2021 10:29 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
As you can see the old Griptonite website (https://web.archive.org/web/20041030021047/http://www.griptonite.com/what.asp) has a list of games the games had worked on:
All Star Baseball 2001 (https://www.mobygames.com/game/all-star-baseball-2001_)
Caterpillar Construction Zone (https://www.mobygames.com/game/caterpillar-construction-zone)
Racin' Ratz (https://www.mobygames.com/game/racin-ratz)
Heroes of Might and Magic (https://www.mobygames.com/game/gameboy-color/heroes-of-might-and-magic_)
Heroes of Might and Magic II (https://www.mobygames.com/game/heroes-of-might-and-magic-ii)
Caterpillar Construction Zone should belong to Realtime Associates Seattle Division, as most of the team worked there, living in the Seattle area.
Cantillon (78544) on 11/5/2021 4:29 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
Do we need Kalypso Media Group GmbH? Apparently that is the holding above Kalypso Media GmbH. Don't know if they really should be publisher?
//edit And then there is another Kalypso Media Group as well.
Cantillon (78544) on 11/13/2021 12:49 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
Xing Interactive C.V. and Xing Interactive B.V. need to be merged.
sources: different seats info 2006 (archived) | different seats info 2008 (archived) | but the BV seems to have been founded in 2006 already
lights out party (85370) on 3/6/2022 9:43 PM · Permalink · Report
As far as I cal tell that is really only accepted in exception cases, basically when a person is presented as a company. This does not really seem to be one of those cases to me.
Cantillon (78544) on 4/1/2022 11:54 AM · edited · Permalink · Report
It seems Snarf Blat Software was just a trademark of Vipah Interactive, Inc. used for their parody games (source). The devs on games we credit Snarf Blat Software for, specify on their LinkedIn they worked for Vipah.
The Snarf Blat website is still online and was updated not too long ago.
How do we handle this?
Rwolf (23137) on 6/23/2022 2:01 PM · Permalink · Report
I found a duplicate or remains of a merge here:
https://www.mobygames.com/company/bitmango-inc
https://www.mobygames.com/company/bitmango-corporation
The latter is the main entry, but should the 'bitmango inc' name be used as an AKA or just removed?
Patrick Bregger (303232) on 8/13/2022 11:44 AM · Permalink · Report
I couldn't find any evidence for an Inc actually existing except that the company used to use it as their username on mobile stores. I removed it.
Cantillon (78544) on 10/4/2022 1:27 PM · Permalink · Report
Are these the same companies?
S Olafsson (60140) on 12/6/2022 8:00 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
How to handle this conglomerate?
There are currently two entries in the DB
EMAP Images and EMAP Business and Computer Publications
They could probably be considered one and the same, right?
Unless all the variations are considered separate entities. Then things become really messy, see:
Somehow BBC Frontline Ltd. (also in the DB) is part of it also. (But EMAP Consumer Media Ltd should probably be kept as is)
EDIT:
Tower Publishing has probably been incorrectly added to the DB, since it only relates to subscriptions and back issues. The correct publisher for these entries is "EMAP Images".
I propose those 3 to be merged, with "EMAP Images" as the name from May '91 and onwards (I can submit other aliases)
EMAP Images
EMAP Business and Computer Publications
Tower Publishing
S Olafsson (60140) on 12/12/2022 10:22 PM · Permalink · Report
Corrections submitted
Hipolito Pichardo (43257) on 5/7/2023 7:29 PM · Permalink · Report
Believe these companies might be able to be merged:
Amblin' Entertainment, Inc. - https://www.mobygames.com/company/37697/amblin-entertainment-inc/
into
Amblin Entertainment, Inc. - https://www.mobygames.com/company/53395/amblin-entertainment-inc/
I believe " Amblin' " with the apostrophe is a typo. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amblin_Entertainment