Avalon Interactive Group, Ltd. , formerly known as Virgin Interactive Entertainment , was a British video game distributor based within Europe that formerly traded as the video game publishing and distributing division of British conglomerate the Virgin Group .
120-514: During the company's time under the Virgin brand, they had developed and published games for major platforms and employed developers , including Westwood Studios co-founder Brett Sperry and Earthworm Jim creators David Perry and Doug TenNapel . Others include video game composer Tommy Tallarico and animators Bill Kroyer and Andy Luckey . Formed as Virgin Games in 1983, and built around
240-593: A database , Voice over IP , or add-in interface software; this is also known as middleware . Examples of this include SpeedTree and Havoc . Independents are software developers which are not owned by (or dependent on) a single publisher. Some of these developers self-publish their games, relying on the Internet and word of mouth for publicity. Without the large marketing budgets of mainstream publishers, their products may receive less recognition than those of larger publishers such as Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo. With
360-712: A 20-per cent stake in Malaysia's AirAsia X . On 13 October 2007, Branson's Virgin Group sought to add Northern Rock to its empire after submitting an offer that would result in Branson personally owning 30% of the company and changing the company's name from Northern Rock to Virgin Money . The Daily Mail ran a campaign against his bid; Vince Cable , financial spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats , suggested in
480-461: A PC budget range titled "Just2Play" with Dutch publisher Xing Interactive for the UK and Benelux territories. The range was aimed to be similar to Avalon's White Label range, but with the addition of titles from Xing Interactive. In January 2005, Titus Interactive filed for bankruptcy with €33 million ($ 43.8 million) debt. Avalon France and all of Titus' French operations were closed down immediately, while
600-472: A chain of health care clinics that would offer conventional medical care alongside homeopathic and complementary therapies, a development that was welcomed by Ben Bradshaw , the UK's health minister. Plans where GPs could be paid for referring National Health Service (NHS) patients to private Virgin services were abandoned in June 2008. The BMA warned the plan would "damage clinical objectivity", there would be
720-510: A cooperative. His business sold records for considerably less than the "High Street" outlets, especially the chain WHSmith . Branson once said, "There is no point in starting your own business unless you do it out of a sense of frustration." At the time, many products were sold under restrictive marketing agreements that limited discounting, despite efforts in the 1950s and 1960s to limit retail price maintenance . Branson eventually started
840-452: A culture of "toxic geek masculinity" within the workplace. In addition, the conditions behind crunch time are far more discriminating towards women as this requires them to commit time exclusively to the company or to more personal activities like raising a family. These factors established conditions within some larger development studios where female developers have found themselves discriminated in workplace hiring and promotion, as well as
960-581: A financial incentive for GPs to push patients toward the Virgin services at the centre. Plans to take over an NHS Practice in Swindon were abandoned in late September 2008. In February 2009, Branson's Virgin organization was reported as bidding to buy the former Honda Formula One team. Branson later stated an interest in Formula One , but claimed that, before the Virgin brand became involved with Honda or any other team, Formula One would have to develop
1080-571: A first-party company. As a balance to not being able to release their game for other platforms, second-party developers are usually offered higher royalty rates than third-party developers. These studios may have exclusive publishing agreements (or other business relationships) with the platform holder, but maintain independence so that upon completion or termination of their contracts, they are able to continue developing games for other publishers if they choose to. For example, while HAL Laboratory initially began developing games on personal computers like
1200-537: A five-year contract for provision of a range of health services which had previously been under the aegis of NHS Surrey, the local primary care trust. By March 2015, Virgin Care was in charge of more than 230 services nationwide. In July 2012, Branson announced plans to build an orbital space launch system , designated LauncherOne . Four commercial customers have already contracted for launches and two companies are developing standardised satellite buses optimised to
1320-410: A fixed period and generally work similar hours as full-time staff members, assisting across all areas of video game development, but as contractors, do not get any benefits such as paid time-off or health care from the employer; they also are typically not credited on games that they work on for this reason. The practice itself is legal and common in other engineering and technology areas, and generally it
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#17327936111031440-519: A fully-owned subsidiary of Titus Interactive, S.A. The deal was done to simplify their publishing and distribution sides, with Virgin continuing to be Titus and Interplay's exclusive European distributor. On June 11, 2002, Titus announced they had accepted a management buyout of Virgin's Spanish operations; Virgin Interactive España SA, by Virgin's former CEO Tim Chaney along with former Spanish president and founder Paco Encinas. The deal
1560-403: A game on schedule. The complexity of workflow, reliance on third-party deliverables, and the intangibles of artistic and aesthetic demands in video game creation create difficulty in predicting milestones. The use of crunch time is also seen to be exploitative of the younger male-dominated workforce in video games, who have not had the time to establish a family and who were eager to advance within
1680-406: A game's profits. Current examples of first-party studios include PlayStation Studios for Sony, and Xbox Game Studios for Microsoft Gaming . Second-party developer is a colloquial term often used by gaming enthusiasts and media to describe game studios that take development contracts from platform holders and develop games exclusive to that platform, i.e. a non-owned developer making games for
1800-688: A global audience. The company was founded with author Deepak Chopra , filmmaker Shekhar Kapur , and entrepreneurs Sharad Devarajan and Gotham Chopra . Branson also launched the Virgin Health Bank on 1 February 2007, offering parents-to-be the opportunity to store their baby's umbilical cord blood stem cells in private and public stem-cell banks. In June 2006, a tip-off from Virgin Atlantic led both UK and US competition authorities to investigate price-fixing attempts between Virgin Atlantic and British Airways. In August 2007, British Airways
1920-430: A growing trend throughout the 1990s of media companies, movie studios and telecom firms investing in video game makers to create new forms of entertainment, VIE became part of the entertainment industry after being acquired by media companies Blockbuster and Viacom , who were attracted by its multimedia and CD-ROM -based software development. Being located in close proximity to the thirty-mile zone and having access to
2040-960: A large business with employee responsibilities split between individual disciplines, such as programmers , designers , artists , etc. Most game development companies have video game publisher financial and usually marketing support. Self-funded developers are known as independent or indie developers and usually make indie games . A developer may specialize in specific game engines or specific video game consoles , or may develop for several systems (including personal computers and mobile devices ). Some focus on porting games from one system to another, or translating games from one language to another. Less commonly, some do software development work in addition to games. Most video game publishers maintain development studios (such as Electronic Arts 's EA Canada , Square Enix 's studios, Activision 's Radical Entertainment , Nintendo EPD and Sony's Polyphony Digital and Naughty Dog ). However, since publishing
2160-536: A magazine named Student in 1966 with Nik Powell . The first issue of Student appeared in January 1968, and a year later, Branson's net worth was estimated at £50,000. The office for the venture was situated in the crypt of St. John's Church, off Bayswater Road , in London. Though not initially as successful as he hoped, the magazine later became a vital component of the mail-order record business Branson started from
2280-443: A more economically efficient and environmentally responsible image. At the start of the 2009 Formula One season on 28 March, it was announced that Virgin would be sponsoring the new Brawn GP team, with discussions also under way about introducing a less "dirty" fuel in the medium term. After the end of the season and the subsequent purchase of Brawn GP by Mercedes-Benz , Branson invested in an 80% buyout of Manor Grand Prix, with
2400-601: A pessenger onboard Virgin Galactic Unity 22 at the edge of space , a suborbital test flight for his spaceflight company Virgin Galactic. The mission lasted approximately one hour, reaching a peak altitude of 53.5 miles (86.1 km). At 70, Branson became the third oldest person to fly to space. Richard Charles Nicholas Branson was born on 18 July 1950 in Blackheath , Royal Borough of Greenwich , London,
2520-437: A position in a medium to large video game company. An experienced game-development employee, depending on their expertise and experience, averaged roughly $ 73,000 in 2007. Indie game developers may only earn between $ 10,000 and $ 50,000 a year depending on how financially successful their titles are. In addition to being part of the software industry, game development is also within the entertainment industry; most sectors of
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#17327936111032640-520: A record shop in Oxford Street in London . In 1971, he was questioned in connection with the selling of records declared export stock. The matter was never brought before a court because Branson agreed to repay any unpaid purchase tax of 33% and a £70,000 fine. His parents re-mortgaged the family home to help pay the settlement. In 1972, using money earned from his record store, Branson launched
2760-649: A roundtable discussion with the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), the professional association for developers. Statements made by the IGDA's current executive director Jen MacLean relating to IGDA's activities had been seen by as anti-union, and Game Workers Unite desired to start a conversation to lay out the need for developers to unionize. In the wake of the sudden near-closure of Telltale Games in September 2018,
2880-653: A similar partnership. In late 1993, Virgin Interactive spun off a new company, Virgin Sound and Vision, to focus exclusively on CD-based children's and family entertainment. As more media companies became interested in interactive entertainment, Blockbuster Entertainment , then the world's largest video-store chain, acquired 20 percent of Virgin Interactive Entertainment in January 1994. It acquired 75 percent of VIE's stock later in 1994 and purchased
3000-407: A single publisher; one canceled game may devastate a small developer. Because of this, many small development companies are short-lived. A common exit strategy for a successful video game developer is to sell the company to a publisher, becoming an in-house developer. In-house development teams tend to have more freedom in game design and content than third-party developers. One reason is that since
3120-464: A small development team called the Gang of Five, the company grew significantly after purchasing budget label Mastertronic in 1987. As Virgin's video game division grew into a multimedia powerhouse, it crossed over to other industries from toys to film to education. To highlight its focus beyond video games and on multimedia, the publisher was renamed Virgin Interactive Entertainment in 1993. As result of
3240-532: A stewardess. Fernandes escaped as the bet winner, as Lotus Racing ended tenth in the championship, while Virgin Racing ended twelfth and last. Branson kept his word after losing the bet, as he served his duty as a stewardess on an Air Asia flight between Perth and Kuala Lumpur on 12 May 2013. In 2010, Branson became patron of the UK's Gordon Bennett 2010 gas balloon race, which has 16 hydrogen balloons flying across Europe. In April 2012, Virgin Care commenced
3360-403: A strong STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) background for women at the secondary education level, but there are issues with tertiary education such as at colleges and universities, where game development programs tend to reflect the male-dominated demographics of the industry, a factor that may lead women with strong STEM backgrounds to choose other career goals. There
3480-646: A unique case where nearly all parts of its labor force, including white-collar jobs such as video game development, may engage with labor unions under the Employment Protection Act often through collective bargaining agreements. Developer DICE had reached its union agreements in 2004. Paradox Interactive became one of the first major publishers to support unionization efforts in June 2020 with its own agreements to cover its Swedish employees within two labor unions Unionen and SACO . In Australia, video game developers could join other unions, but
3600-678: A variation of the Virgin Galactic livery to his personal business jet, the Dassault Falcon 900EX "Galactic Girl" (G-GALX). He was ninth in The Sunday Times Rich List 2006 of the wealthiest people or families in the UK, worth slightly more than £3 billion. Branson wrote in his autobiography of the decision to start an airline. My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them ... from
3720-640: A year earlier to build on its success at home, though growth exhausted its resources after expanding in Europe and acquiring publisher Melbourne House . Richard Branson stepped in and offered to buy 45 percent of Mastertronic stake, in exchange Mastertronic joined the Virgin Group. The subsequent merger created Virgin Mastertronic Ltd. in 1988 with Alper as its president which enabled Virgin to expand its business reach overseas. Mastertronic had been
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3840-482: Is also a significant gap in racial minorities within the video game industry; a 2019 IGDA survey found only 2% of developers considered themselves to be of African descent and 7% Hispanic, while 81% were Caucasian; in contrast, 2018 estimates from the United States Census estimate the U.S. population to be 13% of African descent and 18% Hispanic. In a 2014 and 2015 survey of job positions and salaries,
3960-449: Is expected that this is meant to lead into a full-time position, or otherwise the end of the contract. But more recently, its use in the video game industry has been compared to Microsoft 's past use of " permatemp ", contract workers that were continually renewed and treated for all purposes as employees but received no benefits. While Microsoft has waned from the practice, the video game industry has adapted it more frequently. Around 10% of
4080-533: Is generally illegal, companies often target their oldest workers first during layoffs or other periods of reduction. Older developers with experience may find themselves too qualified for the types of positions that other game development companies seek given the salaries and compensations offered. Some of the larger video game developers and publishers have also engaged contract workers through agencies to help add manpower in game development in part to alleviate crunch time from employees. Contractors are brought on for
4200-468: Is manufactured by The Spaceship Company , which was founded by Branson and Rutan and is now solely owned by Virgin Galactic. In 2013, Branson said that he planned to take his two children, 31-year-old Holly and 28-year-old Sam, on a trip to outer space when they ride the SpaceShipTwo rocket plane on its first public flight, then planned for 2014. As part of his promotion of the firm, Branson has added
4320-494: Is still their primary activity they are generally described as "publishers" rather than "developers". Developers may be private as well. In the video game industry , a first-party developer is part of a company that manufactures a video game console and develops mainly for it. First-party developers may use the name of the company itself (such as Nintendo ), have a specific division name (such as Sony's Polyphony Digital ) or have been an independent studio before being acquired by
4440-474: Is usually conducted in a casual business environment, with t-shirts and sandals as common work attire. Many workers find this type of environment rewarding and pleasant professionally and personally. However, the industry also requires long working hours from its employees (sometimes to an extent seen as unsustainable). Employee burnout is not uncommon. An entry-level programmer can make, on average, over $ 66,000 annually only if they are successful in obtaining
4560-604: The AFL–CIO writing an open letter to video game developers encouraging them to unionize. In January 2020, Game Workers Unite and the Communications Workers of America established a new campaign to push for unionization of video game developers, the Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE), in January 2020. Initial efforts for CODE were aimed to determine what approach to unionization would be best suited for
4680-638: The House of Commons that Branson's criminal conviction for tax evasion might be felt by some as a good enough reason not to trust him with public money. In September 2023, Branson declared his decision against injecting additional funds into Virgin Galactic, his space travel company experiencing financial losses. He highlighted that his business empire no longer possesses extensive financial resources, indicating constraints on further investment. On 9 January 2008, Virgin Healthcare announced that it would open
4800-456: The International Game Developers Association (IGDA), are conducting increasing discussions about the problem; they are concerned that working conditions in the industry cause a significant deterioration in employees' quality of life. Some video game developers and publishers have been accused of the excessive invocation of "crunch time". "Crunch time" is the point at which the team is thought to be failing to achieve milestones needed to launch
4920-516: The MSX , they became one of the earliest second-party developers for Nintendo, developing exclusively for Nintendo's consoles starting with the Famicom, though they would self-publish their mobile games. A third-party developer may also publish games, or work for a video game publisher to develop a title. Both publisher and developer have considerable input in the game's design and content. However,
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5040-528: The Me Too movement and have tried to address the symptoms of these problems industry-wide, the video game industry has yet to have its Me Too-moment, even as late as 2021. There also tends to be pay-related discrimination against women in the industry. According to Gamasutra 's Game Developer Salary Survey 2014, women in the United States made 86 cents for every dollar men made. Game designing women had
5160-504: The Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) union doing work for video games struck several major publishers, demanding better royalty payments and provisions related to the safety of their vocal performances, when their union's standard contract was up for renewal. The voice actor strike lasted for over 300 days into 2017 before a new deal was made between SAG-AFTRA and
5280-694: The SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane designed for space tourism . In March 2000, Branson was knighted at Buckingham Palace for "services to entrepreneurship". Due to his work in retail, music, and transport, his taste for adventure, and for his humanitarian work, he has become a prominent global figure. In 2007, he was placed in the Time 100 Most Influential People in the World list. In June 2023, Forbes listed Branson's estimated net worth at US$ 3 billion. On 11 July 2021, Branson travelled as
5400-615: The Virgin Group in 1970, and as of 2016 controlled 5 companies remaining of once more than 400. Branson expressed his desire to become an entrepreneur at a young age. His first business venture, at the age of 16, was a magazine called Student . In 1970, he set up a mail-order record business. He opened a chain of record stores, Virgin Records —later known as Virgin Megastores —in 1972. Branson's Virgin brand grew rapidly during
5520-489: The video game industry . He told the Los Angeles Times : "Someone who was part of the co-creation of that world and those characters isn't getting a credit or a nickel for the work they put into it. Maybe we need unions in the video game industry to be able to protect creators." Richard Branson Sir Richard Cherles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is an English business magnate who co-founded
5640-1090: The 1980s, as he started the Virgin Atlantic airline and expanded the Virgin Records music label . In 1997, Branson founded the Virgin Rail Group to bid for passenger rail franchises during the privatisation of British Rail . The Virgin Trains brand operated the InterCity West Coast franchise from 1997 to 2019, the InterCity CrossCountry franchise from 1997 to 2007, and the InterCity East Coast franchise from 2015 to 2018. In 2004, he founded spaceflight corporation Virgin Galactic , based at Mojave Air and Space Port in California, noted for
5760-827: The Burst Studios development studio, which was renamed to Westwood Pacific by its new owners. The European division though was put out in a majority stake buyout backed by Mark Dyne, who became its chief executive officer in the same year. Tim Chaney, the former managing director was named president. On February 17, 1999, Virgin Interactive announced they had entered into a distribution agreement with Interplay Entertainment , where Interplay would distribute Virgin Interactive's titles in North America and several other territories including South America and Japan, while Virgin Interactive would exclusively distribute Interplay's titles in Europe, folding their own distribution arm in
5880-567: The Earth's climate. Branson also announced that he would be joined in the adjudication of the prize by a panel of five judges, all world authorities in their respective fields: Al Gore , Sir Crispin Tickell , Tim Flannery , James E. Hansen , and James Lovelock . In July 2007, Branson purchased his Australian home, Makepeace Island , in Noosa . In August 2007, Branson announced that he had bought
6000-572: The European market. Within the late-1990s, the North American operations were sold to Electronic Arts , while the European division later went under the hands of Interplay Entertainment and Titus Interactive . They soon transitioned exclusively as a distributor and were rebranded by Titus as Avalon Interactive in August 2003, and closed in 2005 following the former's bankruptcy. Currently,
6120-561: The Gang of Five. Early successes included Sorcery and Dan Dare . The company expanded with the acquisition of several smaller publishers, Rabbit Software , New Generation Software and Leisure Genius (publishers of the first officially licensed computer versions of Scrabble , Monopoly and Cluedo ). 1987 marked a turning point for Virgin after its acquisition of struggling distributor Mastertronic . Mastertronic had opened its North American headquarters in Irvine , California just
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#17327936111036240-446: The IGDA found that people of color were both underrepresented in senior management roles as well as underpaid in comparison to white developers. Further, because video game developers typically draw from personal experiences in building game characters, this diversity gap has led to few characters of racial minority to be featured as main characters within video games. Minority developers have also been harassed from external groups due to
6360-500: The UK branch continued to trade as Titus' non-French operations were unaffected. Avalon's UK operations were dissolved by November 2005. This category includes titles that were distributed by Virgin Interactive in European territories. Video game developer A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to
6480-731: The VIE library and intellectual properties are owned by Interplay Entertainment as a result of its acquisition of Titus. A close affiliate and successor of Spanish origin, Virgin Play , was formed in 2002 from the ashes of former Virgin Interactive's Spanish division and kept operating until it folded in 2009. Nick Alexander formed Virgin Games in 1983 after leaving Thorn EMI . It was headquartered in Portobello Road, London. The firm initially relied on submissions by freelancer developers, but set up its own in-house development team in 1984, known as
6600-464: The Virgin group was Virgin Fuels , which was set up to respond to global warming and exploit the recent spike in fuel costs by offering a revolutionary, cheaper fuel for automobiles and, in the near future, aircraft. Branson has stated that he was formerly a global warming sceptic and was influenced in his decision by a breakfast meeting with Al Gore . On 21 September 2006, Branson pledged to invest
6720-519: The Virgin label to EMI for £500 million. Branson said that he wept when the sale was completed because the record business had been the very start of the Virgin empire. He created V2 Records in 1996 to re-enter the music business, owning 5% himself. Virgin also acquired European short-haul airline Euro Belgian Airlines and renamed it Virgin Express . In 1997, Branson took what many saw as being one of his riskier business exploits by entering into
6840-535: The acquisition of Activision Blizzard , stated it supported these unionization efforts. After this acquisition, the employees of Bethesda Game Studios , part of Zenimax under Microsoft, unionized under the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in July 2024. Over 500 employees within Blizzard Entertainment 's World of Warcraft division also unionized with CWA that same month. Sweden presents
6960-572: The advent of digital distribution of inexpensive games on game consoles, it is now possible for indie game developers to forge agreements with console manufacturers for broad distribution of their games. Other indie game developers create game software for a number of video-game publishers on several gaming platforms. In recent years this model has been in decline; larger publishers, such as Electronic Arts and Activision, increasingly turn to internal studios (usually former independent developers acquired for their development needs). Video game development
7080-404: The age of sixteen. Branson has dyslexia , and had poor academic performance; on his last day at school, his headmaster, Robert Drayson , told him he would either end up in prison or become a millionaire. Branson has also talked openly about having ADHD . Branson's parents were supportive of his endeavours from an early age. His mother was an entrepreneur; one of her most successful ventures
7200-517: The chance to see our beautiful planet from such a powerful perspective." In 2014, Branson launched the "Foodpreneur" food and drink-focused start-up competition. Winners were provided with mentorship from Branson, legal support, and brand counseling. The 2014 winners included Proper Beans, Killer Tomato, Sweetpea Pantry and Sweet Virtues. In 2015, the competition expanded to the Virgin StartUp's Foodpreneur Festival. The 2015 winners were given
7320-431: The closest equity, making 96 cents for every dollar men made in the same job, while audio professional women had the largest gap, making 68% of what men in the same position made. Increasing the representation of women in the video game industry required breaking a feedback loop of the apparent lack of female representation in the production of video games and in the content of video games. Efforts have been made to provide
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#17327936111037440-416: The console manufacturer (such as Rare or Naughty Dog ). Whether by purchasing an independent studio or by founding a new team, the acquisition of a first-party developer involves a huge financial investment on the part of the console manufacturer, which is wasted if the developer fails to produce a hit game on time. However, using first-party developers saves the cost of having to make royalty payments on
7560-508: The console. This established the use of licensing fees as a model for third-party development that persists into the present. The licensing fee approach was further enforced by Nintendo when it decided to allow other third-party developers to make games for the Famicom console, setting a 30% licensing fee that covered game cartridge manufacturing costs and development fees. The 30% licensing fee for third-party developers has also persisted to
7680-529: The contract, Branson said he was convinced the civil servants had "got their maths wrong". In October, after an investigation into the bidding process, the deal was scrapped. The Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin announced there were "significant technical flaws" in the process and mistakes had been made by transport staff. Virgin Rail continued to operate the West Coast line until 7 December 2019, when it
7800-501: The design of LauncherOne, in expectation of business opportunities created by the new smallsat launcher. In August 2012, when re-tendered the InterCity West Coast franchise was awarded to FirstGroup after a competitive tender process overseen by the Department for Transport . Branson had expressed his concerns about the tender process and questioned the validity of the business plan submitted by FirstGroup. When Virgin Rail lost
7920-444: The developer if the game is not meeting expectations. When each milestone is completed (and accepted), the publisher pays the developer an advance on royalties . Successful developers may maintain several teams working on different games for different publishers. Generally, however, third-party developers tend to be small, close-knit teams. Third-party game development is a volatile sector, since small developers may depend on income from
8040-417: The developers are the publisher's employees, their interests align with those of the publisher; the publisher may spend less effort ensuring that the developer's decisions do not enrich the developer at the publisher's expense. Activision in 1979 became the first third-party video game developer. When four Atari, Inc. programmers left the company following its sale to Warner Communications , partially over
8160-546: The distributor of the Master System in the United Kingdom and is credited with introducing Sega to the European market, where they expanded rapidly. The Mastertronic acquisition enabled Virgin to compete with Nintendo in the growing home console market. To gain a foothold in its newly established market, Sega Enterprises, Ltd. acquired Mastertronic in 1991 while Virgin retained a small publishing unit, which
8280-467: The entertainment industry (such as films and television ) require long working hours and dedication from their employees, such as willingness to relocate and/or required to develop games that do not appeal to their personal taste. The creative rewards of work in the entertainment business attracts labor to the industry, creating a competitive labor market that demands a high level of commitment and performance from employees. Industry communities, such as
8400-572: The first video game-specific union, Game Workers Unite Australia, was formed in December 2021 under Professionals Australia to become active in 2022. In Canada, in a historic move, video game workers in Edmonton unanimously voted to unionize for the first time in June 2022. In January 2023, after not being credited in The Last of Us HBO adaptation, Bruce Straley called for unionization of
8520-401: The five largest U.S.-based video game companies. In 1995, VIE signed a deal with Capcom to publish its titles in Europe, supplanting Acclaim Entertainment as Capcom's designated European distributor. VIE later published titles released by other companies, such as Hudson Soft . That year, the company expanded their distribution arm over to Spain, by forming Virgin Interactive España SA . In
8640-404: The gaming industry, while a 2017 IGDA survey found that the female demographic in game development had risen to about 20%. Taking into account that a 2017 ESA survey found 41% of video game players were female, this represented a significant gender gap in game development. The male-dominated industry, most who have grown up playing video games and are part of the video game culture , can create
8760-471: The good of mankind. The Virgin Earth Challenge was to award $ 25 million to the individual or group who are able to demonstrate a commercially viable design that will result in the net removal of anthropogenic, atmospheric greenhouse gases each year for at least ten years without countervailing harmful effects. This removal must have long-term effects and contribute materially to the stability of
8880-457: The industry by working long hours. Because crunch time tends to come from a combination of corporate practices as well as peer influence, the term "crunch culture" is often used to discuss video game development settings where crunch time may be seen as the norm rather than the exception. The use of crunch time as a workplace standard gained attention first in 2004, when Erin Hoffman exposed
9000-431: The lack of respect that the new management gave to programmers, they used their knowledge of how Atari VCS game cartridges were programmed to create their own games for the system, founding Activision in 1979 to sell these. Atari took legal action to try to block the sale of these games, but the companies ultimately settled, with Activision agreeing to pay a portion of their sales as a license fee to Atari for developing for
9120-512: The media content of its parent companies drew Virgin Interactive's U.S. division closer to Hollywood as it began developing sophisticated interactive games, leading to partnerships with Disney and other major studios on motion picture-based games such as The Lion King , Aladdin , RoboCop , and The Terminator , in addition to being the publisher of popular titles from other companies like Capcom 's Resident Evil series and Street Fighter Collection and id Software 's Doom II in
9240-559: The movement again called out for the industry to unionize. The movement argued that Telltale had not given any warning to its 250 employees let go, having hired additional staff as recently as a week prior, and left them without pensions or health-care options; it was further argued that the studio considered this a closure rather than layoffs, as to get around failure to notify required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 preceding layoffs. The situation
9360-448: The nature of the video game culture. The industry also is recognized to have an ageism issue, discriminating against the hiring and retention of older developers. A 2016 IGDA survey found only 3% of developers were over 50 years old, while at least two-thirds were between 20 and 34; these numbers show a far lower average age compared to the U.S. national average of about 41.9 that same year. While discrimination by age in hiring practices
9480-540: The news, there have typically been followup discussions towards the potential to form a union. A survey performed by the International Game Developers Association in 2014 found that more than half of the 2,200 developers surveyed favored unionization. A similar survey of over 4,000 game developers run by the Game Developers Conference in early 2019 found that 47% of respondents felt the video game industry should unionize. In 2016, voice actors in
9600-546: The opportunity to pitch Target Corporation buyers. The 2015 winners included Pip & Nut, Double Dutch Drinks, Harry Bromptons, Cauli Rice and Mallow and Marsh. In March 2015, Virgin Trains East Coast commenced operating the InterCity East Coast franchise; the company was a joint venture between Stagecoach (90%) and Virgin Group (10%). Due to the line performing below VTEC's expectations, it
9720-644: The partnership on Richard Branson's boat, leading to the concise and impactful title " Now That's What I Call Music! ," inspired by a Danish Bacon poster gifted to Simon Draper. Richard Branson's introduction to the antique shop owned by Joan Templeman, played a pivotal role in his growing fascination with old signs and advertisements, ultimately shaping the collection. Branson formed Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Cargo in 1984. He formed Virgin Holidays in 1985. In 1992, to keep his airline company afloat, Branson sold
9840-643: The perspective of wanting to live life to the full, I felt that I had to attempt it. In 2006, through a merger with SN Brussels Airlines , Virgin Airlines formed Brussels Airlines , while retaining its separate listing. It also started a national airline based in Nigeria, called Virgin Nigeria , which ceased operations in 2009. Another airline, Virgin America , began flying out of San Francisco International Airport in August 2007. Branson's next venture with
9960-694: The present, being a de facto rate used for most digital storefronts for third-party developers to offer their games on the platform. In recent years, larger publishers have acquired several third-party developers. While these development teams are now technically "in-house", they often continue to operate in an autonomous manner (with their own culture and work practices). For example, Activision acquired Raven (1997); Neversoft (1999), which merged with Infinity Ward in 2014; Z-Axis (2001); Treyarch (2001); Luxoflux (2002); Shaba (2002); Infinity Ward (2003) and Vicarious Visions (2005). All these developers continue operating much as they did before acquisition,
10080-620: The press that portrayed Virgin negatively. After the so-called campaign of "dirty tricks" , British Airways settled the case, giving £500,000 to Branson, a further £110,000 to his airline, and had to pay legal fees of up to £3 million. Branson distributed his compensation (the so-called "BA bonus") among his staff. Branson launched Virgin Mobile in 1999, and airline Virgin Blue in Australia in 2000. On 25 September 2004, Branson announced
10200-414: The primary differences being exclusivity and financial details. Publishers tend to be more forgiving of their own development teams going over budget (or missing deadlines) than third-party developers. A developer may not be the primary entity creating a piece of software, usually providing an external software tool which helps organize (or use) information for the primary software product. Such tools may be
10320-416: The process. To coincide with the distribution agreement, Interplay acquired a 43.9% minority stake (Initially a 49.9% stake) in the company. The deal was made as part of Interplay's attempt to gain profits, and the deal did not include publishing, which would remain as stand-alone entities. In July 1999, French publisher Titus Interactive announced plans to purchase 50.6% of Interplay's shares. Shortly after
10440-580: The profits of Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Trains in research for environmentally-friendly fuels. The investment is estimated to be worth $ 3 billion. On 4 July 2006, Branson sold his Virgin Mobile company to UK cable TV, broadband, and telephone company NTL:Telewest for £900 million. A new company was launched with much fanfare and publicity on 8 February 2007, under the name Virgin Media . The decision to merge his Virgin Media Company with NTL
10560-417: The public to such lesser known avant-garde music as Faust and Can . Virgin Records also introduced Culture Club to the music world. Branson's net worth was estimated at £5 million by 1979, and a year later, Virgin Records went international. Branson's first successful entry into the airline industry was during a trip to Puerto Rico. His flight was cancelled, so he decided to charter his own plane
10680-429: The publisher's wishes generally override those of the developer. Work for hire studios solely execute the publishers vision. The business arrangement between the developer and publisher is governed by a contract, which specifies a list of milestones intended to be delivered over a period of time. By updating its milestones, the publisher verifies that work is progressing quickly enough to meet its deadline and can direct
10800-467: The publishers. While this had some effects on a few games within the industry, it brought to the forefront the question of whether video game developers should unionize. A grassroots movement, Game Workers Unite , was established around 2017 to discuss and debate issues related to unionization of game developers. The group came to the forefront during the March 2018 Game Developers Conference by holding
10920-600: The purchase, they announced they would purchase a 50.1% majority stake in Virgin Interactive, with the publisher's shareholders and management retaining a 6% stake. The following year in May 2000, Titus acquired the shareholders' 6% stake, with Titus now holding 56.6% in Virgin while Interplay retained their 43.9% stake. Titus also announced on the same day that Virgin Interactive would now distribute its titles in Europe and replace their standalone distribution arm. The deal
11040-621: The railway business during the privatisation of British Rail in the late 1990s. Virgin Rail Group won the InterCity CrossCountry and InterCity West Coast franchises, beginning operations in January and March 1997 respectively. Both franchises were scheduled to run for 15 years. A series of disputes in the early 1990s caused tension between Virgin Atlantic and British Airways , which viewed Virgin as an emerging competitor. Virgin subsequently accused British Airways of poaching its passengers, hacking its computers, and leaking stories to
11160-421: The record label Virgin Records with Nik Powell . The name "Virgin" was suggested by one of Branson's early employees because they were all new at business. Branson bought a country estate north of Oxford in which he installed a residential recording studio, The Manor Studio . He leased studio time to fledgling artists, including multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield , whose debut album Tubular Bells (1973)
11280-433: The remaining shares held by Hasbro in an effort to expand beyond its video store base. Hasbro went on to found their own game company, Hasbro Interactive the following year. The partnership with Blockbuster ended a year later when Blockbuster sold its stake to Spelling Entertainment , at the time being a subsidiary of Viacom . Viacom is the owner of Paramount Pictures and MTV , which made Virgin Interactive part of one of
11400-535: The rest of the way and offered a ride to the rest of the stranded passengers for a small fee to cover the cost. In 1982, Virgin purchased the gay bar Heaven . In 1991, in a consortium with David Frost , Branson made an unsuccessful bid for three ITV franchises under the CPV-TV name. The early 1980s also saw his only attempt as a producer—on the novelty record " Baa, Baa, Black Sheep ", by The Singing Sheep in association with Doug McLean and Grace McDonald, on which he
11520-409: The same church he used for Student . Branson used the magazine to advertise popular albums, driving his record sales. He interviewed several prominent personalities of the late 1960s for the magazine including Mick Jagger and R. D. Laing . Branson took over full direction of Student after successfully lying to Powell that the workers at the magazine opposed Powell's plans to turn the magazine into
11640-590: The same year, the company launched a budget reissue brand for their PC titles called "The White Label". Spelling put its ownership of Virgin up for sale as a public stock offering in 1997, stating that Virgin's financial performance had been disappointing. Since Spelling's purchase of the company, Virgin had lost $ 14 million in 1995 and was expected to post similar losses for 1996. In 1998, Virgin Interactive's US operations were divested to Electronic Arts as part of its $ 122.5 million (£75 million) acquisition of Westwood Studios that same year. Electronic Arts also acquired
11760-594: The show Finding Your Roots , Branson was shown to have 3.9% South Asian (Indian) DNA, likely through intermarriage. Later, he stated that one of his great-great-great-grandmothers was an Indian named Ariya. Branson was educated at Scaitcliffe School , a prep school in Surrey , before briefly attending Cliff View House School in Sussex . He attended Stowe School , a private school in Buckinghamshire until
11880-556: The signing of a deal under which a new space tourism company, Virgin Galactic , will license the technology behind SpaceShipOne —funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and designed by aeronautical engineer Burt Rutan —to take paying passengers into suborbital outer space . Virgin Galactic plans to make flights available to the public with tickets priced at US$ 200,000 using the Scaled Composites White Knight Two . The spacecraft, SpaceShipTwo ,
12000-812: The son of Edward James Branson (1918–2011), a barrister , and his wife Evette Huntley Branson ( née Flindt ; 1924–2021), a former ballet dancer and air hostess. He has two younger sisters, Lindy and Vanessa . His grandfather, Sir George Arthur Harwin Branson , was a judge of the High Court of Justice and a Privy Councillor . Branson's great-great-great-grandfather, John Edward Branson, left England for India in 1793; John Edward's father, Harry Wilkins Branson, later joined his son in Madras . Starting from 1793, four generations of Branson's family lived in India, mostly at Cuddalore , in modern-day Tamil Nadu . On
12120-545: The target of sexual harassment. This can be coupled from similar harassment from external groups, such as during the 2014 Gamergate controversy . Major investigations into allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct that went unchecked by management, as well as discrimination by employers, have been brought up against Riot Games , Ubisoft and Activision Blizzard in the late 2010s and early 2020s, alongside smaller studios and individual developers. However, while other entertainment industries have had similar exposure through
12240-518: The team being renamed Virgin Racing . In 2010, Virgin Hotels was launched under the Virgin Group. In February 2018, Branson announced the first Virgin hotel in the UK would open in Edinburgh. Branson and Tony Fernandes , owner of Air Asia and Lotus F1 Racing , had a bet for the 2010 F1 season where the losing team's boss should work on the winner's airline during a charity flight dressed as
12360-484: The toxic nature of the video game culture. This racial diversity issue has similar ties to the gender one, and similar methods to result both have been suggested, such as improving grade school education, developing games that appeal beyond the white, male gamer stereotype, and identifying toxic behavior in both video game workplaces and online communities that perpetuate discrimination against gender and race. In regards to LGBT and other gender or sexual orientations,
12480-487: The use of crunch time at Electronic Arts , a situation known as the "EA Spouses" case. A similar "Rockstar Spouses" case gained further attention in 2010 over working conditions at Rockstar San Diego . Since then, there has generally been negative perception of crunch time from most of the industry as well as from its consumers and other media. Game development had generally been a predominately male workforce. In 1989, according to Variety , women constituted only 3% of
12600-508: The video game industry typically shares the same demographics as with the larger population based on a 2005 IGDA survey. Those in the LGBT community do not find workplace issues with their identity, though work to improve the representation of LGBT themes within video games in the same manner as with racial minorities. However, LGBT developers have also come under the same type of harassment from external groups like women and racial minorities due to
12720-678: The video game industry. Whereas some video game employees believe they should follow the craft-based model used by SAG-AFTRA which would unionize based on job function, others feel an industry-wide union, regardless of job position, would be better. Starting in 2021, several smaller game studios in the United States began efforts to unionize. These mostly involved teams doing quality assurance rather than developers. These studios included three QA studios under Blizzard Entertainment : Raven Software , Blizzard Albany , and Proletariat; and Zenimax Media 's QA team. Microsoft , which had previously acquired Zenimax and announced plans to acquire Blizzard via
12840-504: The workforce in video games is estimated to be from contract labor. Similar to other tech industries, video game developers are typically not unionized . This is a result of the industry being driven more by creativity and innovation rather than production, the lack of distinction between management and employees in the white-collar area, and the pace at which the industry moves that makes union actions difficult to plan out. However, when situations related to crunch time become prevalent in
12960-721: The world's largest entertainment companies. Viacom had planned to sell Spelling and buy Virgin Interactive out of Spelling before the sale. While it abandoned the Spelling sale some time ago, the collapse in the games market appears to have killed off any interest in buying Virgin. Blockbuster and Viacom invested heavily in the production of CD-based interactive multimedia—video games featuring sophisticated motion-picture video, stereo sound and computer animation. VIE's headquarters were expanded to include 17 production studios where expensive SGI "graphics supercomputers" were used to build increasingly complicated games, eventually becoming one of
13080-610: Was announced in May 2018 that the contract would be terminated early by the government. VTEC ceased operating on 23 June 2018 and operations passed to a government-owned operator, London North Eastern Railway . In November 2015, Branson announced the addition of Moskito Island to the Virgin Limited Edition portfolio. This resort, The Branson Estate on Moskito Island, offers 11 bedrooms for 22 guests. In 2017, Virgin Group invested in Hyperloop One , developing
13200-724: Was argued to be "exploitive", as Telltale had been known to force its employees to frequently work under "crunch time" to deliver its games. By the end of 2018, a United Kingdom trade union, Game Workers Unite UK, an affiliate of the Game Workers Unite movement, had been legally established. Following Activision Blizzard 's financial report for the previous quarter in February 2019, the company said that they would be laying off around 775 employees (about 8% of their workforce) despite having record profits for that quarter. Further calls for unionization came from this news, including
13320-487: Was building and selling wooden tissue boxes and wastepaper bins. In London, he started off squatting from 1967 to 1968. Branson is an atheist . He said in a 2011 interview with CNN's Piers Morgan that he believes in evolution and the importance of humanitarian efforts but not in the existence of God. "I would love to believe," he said. "It's very comforting to believe". After failed attempts to grow and sell both Christmas trees and budgerigars , Branson launched
13440-468: Was credited as "Jeff Mutton". The track consisted of samples of animal noises recorded at his aunt Claire Hoares' farm in Norfolk, set to a drum-machine-produced track and reached number 42 in the UK charts in 1982. In 1983, Now That's What I Call Music! emerged from Virgin Records offices as a unique compilation series, distinct in its originality. Collaborating with EMI , Peter Jamieson orchestrated
13560-522: Was distributed in the North American market by Bay Area Multimedia instead of Interplay. However, in 2001, the North American branch of Titus; Titus Software, announced to resurrect the Virgin Interactive brand in North America to release several of Virgin's existing European PC releases as $ 20 budget titles. On 16 April 2001, Titus announced they had expanded their shares in Interplay to 72.5% and purchased their stake in Virgin Interactive, making Virgin
13680-567: Was done for Titus to focus more on the UK, French and German subsidiaries. The business was renamed as Virgin Play in October, and would continue to distribute Titus and Interplay titles in Spain. On July 1, 2003, Titus announced that Virgin Interactive would be renamed Avalon Interactive, with the French, Benelux and German operations soon following afterward. In August 2004, the company launched
13800-519: Was fined £271 million over the allegations. Virgin Atlantic was given immunity for tipping off the authorities and received no fine—a controversial decision the Office of Fair Trading defended as being in the public interest. On 9 February 2007, Branson announced the setting up of a new global science and technology prize—The Virgin Earth Challenge —in the belief that history has shown that prizes of this nature encourage technological advancements for
13920-424: Was made following a similar distribution agreement in North America that would allow Interplay to market Titus' titles in the territory. A week later, Virgin signed a deal with Swing! Entertainment Media AG to distribute their titles in all European territories. Virgin's presence outside Europe at this point was almost non-existent, with only a few titles such as Viva Soccer and Jimmy White's 2: Cueball , which
14040-509: Was made in order to integrate compatible areas of the two businesses. Whilst Branson had owned three-quarters of Virgin Mobile, he would now get paid £8.5 million per annum for the use of the Virgin brand name. He does not own any part of Virgin Media. In 2006, Branson formed Virgin Comics and Virgin Animation, an entertainment company focused on creating new stories and characters for
14160-401: Was renamed Virgin Interactive Entertainment in 1993. Hasbro , who had previously licensed some of its properties to Virgin, bought 15 percent—later increased to 16.2 percent—stake in VIE in August 1993. Hasbro wanted to create titles based on its brands, which included Transformers , G.I. Joe and Monopoly . The deal cut off competitors like Mattel and Fisher-Price who were interested in
14280-461: Was replaced by Avanti West Coast . In September 2014, Branson announced his investment in drone company 3D Robotics stating, "It's amazing to see what a little flying object with a GoPro attached can do. Before they came along the alternative was an expensive helicopter and crew. I'm really excited about the potential 3D Robotics sees in drones. They can do a lot of good in the world, and I hope this affordable technology will give many more people
14400-562: Was the first release for Virgin Records and became a chart-topping best-seller. Virgin signed controversial bands such as the Sex Pistols , which other companies were reluctant to sign. Virgin Records would go on to sign other artists including the Rolling Stones , Peter Gabriel , XTC , Japan , UB40 , Steve Winwood and Paula Abdul , and to become the world's largest independent record label. It also won praise for exposing
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