Ruffian Games

Ruffian Games is a British video game developer founded in 2008.[2] The developer was formed by two members, Billy Thomson and Gaz Liddon, of the video game developer Realtime Worlds. Ruffian Games originally consisted of members from Realtime Worlds and Xen Studios, among others.[2] They have made Crackdown 2, the sequel to the 2007 video game, Crackdown.

Ruffian Games
IndustryVideo games
FoundedDecember 2008
HeadquartersDundee, Scotland, UK [1]
Key people
Gaz Liddon (studio head)
Billy Thomson (creative director)
ProductsCrackdown 2
Websiteruffiangames.com

History

Ruffian Games was officially formed in December 2008. The studio was founded by Billy Thomson (now Creative Director) and Gaz Liddon (now Studio Head).[3] The team consisted of developers who "have worked on games like Crackdown, Fable II and Project Gotham Racing".[1] Before the "official" announcement, however, rumors circulated that a studio was in development of the sequel to the Realtime Worlds game, Crackdown. As early as December 2008, rumors emerged that Ruffian Games was formed to create a sequel to Crackdown.[4] In light of these rumors, Realtime Worlds issued a statement claiming that they "'continue to have ongoing discussions' with Microsoft about a Crackdown sequel, although no offer has been made". The rumors, however, ousted Ruffian Games as a Microsoft-funded developer.[5]

After the announcement, not much news circulated regarding the project the developer was currently working on. The developer was keeping its current project under wraps: "Now we're in full production, we're itching to share the fantastic work these guys have been producing" stated Liddon.[6] On 22 May 2009, it was announced that the developer had added 15 new members to its team.[7]

At Microsoft's 2009 E3 conference, Ruffian Games announced their project to be Crackdown 2, which was released 6 July 2010 in North America.[8]

Ruffian Games is made up of a large amount of former Realtime Worlds employees, who moved to this studio after the failure of APB: All Points Bulletin, the main cause of Realtime Worlds' collapse.

The developer was reported to be working on a reboot of the Streets of Rage series for Sega as a digital download title. However, former employee Sean Noonan, while confirming the rumor about the game, stated it was a prototype developed in eight weeks by a small group of employees of the developer.[9]

On 19 February 2013, Ruffian Games revealed their new self-published project Tribal Towers. They also confirmed they weren't currently working on a sequel to the Crackdown franchise.[10]

On 27 January 2014, Ruffian Games announced that Tribal Towers had evolved into a new project entitled Game of Glens.[11] It was announced alongside Square Enix's new venture 'Collective', in which it was one of the 3 launch titles that users could vote on to gather interest in the game.[12]

On 12 August 2014, Ruffian Games revealed Hollowpoint for PlayStation 4 and PC during Sony’s Gamescom press conference. The game was set to be published by Paradox Interactive.[13] However, Ruffian announced the end of the partnership with Paradox in March 2016 and the development of the title was put on hold.[14]

Games
Year Title Publisher Platform
2010Crackdown 2Microsoft StudiosXbox 360
2012Kinect PlayfitMicrosoft StudiosXbox 360
2017FragmentalRuffian GamesWindows
2019Crackdown 3Microsoft StudiosXbox One, Windows

Collaborative games
Title Lead Developer Publisher Year Platform
Kinect Star WarsTerminal RealityMicrosoft Studios2012Xbox 360
Nike+ Kinect TrainingSumo DigitalMicrosoft Studios2012Xbox 360
Kinect Sesame Street TVSoho ProductionsMicrosoft Studios2013Xbox 360
Kinect Sports RivalsRareMicrosoft Studios2014Xbox One
Halo: The Master Chief Collection343 IndustriesMicrosoft Studios2014Xbox One
Crackdown 3: Wrecking ZoneElbow RocketMicrosoft Studios2019Xbox One, Microsoft Windows
Halo: The Master Chief Collection 343 Industries Microsoft Studios 2019 Microsoft Windows

References
  1. Luke Plunkett (20 January 2009). "Say Hello To Ruffian Games". Kotaku.com. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
  2. "Ruffian Games formed". News.bigdownload.com. 20 January 2009. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
  3. Rob Crossley (20 January 2009). "Ruffian Games Officially Announced - Edge Magazine". Next-gen.biz. Archived from the original on 3 September 2012. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
  4. Wong, Steven. "Joystiq". Gamedaily.com. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
  5. Pereira, Chris (19 December 2008). "Crackdown 2 Reportedly in Development at Newly-Formed Studio: News from". 1UP.com. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
  6. McElroy, Griffin (22 May 2009). "Ruffian Games expands team by 15, 'itching' to reveal first project". Joystiq. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
  7. "Ruffian games expands by 15, still won't say what they're working on «". Digitalbattle.com. 22 May 2009. Archived from the original on 21 January 2013. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
  8. "E3 2009: Crackdown 2 Announced; 2010 Release Date". PerezStart. 15 March 2010. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
  9. "Footage of Ruffian's Streets of Rage leaks out".
  10. http://www.tribaltowers.com/2013/02/19/ruffians-new-thing/
  11. http://www.ruffiangames.com/2014/01/27/introducing-game-of-glens/
  12. "Scottish devs Ruffian Games add Game of Glens to Square Enix Collective - VG247". 4 February 2014.
  13. "Hollowpoint from Ruffian Games will make its console debut on PS4". 12 August 2014.
  14. Yin-Poole, Wesley (8 March 2016). "Ruffian's Hollowpoint on hold, Paradox partnership dead". Eurogamer. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
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