SingleTrac

SingleTrac Entertainment Technologies was an American video game developer, mostly for the PlayStation platform. The management team and much of the original development team came from Evans & Sutherland, bringing their 3D graphics and software engineering skills into the video game industry.[2] Its most famous titles were the Twisted Metal and Jet Moto video game series.

SingleTrac Entertainment Technologies, Inc.
Public
IndustrySoftware & Programming
Founded1995
FounderMike Bartholomew, Todd Kelly, Michael Ryder
Defunct2000
HeadquartersSalt Lake City, Utah[1]
ProductsTwisted Metal franchise
Jet Moto franchise

The company's first two games, WarHawk and Twisted Metal, were major critical and commercial successes, leading publisher Sony Computer Entertainment to contract two further games from SingleTrac.[3] SingleTrac had ambitions of becoming a video game publisher as well as developer, and in early 1997 signed a deal with Microsoft to enable them to publish PC games,[4] but these plans never came to fruition. Later in 1997 SingleTrac signed on as a developer for the Nintendo 64,[5][6] but they ultimately never produced any Nintendo 64 games. After producing the two contracted games for Sony Computer Entertainment, SingleTrac was bought by the video game publisher GT Interactive,[1][7] which was then bought by the French company Infogrames.

The SingleTrac studio was closed down in 2000.

Lineage

A group of SingleTrac employees broke off and formed the game studio Incognito Entertainment in 1999, and went on to make some additional entries in the former SingeTrac franchise Twisted Metal and a sequel to SingleTrac's first game WarHawk, both for Sony Computer Entertainment. In 2009 most of the team members left Incognito to form Eat Sleep Play and LightBox Interactive rendering Incognito defunct.[8] Both studios would go on to develop the same two former SingleTrac franchises Incognito made entries in - Eat Sleep Play developed a PS3 entry in the Twisted Metal series and LightBox Interactive developed a spiritual successor to the Warhawk series, Starhawk. Eat Sleep Play transitioned to mobile development right before releasing its PS3 entry in the Twisted Metal series and shutting down in 2017.[9] LightBox Interactive's contract with Sony expired right after the release of Starhawk and is considered defunct since 2012.[10]

Developed games

References
  1. "GT Interactive Buys Singletrac, Makes Agreements with BMG and Warner Bros. Interactive". GamePro. No. 108. IDG. September 1997. p. 20. Singletrac, which is also a Nintendo 64 licensee, will keep its 70 employees at the company's headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah.
  2. "Peacetime Programmers". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 97. Ziff Davis. August 1997. p. 72.
  3. "At the Deadline". GamePro. No. 87. IDG. December 1995. p. 206.
  4. "In the Studio". Next Generation. No. 27. Imagine Media. March 1997. p. 24.
  5. "SingleTrac Joins 'Dream Team'". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 97. Ziff Davis. August 1997. p. 20.
  6. "News Bits". GamePro. No. 106. IDG. July 1997. p. 21.
  7. "Tidbits...". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 98. Ziff Davis. September 1997. p. 23.
  8. Crecente, Brian. "Warhawk's Dylan Jobe Leaves Incognito, Forms New Studio". Kotaku. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
  9. Crecente, Brian (26 June 2017). "Former Valve initiative CastAR shuts down". Polygon.
  10. McWhertor, Michael (18 October 2012). "Starhawk developer LightBox Interactive hit with layoffs, moving from console development to iOS". Polygon. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
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