Insomniac Games

Insomniac Games, Inc., is an American video game developer based in Burbank, California and part of PlayStation Studios. It was founded in 1994 by Ted Price as Xtreme Software, and was renamed Insomniac Games a year later. The company is most known for developing several early PlayStation mascots, Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet and Clank, as well as the Resistance franchise, 2014's Sunset Overdrive and the Marvel's Spider-Man series with Marvel Games. In 2019, the studio was acquired by Sony Interactive Entertainment, becoming a part of SIE Worldwide Studios (now known as PlayStation Studios).

History

Beginning

Insomniac Games first project was Disruptor, a first-person shooter game released in 1996 for the PlayStation, soon afterward, Insomniac began developing games for Sony Computer Entertainment.

Spyro the Dragon

In the year 1998, Insomniac Games developed and released their next game, Spyro the Dragon, featuring a purple dragon named Spyro. The game was wildly popular in the year of its release and, in 1999, received a sequel, Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!. The game was now officially a series. The third video game of the Spyro series, Spyro: Year of the Dragon was released in 2000 and was the last Spyro game developed by Insomniac. After Spyro, they next moved on to the PlayStation 2 and began development on a new game.

Ratchet & Clank

In 2002, Insomniac released Ratchet & Clank, which was a smash hit both critically and commercially. It featured a Lombax named Ratchet and a robot named Clank who defend their galaxy from those who wish to dominate it. Several sequels followed on the PS2, including Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando in 2003, Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal in 2004, and Ratchet: Deadlocked in 2005.

In the year 2007, Ratchet and Clank made their debut on PlayStation 3 with Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction, which was the first installment in the "Future series." Later, the second and third parts of the series were released as Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty in 2008, and Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time in 2009. An epilogue of the Future saga, Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus, was released in late 2013.

Insomniac Games also developed two spin-off games around this time, which were Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One in 2011 and Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault in 2012.

Insomniac later developed a "re-imagining" of the series' first game for the PlayStation 4, simply titled Ratchet & Clank, as a tie-in to the animated film adaptation of the same name, both of which were released in 2016.

Resistance

In addition to the Ratchet & Clank Future trilogy, Insomniac also developed the Resistance series. It began with Resistance: Fall of Man in 2006, which was a success and led to two more Insomniac-made games in the form of Resistance 2 in 2008, and Resistance 3 in 2011.

The series takes place in an alternate history around the year 1950, in which an alien civilization known as the Chimera have invaded and conquered Earth, expanding their armies by capturing humans and transforming them into monster-like supersoldiers to fight for them. The player takes the role of one of the remaining human armed forces as they fight against the Chimera invasion (Sergeant/Lieutenant Nathan Hale in Resistance 1 and 2, and Private Joseph Capelli in Resistance 3).

Outernauts

In 2012, Insomniac released Outernauts for Facebook. It is a social role-playing game in which players must explore alien planets to capture and nurture creatures with which to do battle. Player actions are limited by "energy", an in-game resource that accumulates over time, but which can also be purchased with real-world currency.

Fuse

In 2013, Insomniac released Fuse, a four-player co-op action game (originally known as Overstrike). The game is set in the near future and follows a team of four misfit agents collectively known as Overstrike 9, whose mission is to stop the evil Raven Corporation from gaining an alien substance called Fuse. The members of Overstrike 9 are Dalton Brooks (voiced by Brian Bloom), a reformed and sarcastic mercenary, Naya Deveraux (voiced by Jennifer Hale), who worked for Raven with her dad, Isabelle "Izzy" Sinclair (voiced by Ali Hillis), a gifted, but rebellious young scientist, and Jacob Kimble (voiced by Khary Payton), a decorated detective with a bit of a temper.

Sunset Overdrive

In 2014, Insomniac Games released Sunset Overdrive, an open world shooter video game. The overall concept is described as such: a recent catastrophe in the player-character's city has killed or turned most of its people into mutants. The player has to "figure out how to deal with" the mutants. The game is set in the near future.

Games

Games/Franchises	Release Date/Duration
Disruptor	1996
Spyro the Dragon series	1998 - 2000
Ratchet & Clank series	2002 - 2020
Resistance series	2006 - 2011
Outernauts	2012
Fuse	2013
Sunset Overdrive	2014
Edge of Nowhere	2016
Song of the Deep
Marvel's Spider-Man	2018
Marvel's Spider Man: Miles Morales	2020
Marvel's Spider Man 2	2023

Gallery

• 
  Initial logo.
• 
  Former logo, introduced 2001.
• 
  Variant logo, introduced 2002.
• 
  Current logo, introduced 2017.
• 
  Render of a Bonebuilder next to a Lava Lizard holding the Insomniac Games logo signpost.

Trivia

• The CEO of Insomniac Games, Ted Price, revealed that he and his kids like Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, and he was disheartened by the other Spyro games that were made after the original trilogy years ago. He mentioned that he was really happy for the Spyro franchise in the universe of Skylanders. According to Ted, to see the Spyro series back with a fairly innovative concept, was really rewarding for the team who worked on the first three Spyro games.

External links

• Insomniac Games Wikipedia Page