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{{Short description|British independent games developer}}{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}}{{Primary sources|date=March 2013}}{{Use British English|date=February 2012}}

factoids

Video game industry>Video games num_employees_year = 2017''Uplink (video game)>Darwinia (video game)>DEFCON (video game)>Multiwinia''Subversion (video game)>SubversionPrison Architect>Scanner Sombre}}| revenue = introversion.co.uk}}}}Introversion Software Limited is a British video game developer based in Walton-on-Thames, England.

History

The company was founded in 2001 by three friends, Chris Delay, Mark Morris, and Thomas Arundel, who met as undergraduates at Imperial College London.WEB, Introversion Software . About Us,weblink dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20140209065242weblink">weblink 9 February 2014, 3 February 2014, Introversion.co.uk, The company originally labelled itself "the last of the bedroom programmers" due to the trio working out of their homes – they moved into an office when working on their fourth game, Multiwinia. Their first released video game, Uplink, was programmed and designed almost exclusively by Chris, while Mark and Tom handled marketing, materials and the other business elements. Their small initial investment enabled them to buy CD-Rs and printer cartridges. Early copies of the game were handmade. The company was able to fully make back their investment within a few hours of accepting orders. A large community formed, and the team, along with a new programmer Andy Bainbridge, started work on two new games.Darwinia was released to much critical acclaim and was eventually re-released via Steam on 14 December 2005WEB,weblink Darwinia on Steam, 3 September 2016, 7 September 2016,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160907131808weblink">weblink live, On 29 September 2006, Introversion Software launched its third game, DEFCON. Shortly after, Introversion had measured their bandwidth in terabytes for the first time. After the release of DEFCON, Introversion began work on a game called Subversion.WEB,weblink Introversion • View topic – It's all in your head, Part 1, Forums.introversion.co.uk, 19 December 2006, 3 February 2014, 18 August 2013,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20130818000819weblink">weblink live, Their next game, however, was Multiwinia, a multiplayer follow-up to Darwinia, and was released on 19 September 2008.Darwinia and Multiwinia were ported for the Xbox 360. This resulted in the eventual release of Darwinia+, which included both games, to the Xbox Live Arcade on 10 February 2010.WEB,weblink Darwinia+, 12 June 2017, 20 June 2017,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20170620043552weblink">weblink live,

Subversion delay and Prison Architect

After the release of Multiwinia in 2008, Introversion announced the commencement of working on a game called Subversion in December of that year. This was followed by a series of blog-posts about the development of the game and its procedurally generated urban areasWEB,weblink Subversion Unveiled, Rock Paper Shotgun, 3 February 2014, 21 February 2014,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20140221192327weblink">weblink live, and the game was shown at the World of Love event in 2010.WEB,weblink See Subversion At World Of Love, Rock Paper Shotgun, 30 November 2010, 3 February 2014, 21 February 2014,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20140221212114weblink">weblink live, In October 2011, after three years in development, Subversion was announced as delayed.WEB,weblink New Introversion Project, Subversion Delayed, Rock Paper Shotgun, 3 February 2014, 6 January 2014,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20140106054145weblink">weblink live, Their new game was announced as Prison Architect during the Humble Indie Bundle release of Introversion games and tech demos of Subversion material, along with a treasure hunt of information on the new game hidden within the tech demos.WEB,weblink Introversion HumBundle And Hunt Updates, Rock Paper Shotgun, 30 November 2011, 3 February 2014, 21 February 2014,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20140221203035weblink">weblink live,

Financial history and independence

{{Tone|section|date=November 2023}}After a low-key launch, Uplink was a critical and commercial success for Introversion. A visit to E3 2002 saw the team "rinse £10k in a week on speedboats and fast cars", but regret soon set in as they watched their income steadily decline, since "in the games industry, you make 75% of your total revenue for the product in the first 6 months"."Becoming a proper company....," {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070317152632weblink |date=17 March 2007 }} Tom, Introversion staff. By December 2002, then-publisher Strategy First had stopped paying royalties for Uplink; they would later file a Consumer Proposal, but were acquired by Silverstar Holdings in early 2005. Even with the cash flow from direct sales, Introversion ran out of money in the middle of 2003. The company hovered on the edge of bankruptcy, with the team selling most of their worldly goods, as their second project and only hope for funds—Darwinia—"slipped relentlessly".Darwinia was eventually released in March 2005, but despite a strong opening weekend, sales soon slipped too low to sustain the company. Within six months, the developers were back on UK government benefits until November, when they contacted Valve "on a whim"WEB,weblink Introversion talk Steam, The Steam Review, 15 July 2006, 12 April 2007, 2 December 2006,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20061202142943weblink">weblink live, to try to set up a digital distribution deal on their Steam platform. Valve responded enthusiastically and, following a 14 December 2005 online launch, digital sales, which exposed the game to a new, global audience, kept the company going through to the release of their third game, DEFCON.On 15 September 2006, the day DEFCON pre-orders were made available, Introversion spent their last £1500. Fortuitously, the game "did much much better than [they] ever imagined" and funds for at least the forthcoming twelve months quickly rolled in to replace it. Seemingly financially secure, the company place their eventual success largely at Valve's feet: "Steam has made Introversion a commercial success", Tom Arundel is quoted saying.MAGAZINE, Hyman, Paul, March 2007, State of the Industry: Digital Distribution, Game Developer (magazine), Game Developer, CMP Group, 14, By early 2010 the company was back in financial trouble. After spending over a year porting Darwinia+ to the Xbox 360, the game was not successful at launch. "It just really bombed. We missed the entire audience, I think", director Mark Morris said.WEB,weblink That which does not kill you..., 22 July 2014, 24 July 2014,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20140724034635weblink">weblink live, The launch was in fact so poor, the company was able to tell in the first 10 minutes that it would not make enough money to save the company. At this time the company was so deeply in debt that by continuing operation the Directors faced criminal prosecution under UK insolvency law. "Tom (Arundel) spent a lot of time in those final days genuinely convinced that we were trading insolvently, probably trading insolvently, which is a criminal offense. So he was arguing that we needed to stop immediately, completely down tools, or there was a very real possibility that we would face prosecution".Slowly Introversion's finances changed again. In Q3 2010 the company was able to add Steam achievements to DEFCON which resulted in the game being prominently featured in a sale. Morris credits the $250,000 generated by the Steam promotion as saving the company.WEB,weblink How A Steam Promotion Saved Introversion, Kieron, Gillen, 23 August 2010, 22 July 2014, 14 May 2014,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20140514163129weblink">weblink live, Later, Introversion's games were featured in a Humble Indie Bundle that launched in November 2011. The "Humble Introversion Bundle" sold 190,261 bundles and generated $779,026.33. Introversion used the money for the ongoing development of their next game, entitled Prison Architect.WEB,weblink Introversion • View topic – Number of players : Doubled, Forums.introversion.co.uk, 3 February 2014, 18 June 2013,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20130618175037weblink">weblink live, As of 26 September 2015, Prison Architect had grossed over $19 million in sales, and over 1.25 million units of the game had been sold.WEB,weblink Prison Architect earns $19m from 1.25m sales – but what's next?, Robert, Purchese, Eurogamer, 30 September 2015, 30 September 2015, 6 February 2019,weblink live, By the end of August 2016 when the final version '2.0' of Prison Architect was released, the number of individual players was given as two million.Their next title, Scanner Sombre, was released in April 2017,NEWS, 24 April 2017, Introversion's Scanner Sombre surfacing on Wednesday, en, Rock Paper Shotgun,weblink 9 February 2021, 1 February 2021,weblink live, after a 9 month development stage. The game sold only 6000 copies upon its release. Chris Delay remarked that it had "bombed in a big way".WEB, Purchese, Robert, 26 June 2017, Prison Architect dev Introversion reflects upon Scanner Sombre, which "bombed in a big way",weblink 9 February 2021, Eurogamer, en, 30 November 2017,weblink live, Virtual reality compatibility has been implemented into the game post-release, supporting both the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, and was released in late June 2017,WEB, Livingston, Christopher, 13 May 2017, Scanner Sombre is coming to VR,weblink 9 February 2021, PC Gamer, en-US, 18 September 2017,weblink live, marking the developer's first (and to date only) foray into VR.In January 2019, Introversion and Paradox Interactive announced that the Prison Architect intellectual property was being sold on to Paradox for an undisclosed fee, so that Introversion could concentrate on new projects while Paradox continued to support and expand on the property.WEB,weblink Paradox Interactive acquires Prison Architect from Introversion Games, 8 January 2019, VentureBeat, en-US, 23 January 2019, 3 February 2021,weblink live, WEB,weblink Paradox acquires Prison Architect from Introversion Software, GamesIndustry.biz, en, 24 March 2020, 24 March 2020,weblink live, On 28 May 2022 Introversion announced their new science fiction themed video game The Last Starship, which is scheduled to be released in 2023.WEB, 2022-09-28, EGX 2022 – Hands-On with The Last Starship!,weblink 2022-11-07, Movies Games and Tech, en-GB, 7 November 2022,weblink live, WEB, The Last Starship on Steam,weblink 6 June 2022, store.steampowered.com, en, 7 June 2022,weblink live,

Games

• Uplink (2001)
• Darwinia (2005)
• DEFCON (2006)
• Multiwinia (2008)"'Last of the Bedroom Programmers' Announce Multiwinia on PC" from Introversion's press release Introversion Announces Multiwinia {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130128085107weblink |date=28 January 2013 }}, 27 February 2007, 2:57 p.m.WEB,weblink Welcome to Paradise – Introversion, 29 January 2008, 28 January 2013,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20130128081524weblink">weblink live,
• Darwinia+ (2010)WEB,weblink Darwinia+ XBLA Xbox Live Arcade, 5 July 2009, 30 May 2013,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20130530171013weblink">weblink live,
• Prison Architect (2015)
• Scanner Sombre (2017)WEB,weblink Scanner Sombre – Introversion, 26 April 2017, 27 April 2017,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20170427004429weblink">weblink live,
• The Last Starship (2023)

Other projects

• Subversion (cancelled)WEB, Welsh, Oli, Rezzed Sessions: Why Subversion sucked and Prison Architect won't,weblink Eurogamer, 17 July 2012, 18 July 2012,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120718121741weblink">weblink live,
• Chronometer (optioned but not developed)WEB,weblink Chronometer – Introversion, 9 July 2008, 28 January 2013,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20130128080949weblink">weblink live,
• Wrong Wire (cancelled)WEB,weblink Wrong Wire – Rock, Paper, Shotgun – PC Game Reviews, Previews, Subjectivity, 29 April 2017, 21 December 2016,weblink live,
• Order of Magnitude (cancelled)WEB,weblink Order of Magnitude, Rock Paper Shotgun, 27 April 2018, 28 April 2018,weblink live, WEB,weblink Introversion has stepped away from Order of Magnitude, but the game's DNA lives on in next project, PC Games Insider, 21 May 2019, 25 September 2019,weblink live,
• Spacebots (cancelled)WEB,weblink Failed Prototypes, 7 February 2021, 24 January 2021,weblink live,
• Megaprocessor (cancelled)
• Voxel Factory (cancelled)
• Nanotech (cancelled)
• Deep Space Industrial (cancelled)
• Praxis (cancelled)

References

{{Reflist|2}}

External links

• Introversion Software's website

{{Introversion Software}}{{Authority control}}