High Moon Studios

High Moon Studios, Inc.
FormerlySammy Entertainment Inc. (2001–2002)
Sammy Studios, Inc. (2002–2005)
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryVideo games
FoundedApril 2001; 23 years ago (2001-04) (as Sammy Entertainment Inc.)
Headquarters
Carlsbad, California
,
US
Key people
Peter Della Penna (president)
Products
Number of employees
155
ParentSammy Corporation (2001–2005)
Vivendi Games (2006–2008)
Activision (2008–present)
Websitehighmoonstudios.com

High Moon Studios, Inc. (formerly Sammy Entertainment Inc. and Sammy Studios, Inc.) is an American video game developer initially formed in 2001. After nearly a year as an independent studio, the developer was acquired by Vivendi Games in January 2006 and placed under Sierra Entertainment. It is currently owned by Activision.[1][2] It has developed multiple Transformers video games and assisted in the development of select Call of Duty games, as well as Destiny.

History

High Moon Studios was formed in April 2001 as a division of the Japanese publisher Sammy, first known as Sammy Entertainment and later renamed Sammy Studios the following year, to develop and publish games in America. After Sammy merged with Sega to form Sega Sammy Holdings on October 1, 2004, Sammy discontinued all video game development in America to focus on its Japanese productions, and planned on closing Sammy Studios as part of this. However on March 3, 2005, Sammy Studios was acquired in a management buyout by a group led by president and CEO John Rowe, and renamed High Moon Studios. Turning to game development only, the studio continued development of games from its time as Sammy Studios, including the Western horror shooter Darkwatch. In January 2006, it was announced that Vivendi Universal Games had acquired the studio. After the merger of Vivendi and Activision, High Moon became a subsidiary of Activision.

Following the completion of Deadpool, Activision laid off 40 full-time employees from High Moon Studios that worked on the project. Activision stated "Activision Publishing consistently works to align its costs with its revenues – this is an ongoing process, with the completion of development on Deadpool, we are taking a reduction in staff at High Moon Studios to better align our development talent against our slate."[3]

Games developed

Year Title Platform(s)
PS2 PS3 PS4 PS5 Win Xbox X360 XOne XSX
2005 Darkwatch Yes No No No No Yes No No No
2008 Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy No Yes No No No No Yes No No
2010 Transformers: War for Cybertron No Yes No No Yes No Yes No No
2011 Transformers: Dark of the Moon No Yes No No No No Yes No No
2012 Transformers: Fall of Cybertron No Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No
2013 Deadpool No Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No
2014 Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare No Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No
2014 Destiny[4] No Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes No
2016 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered No No Yes No Yes No No Yes No
2017 Destiny 2 No No Yes No Yes No No Yes No
2017 Call of Duty: WWII No No Yes No Yes No No Yes No
2019 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare No No Yes No Yes No No Yes No
2020 Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War No No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes
2021 Call of Duty: Vanguard No No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes
2022 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 No No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes
2023 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III No No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes
2024 Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 No No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes

References

  1. ^ "Vivendi Universal Games Acquires High Moon Studios". Archived from the original on February 5, 2012. Retrieved January 5, 2006.
  2. ^ "A Day in the Life". Games From Within. Archived from the original on May 11, 2008. Retrieved July 21, 2008.
  3. ^ Fahey, Mike (April 2, 2013). "Activision Lays Off High Moon Studios' Deadpool Team". Kotaku. Retrieved June 23, 2019.
  4. ^ Nunneley, Stephany (May 28, 2015). "High Moon Studios is lending a hand on Destiny development [confirmed]". VG247. Retrieved May 29, 2015.