With VR aims, Starbreeze scoops up Cinemaware name and games

Payday 2 developer Starbreeze has scooped up the rights to the venerable Cinemaware brand, and with it Cinemaware's complete catalog of games, for €525,000 (or roughly $585k in USD) in cash.

What's interesting here is that Cinemaware's heyday was in the late '80s, when the developer and publisher found sucess bringing games like Defender of the Crown, The King of Chicago and It Came From the Desert to the Amiga and other '80s game machines.

"At that time in the industry, if you were an innovator, you were gold," Cinemaware cofounder Bob Jacobs once told Gamasutra. "It was a great time, probably the most fun five years I've ever had in my life. I wouldn't trade it for anything."

The company went bankrupt in 1991, and has since been reborn in various incarnations as the brand and game catalog changed hands. Now that Starbreeze owns it, the company intends to create VR "experiences" based on classic Cinemaware games.

"For us, as a developer, it will be a pleasure to re-energize and bring these great brands into the new era of VR and other platforms," stated Starbreeze chief Bo Andersson Klint in a press release confirming the deal. "The classic Cinemaware games are concepts that still in this day are epic imaginations. We will make them excel in excellent VR-experiences at our location based IMAX centers."

Starbreeze now owns the following Cinemaware properties, along with the Cinemaware label itself, and intends to use them for both internal projects and external publishing deals: