PushButton Labs Acquires The Incredible Machine Franchise

Classic puzzle game franchise The Incredible Machine is reuniting with one of its original creators, as the entire intellectual property has been acquired by PushButton Labs. The Eugene, Oregon-based game developer was co-founded by Jeff Tunnell, who co-designed and produced the original The Incredible Machine in 1992 at Dynamix, the studio he co-founded the previous decade. Dynamix, now defunct, has had a long influence on Oregon-area game development. PushButton was largely formed by former employees of GarageGames, a company that in turn had strong Dynamix roots amongst its co-founders, which included Tunnell. It's likely PushButton got the property from Activision Blizzard, which inherited the studios and assets owned by defunct publisher Sierra when it merged with Vivendi Games. While no new The Incredible Machines have been announced, the original games have been updated to work with modern versions of Windows and are being sold through the classic game download service Good Old Games. PushButton isn't the only current studio picking up Dynamix's old IP: another classic Dynamix franchise, Red Baron, was recently acquired by Mad Otter, a developer co-founded by Tunnell's Dynamix partner Damon Slye.