Danger Close Games

Danger Close Games (formerly DreamWorks Interactive and EA Los Angeles) was an American video game developer based in Los Angeles. The company was founded in 1995 as joint venture between DreamWorks and Microsoft under the name DreamWorks Interactive. It was acquired by Electronic Arts and renamed EA Los Angeles in 2000, and to Danger Close Games in 2010. Danger Close's sole responsibility after 2010 was to develop games in the Medal of Honor franchise. When the series was put on hold in January 2013, Danger Close was shut down, with some staff moving on to DICE LA, a Los Angeles studio of DICE, another subsidiary of Electronic Arts.

History[]

As DreamWorks Interactive (1995–2000)[]

DreamWorks and Microsoft announced on March 22, 1995, that they were establishing a game development company, DreamWorks Interactive, as a joint venture. The studio's operations were to be set up in Redmond, Washington, and Los Angeles.^[1] According to Leslie Helm of the Los Angeles Times, the company's initial computer game titles were relatively unsuccessful. Its biggest hit by August 1997 was Goosebumps: Escape from Horrorland, with sales of 130,000 units, according to PC Data. Helm called this "a modest success".^[2]

In 1999, the studio saw its most successful release with first-person shooter video game Medal of Honor, published by Electronic Arts on October 31, 1999 for PlayStation. Medal of Honor laid the groundwork for historic war-based combat games, ultimately leading to Activision's Call of Duty series.^[3] However, the studio's reputation had been hampered by the 1998 release of Trespasser, a game based on the Jurassic Park franchise. Trespasser had numerous technical flaws in attempting to create a realistic physics engine, and introduced mechanics that were considered awkward at the time of its release, such as the player having separate control of the player-character's limbs. The title sold only 50,000 units and is considered one of the worst video games of all time,^[4] and left Steven Spielberg, one of the owners of DreamWorks, in doubt about continuing a video game company.^[5]

Under Electronic Arts (2000–2013)[]

With DreamWorks losing interest in maintaining a video game division, Electronic Arts acquired DreamWorks Interactive from DreamWorks and Microsoft in February 2000.^[6] The company was renamed EA Los Angeles and focused on developing titles in the Medal of Honor series, releasing Medal of Honor: Underground the same year.^[7] On August 6, 2003, EA Los Angeles moved from their offices in Bel Air to a new campus in Playa Vista.^[8] On that campus, the studio was merged with EA Pacific, and received some employees from previously closed Westwood Studios, leading EA Los Angeles to start working in the Command & Conquer series.^[9]

In July 2010, EA Los Angeles was rebranded to Danger Close Games to focus on the development of Medal of Honor games.^[10] With the rebranding referencing a term from the Medal of Honor series, the studio would exclusively focus on the Medal of Honor games.^[11] Their first project was the 2010 Medal of Honor, which was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 on October 12, 2010.^[12] A follow-up, Medal of Honor: Warfighter, was released on October 23, 2012.^{[citation needed]} In January 2013, Electronic Arts announced that the Medal of Honor series was taken 'out of rotation' and put on hold, following to the poor reception received by Warfighter.^[13] With this move, Danger Close was effectively closed; some developers moved to other EA studios, while others left the Los Angeles area.^[14][15] Some senior staff of Danger Close formed the groundwork for DICE LA, a sub-studio of EA DICE, which was formed in May 2013.^[16]

Games developed[]

As DreamWorks Interactive[]

As EA Los Angeles / Danger Close Games[]

References[]