Firefly Studios

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Firefly Studios Limited
TypePrivate
IndustryVideo games
Founded1999; 22 years ago (1999)
Founders
  • Simon Bradbury
  • Eric Ouellette
Headquarters
London
,
England
Key people
  • Simon Bradbury
  • Eric Ouellette
ProductsStronghold series
Number of employees
30 (2017)
Websitefireflyworlds.com

Firefly Studios Limited is a British video game developer based in London, England. Formed in 1999 by Simon Bradbury and Eric Ouellette, the company focuses on historic real-time strategy games for the PC and Macintosh systems. They are best known for their Stronghold series of games.[1]

History[]

Firefly Studios was established in 1999 by Bradbury and Ouellette, who met while working at Impressions Games.[2] Their first game, Stronghold released in 2001, was successful both critically and commercially.[3]

The later Stronghold releases, Stronghold 2 (2005), and Stronghold Legends (2006), were both reviewed poorly and received Metacritic scores of 63%[4] and 57% respectively.[5] The last of the series, Stronghold: Crusader Extreme, received an average of 40% scores on Metacritic.[6] Around this time, the studio began a collaboration with Firaxis Games that produced CivCity: Rome, a game that received poor reviews,[7]and was the last Firefly game published by Take-Two Interactive.

In 2008, Firefly stated that they would be working on Stronghold 3 followed by Crusader II because of demand from fans. The studio later cancelled the release of the planned Dungeon Hero game. In 2009, when asked if they had any other unannounced game in development besides Dungeon Hero and Stronghold Kingdoms, the studio responded that they still had one more game in development.[8][9] A subsequent newsletter stated that the studio had "something very big in the pipeline", which would be revealed in 2010.[10]

Stronghold 3 was officially announced on 14 May 2010 by SouthPeak Games, and was released in October 2011.[11] The game received some criticism on gaming sites for errors in the game. Fans pointed to various issues, including the difficulty involved with building walls, and that there was no kingmaker.

More recent games include Stronghold Crusader II, which was scheduled for release in early 2013[12] but got later delayed until later in 2014.[13] The game was the sequel to their 2002 game Stronghold: Crusader. According to lead designer at Firefly Studios, Simon Bradbury, the title is "our favorite game, it’s our fans’ favorite game and it’s the game we have been waiting to put into production for several long years now."[14] The title was released on 23 September 2014.

Despite the uneven success of some of its games, the studio continues to develop new games and has sold over seven million to date. The Stronghold Kingdoms series retains a following with over eight million registered players.[15]

Recent activities[]

Dungeon Hero had been in development for several years and was scheduled for release on both PC and Xbox 360 systems. The game was originally going to be published by Gamecock Media Group, but after that company was bought out by SouthPeak Games in October 2008, a legal dispute on the subject of ownership of the game stopped its release. Dungeon Hero is currently without a publisher, despite SouthPeak publishing every other Gamecock title due for release. Firefly Studios have announced that the title is on hold, and several planned release dates have passed. The lack of clarity on the issue has fueled speculation that the game may be published as a vaporware title in the future.[citation needed]

Stronghold: Next was the latest confirmed title by Firefly Studios, but at Electronic Entertainment Expo 2019 the title was revealed to be Stronghold: Warlords. The game was released on March 9th, 2021.

Games[]

Year Game
2001 Stronghold
2002 Stronghold: Crusader
2003 Space Colony
2005 Stronghold 2
2006 CivCity: Rome
2006 Stronghold Legends
Cancelled Dungeon Hero
2008 Stronghold: Crusader Extreme
2009 Stronghold Kingdoms
2011 Stronghold 3
2012 Stronghold HD
2012 Stronghold: Crusader HD
2012 Space Colony HD
2014 Stronghold Crusader II
2015 Space Colony: Steam Edition
2016 Wonky Tower[16]
2016 Stronghold Legends: Steam Edition
2017 Stronghold 2: Steam Edition
2017 Stronghold Kingdoms: Mobile Edition
2017 MetaMorph: Dungeon Creatures[17]
2021

References[]

  1. ^ Guglielmo, Samuel (19 November 2019). "Sam Speaks With Firefly Studios About Stronghold: Warlords". TechRaptor. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  2. ^ "About us: Strategy gaming since 1999". Firefly Studios. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  3. ^ stronghold meta score
  4. ^ stronghold 2 meta score
  5. ^ stronghold legends meta score
  6. ^ crusader extreme meta score
  7. ^ civcity:rome meta score
  8. ^ "stronghold kingdoms interview". Archived from the original on 2013-10-19. Retrieved 2009-07-11.
  9. ^ Stronghold 3 and Crusader 2 coming at some point
  10. ^ Firefly Newsletter - Issue #2
  11. ^ SouthPeak Games Staff (May 13, 2010). "SouthPeak Games Acquires Rights to Publish Firefly Studios' Stronghold 3". SouthPeak Games. Archived from the original on May 4, 2012. Retrieved May 10, 2010.
  12. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-01-29. Retrieved 2013-01-23.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  13. ^ http://www.fireflyworlds.com/press/sheet.php?p=Stronghold%20Crusader%202
  14. ^ http://www.fireflyworlds.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=524&Itemid=1
  15. ^ "Stronghold: Warlords Adds Map Pack and DLC Campaign". Game Press. 18 May 2021. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  16. ^ "Wonky Tower | Firefly Studios". www.fireflyworlds.com. Archived from the original on 2016-06-14. Retrieved 2016-07-07.
  17. ^ "MetaMorph : Dungeon Creatures".

External links[]

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