Services Video game development Number of employees ~110+ | Acquisition date August 2, 2011 | |
 | ||
Industry Computer and video gamesInteractive entertainment Founders Bruce Oberg, Brian Fleming Parent organizations Sony Interactive Entertainment, SIE Worldwide Studios Video games | ||
Sucker Punch Productions is an American video game developer founded in 1997 and based in Bellevue, Washington. It was an independent company until August 2011, but has worked exclusively with Sony Interactive Entertainment since 2000. Sony acquired Sucker Punch on August 2, 2011.
History
In late 1999, Sucker Punch released its first game, Rocket: Robot on Wheels, for the Nintendo 64. After signing a deal with Sony in 2000, the company went on to create the Sly Cooper series for the PlayStation 2 using their proprietary engine SPACKLE (Sucker Punch Animation and Character Kinematics Life Engine).
The company's most recent series, Infamous for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, heralded a move from level-based games portraying cel-shaded, anthropomorphic animals to a fully streaming sandbox game depicting more realistic-looking humans and protagonists with acrobatic abilities.
The company was founded in 1997 and according to the company's website it "started at the roots of Microsoft, where the co-founders all worked in a variety of productivity and software development applications. All shared a love for video games, yet only one had game development experience." The group decided to leave Microsoft in 1997. The company name came as one of several proposed by the company that they would not have been able to use at Microsoft due to that company's policies.
Co-founder Chris Zimmerman showed the list to his wife for her opinion, and she responded that she did not care "as long as it isn't 'Sucker Punch'". Considering the opinion of a middle-aged woman would be completely contrary to the demographics of their target audience, they selected that name for the company.
Sucker Punch is considered one of Sony's "platformer trio", which includes Naughty Dog and Insomniac Games. Although the three companies have started to venture into more mature outings, they have recently started to continue their series, such as Naughty Dog handing over production of their latest Jak and Daxter title to High Impact Games and Insomniac games continuing their Ratchet and Clank series. In addition, Sucker Punch has handed over their Sly Cooper series to Sanzaru Games and they have produced Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time. This game was released in February 2013 in North America and March 2013 in Europe and Australia.
Sanzaru Games also released The Sly Collection, a remastered port of the PlayStation 2 Sly Cooper games for the PlayStation 3, in November 2010. In addition, Nihilistic Software developed PlayStation Move Heroes, a cross-over PS3 title featuring Sly Cooper and two other popular characters, Ratchet and Jak. A sequel to Infamous was officially announced when the cover of Game Informer's July 2010 issue was a picture of Infamous 2, along with the magazine containing a ten-page preview of the game.
Sucker Punch teamed up with Capcom to include their Infamous protagonist, Cole MacGrath, as a special guest character for Street Fighter X Tekken. He is a playable character on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita versions, and with SuperBot Entertainment to include both the good and evil versions Cole MacGrath and Sly Cooper in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.