Former type Private Defunct 2013 Ceased operations 2013 | Industry Video game development Number of employees 55 | |
Fate Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Protection Key people Adel Chaveleh, President
Alan Chaveleh, Chairman Products Kohan series
F.E.A.R. series
Axis & Allies RTS
Section 8 series
Aliens: Colonial Marines Headquarters Sugar Land, Texas, United States Founded 1998, Sugar Land, Texas, United States Video games Section 8, Section 8: Prejudice, Aliens: Colonial Marines, FEAR Extraction Point, FEAR Perseus Mandate | ||
TimeGate Studios was an American video game developer based in Sugar Land, Texas. The company, which was founded in 1998, released eight titles before closing in 2013.
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Company history
TimeGate Studios was founded in 1998 by Alan and Adel Chaveleh, who respectively served as Chairman and President of the studio. The company had worked with industry publishers such as Vivendi Games, Take-Two Interactive, Atari, Ubisoft, SouthPeak Games, and Gamecock Media Group.
TimeGate Studios' debut real-time strategy game, Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns, won positive critical reception receiving several awards including “Strategy Game of the Year” in 2001 by Computer Gaming World, PC Gamer, and Computer Games Magazine. The standalone expansion pack, Kohan: Ahriman’s Gift, was released later that year and the company’s relative success with the Kohan franchise earned it a nomination for “Rookie Studio of the Year” from the IGDA in 2001.
The studio released an addition to the Kohan series in September 2004 with the release of Kohan II: Kings of War, which was featured as a “Top 10 Game” in 2004 by Computer Games Magazine. In November 2004, TimeGate Studios and Atari released Axis & Allies RTS, a real-time strategy game that let players play the role of World War II’s different factions. This title is currently TimeGate's best-selling release to date.
The studio then began to develop in the genre of first-person shooters in October 2006 with the release of F.E.A.R. Extraction Point, an expansion pack for Vivendi’s horror game F.E.A.R (First Encounter Assault Recon.) F.E.A.R. Extraction Point was named “Best Expansion Pack of 2006” by PC Gamer. TimeGate Studios further propelled the F.E.A.R. series on the PC with the release of F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate in November 2007. The company released F.E.A.R. Files, a combination of both expansion packs, for the Xbox 360 in November 2007 as well.
The studio then began production on Section 8, a sci-fi first-person shooter that was released on the Xbox 360 and PC in September 2009. Several months later, TimeGate released Section 8 on the PlayStation 3 in March 2010. Further sequels have been hinted upon by TimeGate stating, "...it has never been our intent for it to be a one-product franchise," in reference to Section 8. On April 20, 2011, TimeGate released a digital downloadable sequel to the game called Section 8: Prejudice.
In late 2012, TimeGate were involved in the development of the much-hyped science-fiction first-person shooter, Aliens: Colonial Marines. The game was outsourced to TimeGate by Borderlands developer Gearbox Software, who were originally assigned by publisher Sega to work on the Alien game. However, due to troubled development, the game was released in a rushed, incomplete state and received mostly negative reviews. Most issues were resolved with a post-release patch. Nevertheless, the state of the game upon initial release led to TimeGate laying off twenty-five members of its staff after its release.
In 2013, it was announced that TimeGate was developing a new free-to-play game, titled Minimum, expected to be release at the end of the year. On May 2 it was reported that the studio had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, owing US$10 – 50 million. It was reported later in May that the studio had closed.