Nordcurrent has bought Defender of the Crown, Rocket Ranger and other classic Cinemaware games
Lithuanian Nordcurrent has signed a deal with Starbreeze Entertainment. She bought out the company's portfolio of Cinemaware games, a developer that flourished in the second half of the 1980s.
Defender of the Crown
The amount of the transaction was not disclosed. Starbreeze Entertainment itself once paid €525 thousand for the purchase of games and the Cinemaware brand.
Nordcurrent now owns projects such as:
- Defender of the Crown;
- Wings;
- The King of Chicago;
- Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon;
- Lords of the Rising Sun;
- Rocket Ranger;
- S.D.I.;
- games in the It Came from the Desert series;
- games of the TV Sports series.
Nordcurrent plans to make remasters of Cinemaware games. She has already started working on a remaster of Defender of the Crown, but is not ready to give an approximate release date yet.
"As gamers, we are big fans of the original Cinemaware games and deeply respect them. We will make sure that the updated versions look and feel as authentic as possible. We want people who will play the remaster of Defender of The Crown to say, "Yes, this is the game!"," commented Victoria Trofimova, CEO of Nordcurrent, on the plans.
Cinemaware opened in 1985 and initially developed games based on popular movie genres, but then expanded the line and turned to sports games. In 1991, the company went bankrupt and closed down. After that, her brand changed hands several times.
In 2000, businessman Lars Fuhrken-Batista bought the Cinemaware brand along with all its products and founded Cinemaware Inc. In 2005, this company was bought by the publisher eGames, which closed in 2012. In 2016, Starbreeze Entertainment became the owner of the brand.
Until recently, a number of Cinemaware games could be found in GOG, but on January 19, 2024, they were removed from the store at the request of the publisher.
