Developed, Then Defunct Trivia Quiz

Answer: Black Isle Studios

Black Isle Studios, while solely responsible for the "Baldur's Gate" series, was quite notable in its time having also created "Fallout" and "Fallout II" in their early days. While the developers really did have a falling out and disbanded in 2003, company head, Feargus Urquhart, later went to become the CEO of Obsidian Entertainment. Said company later spearheaded major hits of the late 2000s including "Fallout 3", "Dragon Age: Origins", and "Knights of the Old Republic II". Black Isle Studios' last game together was "Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II" which released on the Xbox in 2004.

Answer: Brøderbund

Brøderbund formed in 1980 in the United States and made a lot of money off games in its day. Their software library included "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?", "Lode Runner", "Prince of Persia", and Cyan's "Myst". While they originally tried to buy out the stocks in a business called The Learning Company in 1995, the plan backfired. Said company bought THEM out in 1998 before being bought out by Mattel themselves.

After fumbling for years, Ubisoft eventually ended up with the rights to all of these gaming series. You can probably still find their "Mavis Beacon" typing programs in bargain bins.

Answer: Clover Games

Clover Games didn't befall the most horrible fate. After a series of modestly popular "Viewtiful Joe" games on the Gamecube, they brought out the uniquely well-received "Okami" (and then developers at Ready at Dawn ported it onto the Wii). In 2007, the company merged with Seeds, Inc. to become Platinum Games.

This new 'super-developer' (a term I reserve for only the most powerful of developers made of several other developers...it's complicated) later released "MadWorld" on the Wii and "Bayonetta" on the PS3 and Xbox 360. Both games were quite popular critically.

While Platinum Games became an independent Japanese company, their original games remained with the parent company: Capcom.

Answer: Iron Lore Entertainment

Iron Lore Entertainment started in 2000 and closed in 2008 after only one game (and expansion): "Titan Quest". This video game, only for PC, was an online action-RPG with many roots in Greek mythology. Similar to the "God of War" series in nature, the game was praised for its physics and was released by THQ. "Titan Quest" was released in 2006 and its expansion, "Immortal Throne", appeared in 2007. Iron Lore Entertainment disappeared after that, unable to fun anything else.

Answer: RedOctane

RedOctane started on the music/rhtyhm game scene with pads and versions of "In The Groove", a dancing game akin to the Konami/Bemani series "Dance Dance Revolutions. Eventually, when Harmonix split off to create "Rock Band" after making the first two "Guitar Hero" titles, RedOctane took over Activision's "Guitar Hero" franchise. RedOctane was shut down by Activision in 2010 and development of the series was handed to Neversoft (who originally made "Tony Hawk" skateboarding games).

Answer: Pandemic Studios

Originally a part of Electronic Arts (EA Games), Pandemic Studios had "Star Wars Battlefront", "Destroy All Humans!", and "Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction" under its belt before being closed down in late 2009. Cited as one of the effects of economic recession, EA cut back over a thousand jobs in the same year. Pandemic Studios was situated in both Los Angeles and Australia.

Originally, Pandemic was associated with BioWare, a company known for "Knights of the Old Republic", "Mass Effect", and "Dragon Age: Origins".

Answer: Sierra Entertainment

Sierra started releasing games in 1980 and continued for almost thirty years before the video game world passed it by. In 2000, Vivendi picked up the company (which stood on its own for many, many years selling PC games along the lines of "The Incredible Machine", "Phantasmagoria", and "Homeworld"). Vivendi would later be merged with Activision who decided to cease development and distribution under the Sierra name. All products within from "Spyro" to "Crash" and otherwise would continue on to be profitable series, but Sierra lost its involvement.

Its employees dispersed among the rest of Activision's subsidiaries.

Answer: Shiny Entertainment

Shiny Entertainment started with "Earthworm Jim" in 1994 and moved onward with the flow of consoles, creating games for the "Matrix" series and an adaptation of "The Golden Compass" before joining with The Collective, Inc. (known for its adaptation games including "Men in Black" and "The Da Vinci Code").

The two would go on to form Double Helix Studios in 2007 and release "Silent Hill: Homecoming" in 2008. They later developed "Front Mission Evolved" in 2010 to be published by major company, Square-Enix.

Answer: Looking Glass Studios

After the downfall of Looking Glass Studios in 2000 (as a result of Eidos Interactive's finances), "Thief" and materials involving the series were pushed to the publisher (which was Eidos). Its employees, for the most part, went on to more successful ventures though influences of Looking Glass' works have appeared in "Bioshock", "Assassin's Creed", and others. Coincidentally, Ion Storm, who Eidos commissioned to create a third "Thief" game, went defunct in 2005. Eidos Interactive became a subsidiary of Square-Enix upon acquisition in 2010, and they took "Tomb Raider" and "Timesplitters" with them.

Answer: Ensemble Studios

While the company began their long-running "Age of Empires" real-time strategy games in the mid-1990s and carried it through many installations, expansions, and versions (re: "Age of Mythology"), the making of "Halo Wars" for the Xbox 360 sparked a break-up in this development house.

Many employees moved to Robot Entertainment (who maintained "Age of Empire's" servers), Windstorm Studios, and Bonfire Studios. "Halo Wars" servers were transferred to Microsoft Game Studios in 2010, and cripes that place has bajillions of developers.