Majesco

Majesco Entertainment is a video game publisher founded in 1986, originally re-issuing old titles that had been abandoned by their original publisher. By cutting prices dramatically and arranging the rights to self-manufacture games for both Sega and Nintendo systems, the company soon found a sustainable market niche.

The company later arranged with Sega to manufacture a version of its 16-bit console, the Mega Drive (Genesis in the US), which had been superseded by the 32-bit Saturn. They released this console in 1998 as the Genesis 3, and followed this up with a version of the hand-held Game Gear called the Game Gear Core System.

More recently, the company's focus shifted to in-house game development - initially under the brand of Pipe-Dream Interactive, focusing on newer systems, such as Nintendo's Game Boy Advance and GameCube, Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PlayStation 2.

However, the publisher fell into financial trouble with a number of poorly-received titles, such as Psychonauts, which although won several awards and critical acclaim, sold poorly. In comparison, Advent Rising, generated intense hype but was ultimately panned by critics for being released without adequate bug testing. In January 2006, the company's financial situation worsened, and it was forced to cancel two games: Demonik, developed by Terminal Reality, and Taxi Driver, a sequel to the movie. Majesco's President, Jesse Sutton, said that the company would in the future "focus primarily on publishing value and handheld video games".

Games

Some of the most critically acclaimed releases from Majesco include:

• Aeon Flux (2006) PlayStation 2, Xbox
• Age of Empires: The Age of Kings (2006) Nintendo DS
• BloodRayne (2003) GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox
• BloodRayne 2 (2006) PlayStation 2, Xbox
• Bomberman Max 2: Red Advance (2003) Game Boy Advance
• Bust-A-Move Nintendo DS (2006) Nintendo DS
• David Beckham Soccer (2002) Xbox
• Earthworm Jim (2001) Game Boy Advance
• F-14 Tomcat (2001) Game Boy Advance
• Frogger (1998) Game Boy Color
• Guilty Gear X2 #Reload (2004) Xbox
• Infected (2006) Sony PSP
• Iridion II (2003) Game Boy Advance
• Mobile Forces (2002) PC
• Psychonauts (2006) PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox
• Rainbow Six (2000) Dreamcast
• Raze's Hell (2005) Xbox
• Soldier of Fortune Gold (2001) PlayStation 2