Sony Imagesoft

Beginnings and early years

The company started and incorporated on December 15, 1988 in Los Angeles, California, as CSG Imagesoft Inc. as a unit of CBS/Sony Group to market games exclusively for Nintendo consoles. The company's trademark was first registered on October 17, 1989.

The first release was Super Dodge Ball in summer 1989. UK-developed games such as Solstice and Dragon's Lair followed in 1990. Both were also published in Japan through Epic/Sony Records. Both titles were massive critical and commercial successes, with Solstice being the most expensive NES game in the Western market ever produced and became the company's first big break and major hit.

In 1991, the company was reorganized, so Sony launched Sony Electronic Publishing, to capitalize on the acquisition of Columbia Pictures two years prior in an effort for new multimedia, and CSG Imagesoft itself was renamed to Sony Imagesoft to reflect the change, under the leadership of Olaf Olafsson.

Sega partnership

On May 20, 1992, Sega of America and Sony Electronic Publishing announced a partnership to create content for Sega's consoles under the direction of Imagesoft. Besides Sega's cartridge-based Genesis and Game Gear consoles the partnership targeted the upcoming Sega CD peripheral.

Among the first titles released for Sega's consoles after the announcement are Sewer Shark and Hook. Sewer Shark, initially released exclusively to Sega CD, is a rail-shooter that years earlier had been shelved as part of the ill-fated Control-Vision platform. The Hook video games are tie-ins to the Spielberg feature film Hook that premiered in December 1991 and was produced by Sony-owned TriStar Pictures. Ports of the video game for Sega platforms are based on the Super NES game published earlier by Imagesoft. The Sega CD version was enhanced with better cut scenes with voice actors and digital stills and featured music from the film soundtrack.

1992-1993 expansions and development division

In 1992, the company launched a European business publishing subsidiary Sony Electronic Publishing, Ltd. and appointed Phil Harrison of Mindscape as director of product development, and later started publishing video games under the Sony Imagesoft label.

In early 1993, the company expanded by signing a deal with ESPN, to market a series of sports video games for home consoles. The company then signed a deal with TecMagik Entertainment Ltd. for distribution of titles for the European market.

Also that year, the company acquired successful British game publisher/developer Psygnosis, and ran as an autonomous video game publishing label, with Sony handling distribution of its titles. The acquisition cost Sony £20 million. The company later signed a deal with Media Design Interactive to market its titles for the American market.

In late 1993, the company entered into its own in-house development division in the San Diego area, hiring away staff members from Park Place Productions. The company begin developing games internally, such as the ESPN game series. In the summer of 1994, the company invested in a new startup company SingleTrac Entertainment Technologies, to produce 3D games, in a development deal, that eventually came out for development of its PlayStation games, like Twisted Metal and Warhawk.

In May 1994, the division of Sony Electronic Publishing, Sony Imagesoft, became one of the earliest licenses of the PlayStation in the North American market after Sony Computer Entertainment of America was established as a division of SEP, initially Sony Imagesoft would have ran autonomously from SCEA.

The following month, Sony Imagesoft and Walt Disney Computer Software teamed up for a video game project, Mickey Mania, on platforms, that became a bestseller for the company since Solstice and Equinox. In August 1994, the parent company consolidated all PC software publishing divisions under the Sony Imagesoft name.

In early 1995, the company bought out the video game rights to the character Spawn from Todd McFarlane Productions.

1995 changes

In March 1995, Sony Imagesoft announced that it had appointed Kelly Flock as president. Flock came from Trimark Interactive where he was executive vice president since March 1993. He intended to turn them around at Imagesoft as he abruptly stopped production of its competitior's products in favor of just the about-to-debut PlayStation. The company then let its ESPN game license expire, and brought sports games under normal contracts. The company then subsequently sold the publishing rights of Todd McFarlane's Spawn: The Video Game to Acclaim Entertainment before it was released.

Starting in July 1995, just two months prior to the release of the PlayStation console in Western markets, Sony Electronic Publishing restructured. The main Sony Electronic Publishing company was renamed to Sony Interactive Entertainment on August 17, 1995. All video game marketing from Sony Imagesoft was folded into Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA), with about 100 employees transferred from Santa Monica to Foster City. The video game business of Sony Imagesoft was merged with the product development branch of SCEA to form Sony Interactive Studios America also on August 17, 1995, and also inherited the San Diego development team, which would later be renamed to 989 Studios in 1998.

The computer software business of Imagesoft became Sony Interactive PC Software America and was headed by general manager Ray Sangster, who was of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. Titles released under Sony Interactive PC Software America ran under the labels of Sony Imagesoft and Psygnosis and used its own logos. In August, the Los Angeles Times said Sony had canceled prior projects on computer and video game platforms other than its own PlayStation. It also said Psygnosis became Sony Interactive Europe.