Company:Loot Drop

From HandWiki
Loot Drop
TypePrivate
IndustryInteractive entertainment
SuccessorRomero Games
Founded2010
FounderJohn Romero, Brenda Romero
Defunct2015
Headquarters
San Mateo, California

Loot Drop was a social video game studio that was started in San Mateo, California.[1] It was created by John Romero and Brenda Romero with veteran game designer Tom Hall heading up his own game.[2] Its tagline was "Believe in fun".[1]

Formation

After creating the megahit social game,[3] Ravenwood Fair, John and Brenda Romero left Lolapps to co-found Loot Drop and begin making social games. Due to the success of Ravenwood Fair, several companies were interested in signing a game development and publishing deal with them.[4] RockYou was the first publisher to get to contract.[5] The game that John Romero was developing was titled Cloudforest Expedition.[6] Four months into development, RockYou signed a second development deal with Loot Drop.[7]

The studio got funding for Cloudforest Expedition[8] from social game publisher RockYou in 2011.[2] Within a year, Loot Drop had four titles in development with multiple social game publishers.[2] Romero stated that he wanted to focus on game design rather than monetizing players.[2] The studio was stated to have four teams that would grow to 10 or 11 employees each.[1]

Studio closing

The studio encountered financial trouble in 2012, with the game Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Commander being cancelled only five months after launch.[9] This resulted in that development team being laid off.[9] They failed to fund a Kickstarter campaign for an "Old-School RPG".[9] Loot Drop continued developing games until the end of 2015. In its existence, it had developed games for RockYou, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Mogol, and Zynga.[10]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Loot Drop banks on talented game designers as it takes on social gaming's giants (exclusive)". 2011-03-03. https://venturebeat.com/2011/03/03/loot-drop-banks-on-talented-game-designers-as-it-takes-on-social-gamings-giants-exclusive/. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Loot Drop is John Romero's New Game Studio" (in en). Tom's Hardware. 2011-03-04. http://www.tomshardware.com/news/john-Romero-Tom-Hall-Loot-Drop-Social-Gaming-Doom,12330.html. 
  3. Baribeau, Tami. "Ravenwood Fair Leads The Pack on This Week's List of Fastest-Growing Facebook Games by MAU". ADWEEK. http://www.adweek.com/digital/ravenwood-fair-leads-the-pack-on-this-week%E2%80%99s-list-of-fastest-growing-facebook-games-by-mau/. 
  4. Takahashi, Dean (3 March 2011). "Loot Drop banks on talented game designers as it takes on social gaming's giants (exclusive)". VentureBeat. https://venturebeat.com/2011/03/03/loot-drop-banks-on-talented-game-designers-as-it-takes-on-social-gamings-giants-exclusive/. 
  5. Romero, John. "RockYou Signs Game Development Agreement". RockYou. https://www.rockyou.com/rymini/pdf/RockYou_Loot_Drop_Announcement.pdf. 
  6. Webster, Andrew (27 April 2011). "John Romero's Loot Drop reveals first social game Cloudforest Expedition". GameZebo. https://www.gamezebo.com/2011/04/27/john-romeros-loot-drop-reveals-first-social-game-cloudforest-expedition/. 
  7. Takahashi, Dean (27 April 2011). "RockYou signs second social game deal with Loot Drop". VentureBeat. https://venturebeat.com/2011/04/27/rockyou-signs-second-social-game-deal-with-loot-drop/. 
  8. Romero, John. "Cloudforest Expedition". RockYou. http://rome.ro/cloudforest-expedition/. 
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 "Old School RPG developers' Ghost Recon Commander to shut down; Loot Drop staff laid off". PCGamesN. https://www.pcgamesn.com/old-school-rpg-developers-ghost-recon-commander-shut-down-loot-drop-staff-laid. 
  10. "Doom co-creator John Romero is working on a new shooter" (in en). pcgamer. http://www.pcgamer.com/doom-co-creator-john-romero-is-working-on-a-new-shooter/. 

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