Company:Stellar Stone
 | |
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Fate | Dissolved |
| Founded | 2000 |
| Defunct | 2006 |
| Headquarters | Santa Monica, California , |
Number of locations | 1 office, 2 studios (2006) |
| Products | Big Rigs |
| Parent | TS Group Entertainment, LLC |
Stellar Stone LLC was an American video game developer based in Santa Monica, California, owned by Sergey Titov through his company TS Group Entertainment. Founded in 2000, the company commissioned game development in Russia and Ukraine to produce games with little staff and at low expenses.
Stellar Stone developed a total of seven games, most of which are little-known. However, their best-known title was Big Rigs, a 2003 racing game that is considered to be one of the worst games ever made due to numerous glitches and lack of AI and collision detection, and holds Metacritic's all-time lowest score for a video game, at 8/100. Every game in the company's portfolio was published by GameMill Publishing, with the exception of their first title, Taxi Racer, which was published by BestBuys Interactive. Stellar Stone released their last game in 2005, and ceased operations in 2006.
History
Stellar Stone was founded in Santa Monica, California in 2000. Headquartered in Santa Monica, the company's development teams were stationed outside the U.S., in Russia and Ukraine .[1] The Eastern European location allowed Stellar Stone to produce games at the low cost of circa US$15,000, instead of expenses around three to five times higher in price with other European or United States-based developers.[1]
All of Stellar Stone's games were built on Eternity, a game engine developed by Sergey Titov, chief executive officer of TS Group Entertainment, who licensed it to Stellar Stone in exchange for a "large chunk of the company".[1] According to Titov, the company "[wanted] to do things cheap and [was] not willing to pay even 200-300 [thousand U.S. dollars]" to create an engine on their own. Despite being the owner of Stellar Stone, Titov claims he "didn't have much design and development input or any power to stop [the company's games] from being released."[1]
Stellar Stone ceased business in 2006, due to losses as a result of the failed games. Referring to the company's employees and staff, Titov said "I have no idea where all these people went. Not that I care about it either."[1] Their Internet domain, www.stellarstone.com, went offline in 2006, and has since been cybersquatted. Titov went on to produce and publish more games that were to be critically panned, such as Hammerpoint Interactive's The War Z (produced and published by Titov's OP Productions), but also worked for Riot Games on League of Legends.[2]
Games developed
| Title | Release date | Genre(s) | Publisher(s) | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taxi Racer | 2001 | Racing | BestBuys Interactive | — |
| Remington Big Buck Trophy Hunt | 2002 | First-person shooter, sports | GameMill Publishing | Teen |
| Gettysburg: Civil War Battles | 2003 | Real-time strategy | ||
| Ultimate Civil War Battles: Robert E. Lee vs. Ulysses S. Grant | 2003 | |||
| Total Pinball 25 | 2003 | Pinball | Everyone | |
| Big Rigs | 2003 | Racing | ||
| Midnight Race Club: Supercharged! | 2004 |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Q and A with Sergey Titov, CEO of TS Group". September 21, 2008. http://www.yourewinner.com/index.php?action=stitovinterview.
- ↑ Schreier, Jason (December 19, 2012). "The War Z Mess: Every Crazy Detail We Know So Far [UPDATE"]. Gizmodo Media Group. http://kotaku.com/5969784/the-war-z-mess-every-crazy-detail-we-know-so-far. Retrieved September 10, 2017.
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