Sony-backed gaming firm closes doors
Intrinsic Graphics, a maker of development software for computer games, has shut down its operations and is negotiating the sale of its assets, the company's CEO says.
Friday was the last day of work for the 32 remaining employees of the Mountain View, Calif., company, said CEO Paul Thomas. "The company's being shut down," he said.
Intrinsic's board decided on Monday to shut down the company and sell its assets. Intrinsic Graphics, which was founded in 1999 and backed by Sony and others, was running out of cash, according to Thomas.
Thomas said the company has been approached by several potential buyers. "There is a short list of people who are serious and have offers on the table," he said.
He declined to name the potential buyers and said a decision could be made as early as next week. Thomas' hope is that the buyer continues to maintain Intrinsic's product line and support its customers.
Intrinsic's customers, including Sega and Activision, used the company's development tools to design video graphics more quickly and efficiently, said Thomas. The key feature of the technology, he added, was that it enabled programmers to develop games that work on a variety of consoles and hardware, including the Sony PlayStation, Microsoft's Xbox and Nintendo's GameCube, as well as personal computers and set-top boxes. At its peak in 2001, Intrinsic employed a staff of 50, Thomas said.
The company's product, which cost $100,000 per game, was ahead of its time, Thomas said. The release of the PlayStation 3 should create more demand for the tool because of the complexity of that platform, he said.
"As different hardware takes more graphic intensive applications, there will be more use for our technology," Thomas said. "It's not there just yet."