![]() The success allowed Domark to move into proper offices and hire more employees. Released in 1986, the Trivial Pursuit sold roughly 2 million copies. The team at Leisure Genius believed a conversion of Trivial Pursuit was infeasible and thus gave way to Domark, who hired Oxford Digital Enterprises to develop it. ĭomark found further success with computer conversions of board games: Trivial Pursuit was becoming increasingly popular, so Domark got into contact with Leisure Genius, which had found success with board game conversions. Despite delays caused by scope creep, the eponymous game was released later in 1985 and was "actually quite successful", according to Wheatley. In 1985, Domark obtained a licence to A View to a Kill. Domark were unsure what project to pursue next Strachan and Wheatley had a contact in the estate of Ian Fleming and approached them with the idea of producing a video game based on James Bond. Impressed with the company's operations, Livingstone invested £10,000 in Domark. Domark released the game later in 1984, marketing it through Concept Marketing, another firm set up by Strachan and Wheatley. Through friends, family, and other acquaintances, they raised £160,000, more than enough to finance the project. Strachan and Wheatley further devised a competition in which a telephone number would be shown upon completing the game, and the first person to call it would win £25,000. For their first game, they designed the adventure game Eureka!, hired the Hungarian developer Andromedia, and brought in Ian Livingstone as its writer. Strachan and Wheatley, at the time aged 24, subsequently quit their jobs and founded Domark, forming a portmanteau of their first names for the company name. Strachan initially declined but later saw that many retailers in the city had sold out of ZX Spectrum models, which he felt signalled great interest in video games. When he returned to his job as a junior account executive at Garden-a small advertising agency based in London-in early 1984, he spoke to his colleague Strachan and floated the idea of setting up a company to publish games from third-party developers. He was impressed with the game and felt that many more ordinary people, not just those who work with computers professionally, would start acquiring computers and games for them. For Christmas 1983, Wheatley (the grandson of the writer Dennis Wheatley) had visited his family, where he saw his brother play The Heroes of Karn on a newly purchased Commodore 64. Square Enix Limited was founded as Domark by Mark Strachan and Dominic Wheatley in 1984. History Foundation as Domark (1984–1994) It is headquartered in Southwark, London (Square Enix London), with offices in Paris, France (Square Enix France) and Hamburg, Germany (Square Enix Germany). Square Enix Limited contains Square Enix's Western third party publishing division, Square Enix External Studios, and indie initiative division, Square Enix Collective. In August 2022, Swedish games holding company Embracer Group completed its acquisition of studios Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal and Square Enix Montréal and intellectual properties Tomb Raider, Deus Ex among other assets, with Rogers and management moving to Embracer. From 2013, Square Enix Limited shared Phil Rogers as chief executive officer (CEO) of "Americas and Europe" along with other executives with fellow group company Square Enix Incorporated. In late 2009, Square Enix completed the merger of its existing European branch with Eidos Interactive, resulting in company Square Enix Limited, which is also known as Square Enix Europe. The combined company, SCi Entertainment Group, which was briefly renamed Eidos, was taken over by Square Enix in 2009. In 2005, parent Eidos plc was taken over by British games publisher SCi. Ian Livingstone, who held a stake in Domark, became executive chairman of Eidos in 1995 and later assumed various roles. In 1995, it was acquired by Eidos plc and merged with Simis and Big Red Software to create publishing subsidiary Eidos Interactive the following year. The company was founded as Domark in 1984 by Mark Strachan and Dominic Wheatley. Other published games series include Championship Manager, debuted in 1992, and Hitman, from 2000 to 2017. After 2009, its successor Square Enix Limited continued primarily producing previous Eidos franchises as part of Square Enix group. Former publisher Eidos Interactive released Tomb Raider, debuted in 1996, and owned Crystal Dynamics, acquired in 1998, among numerous other assets. Square Enix Limited (formerly Domark Limited and Eidos Interactive Limited) is a British subsidiary of Japanese video game company Square Enix, acting as their European publishing arm.
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