Kuju (company)

• 1. Introduction

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  Kuju made games that had almost nothing in common with each other. Its catalogue ranged from Art Academy on the Nintendo DS to The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest and Battalion Wars 2 on the Wii. It also included Powerstar Golf on the Xbox One. One British studio built all of them under a name that most players today would not recognize. How did a single company end up spread across an art tutor, a fantasy adventure, a war game, and a golf simulator? And why did it keep splitting into smaller studios, some of them sold off and some shut down? This documentary follows Kuju Entertainment from a 1990s management buyout to a name borrowed from a Japanese dictionary. It moves through a revolving cast of British and Czech studios and ends with the merger that closed out the Kuju name.

• 2. A Buyout And A Dictionary

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  Ian Baverstock and Jonathan Newth opened a company called Simis in 1989, building flight simulator software including MiG-29 Fulcrum. Eidos Interactive bought Simis in 1995 and ran it as an in-house development studio. In 1998, Baverstock and Newth led a management buyout of Simis away from Eidos, founding a new company called Kuju Ltd in Shalford, Surrey.

  Jonathan Newth found the name while leafing through a Japanese dictionary, searching for something built from the founders' own initials. He noticed the numbers nine and ten, ku and ju in Japanese, matched the positions of I and J in the English alphabet. Those letters were the first initials of Ian and Jonathan. Joining ku and ju produced the name Kuju.

  Tank Racer became the newly independent studio's first release, a 3D action racing game built for PC, PlayStation, and mobile phones. That modest debut gave little indication of how large Kuju's network of studios and releases would eventually grow.

• 3. Rapid Expansion

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  By 2001, Kuju employed a team of 80 developers spread across three offices, in London, Surrey, and Brighton. The studio's most notable project at the time was Microsoft Train Simulator. In 2002, Kuju floated on the Alternative Investments Market of the London Stock Exchange.

  Shortly after going public, Kuju signed its first deal with THQ, based on the Games Workshop franchise, for Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior. Between 2002 and 2007, the studio developed a run of titles that included SingStar games and the Battalion Wars franchise. The BBC, meanwhile, considered Kuju as one of several companies that could build the game engine for its game show FightBox.

• 4. New Owners, New Names

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  Catalis SE, a German media investment firm, acquired Kuju Ltd in 2007. Kuju Brighton was rebranded as Zoë Mode soon afterward, and in 2008 Kuju London became Headstrong Games.

  Headstrong Games finished Art Academy for the Nintendo DS in 2010, its first release under the new name. In June 2012, Dominic Wheatley, a co-founder of Domark, took over as chief executive. Gary Bracey, previously vice-president of development at Ocean Software, joined at the same time as commercial director.

• 5. Headstrong And Doublesix

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  Headstrong Games began life in 2000 as Kuju London, years before its 2008 rebrand. The studio developed versions of The House of the Dead: Overkill, The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest, and Top Gun: Hard Lock. Its one original intellectual property, Art Academy, was developed for Nintendo and owned by Nintendo. Headstrong also made the Battalion Wars series, which counted as entries in Nintendo's own Wars series.

  Doublesix grew out of the team that had built Geometry Wars: Galaxies, and went on to make the zombie shooter Burn Zombie Burn! The studio picked up an award for Best New UK Studio in 2008 from the trade publication Develop. Geometry Wars: Galaxies also earned a nomination for best hand-held game at the 2009 BAFTAs. Doublesix later produced a sequel to its zombie shooter called All Zombies Must Die! On the 1st of September 2010, Doublesix left the Kuju label to become an independent company. Its studio operations closed in 2012, after handing development of Strike Suit Zero to Born Ready Games.

• 6. Vatra Games And Zoë Mode

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  Vatra Games began in the Czech Republic in 2009, when Kuju was searching for developers to launch a new studio. Around the same time, several employees at 2K Czech were retiring, and this group of developers came together to found Vatra Games. Kuju terminated its contract with Vatra Games in July 2012, four months after Silent Hill: Downpour was released in March. Vatra Games was declared bankrupt in September 2012.

  Zoë Mode traces back to 2003, when Kuju hired the team behind Wide Games to build a new studio called Kuju Brighton. Its first release under the Zoë Mode name was Crush, made for Sega. In 2009, the studio released the puzzle game Chime, produced by the non-profit organization OneBigGame. Zoë Mode had already signed a deal to develop Rock Revolution in June 2008, and in 2011 it signed on to make Zumba Fitness 2. Zoë Mode also worked on the EyeToy series, the Zumba dance franchise, Powerstar Golf, and several games built for Xbox's Kinect sensor.

• 7. A Sprawling Catalogue

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  Lotus Challenge, a racing title for PC, came out in 2001, not long after Kuju's founding. Reign of Fire and Fire Blade followed in 2002, alongside SingStar, made jointly with London Studio. The studio added EyeToy: Play in 2003, then GT-R 400 and Crash Twinsanity 3D in 2004. That same year, Kuju partnered with Spark Unlimited on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions of Call of Duty: Finest Hour.

  Conspiracy: Weapons of Mass Destruction arrived in 2005. The following year brought The Regiment, Sensible Soccer 2006, and Pilot Academy. In 2007, Kuju released Nucleus, Rail Simulator, Dungeons & Dragons Tactics, Dancing with the Stars, and M.A.C.H. Modified Air Combat Heroes. It also shipped an Xbox Live Arcade version of Sensible World of Soccer that year. A separate 2007 project, Knight Wars, was canceled before release.

  Disney Sing It reached shelves in 2008, alongside Rock Revolution and You're in the Movies, both of which ran through 2009. The House of the Dead: Overkill also released in 2009. In 2010, Kuju put out Disney Sing It: Family Hits and Grease: The Game. Chime: Super Deluxe and Rush 'N Attack: Ex-Patriot both followed in 2011.

  The year 2012 alone produced Haunt, Crush 3D, New Art Academy, Zumba Fitness Rush, Zumba Fitness Core, and Rabbids Rumble. Zumba Fitness: World Party and Zumba Kids followed in 2013.

  Pokémon Art Academy came out in 2014, followed by Guitar Hero Live in 2015. In 2016, Kuju released Disney Art Academy along with two Marvel: Ultimate Alliance games. Its last credited release was Narcos: Rise of the Cartels in 2019. Kuju had also operated smaller studios called Kuju Surrey, Kuju Sheffield, later renamed Chemistry, Nik Nak Games, Kuju America, and Kuju Manila. None of those studios carried the Kuju name forward to the end. In 2016, Kuju merged with Curve Games, folding its long roster of studios and releases into a single new company.