Factor 5

Factor 5 was a German and later American company that developed computer and video games. It arose from the hacker group The Light Circle and was founded in 1987 in Cologne as a small development studio for computer games. After more than 20 years, the company finally went in the spring of 2009 in the bankruptcy, the still existing German branch was also closed in 2010.

Company History

Founded in Cologne

The 5 in the name comes from the number of members during the first years ago - yet emerged on the name Factor 3 in early software demos. Internally, the company's founder, called also like - in allusion to the Enid Blyton books - the five friends, because they were also connected to each other amicably.

The first game, the Amiga version of Manfred Trenz ' Katakis, was the arcade game R-Type so similar that it led to disputes with Irem. This meant that several Katakis versions came on the market and, thanks to an agreement between the two parties, Factor 5, the conversion of R-Type performed on the Amiga. Gained cult status Factor 5 by the development of 16-bit versions of the C64 game Turrican.

After Turrican 2 Factor 5 is focused on the development of console games and worked closely with LucasArts and Nintendo, leading to the development of the Star Wars Rogue Squadron series for the Nintendo 64 and the Nintendo GameCube led.

Shift in the U.S.

1997 moved Factor 5 with the founding of Factor 5, LLC its development activities in the United States, on the one hand to better collaborate with LucasArts, but also because of the " arrogant (s) disregard of the Germans towards this type of entertainment " (quote Factor -5 CEO Julian Eggebrecht ).

The new headquarters of the company was located in San Rafael, California, a suburb of San Francisco s near the famous Silicon Valley. In Cologne, the former headquarters of the company, continued to exist as a branch representative for the European market.

In addition to the production of games for Amiga, PC and various consoles came Factor 5 also as a producer of the first album by Chris Hülsbeck.

The final product of the company was the Lair, developed exclusively for the PlayStation 3, which appeared at the same time for the launch of Sony's console in the fall of 2007.

Resolution

In December 2008, dismissed Factor 5, Inc. 37 employees, representing half of the total workforce. On 14 May 2009 the closure of the U.S. section was announced. This was due to serious financial problems. A portion of the workforce by studio owner Julian Eggebrecht founded Touch Factor, a development studio for social games. The German subsidiary was not affected by the bankruptcy, broke up after a shareholders' resolution, however, as of December 31, 2010.