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Foundation 9 Entertainment (sometimes abbreviated as F9E) is an American entertainment media company that develops video games, comic books, film and television series. The company is an independent video game developer,〔http://uk.games.ign.com/objects/142/14209720.html〕 with studios in California, Oregon in the U.S, Sheffield, UK, and Pune, India. Its current CEO is James North-Hearn. ==History== Foundation 9 was formed on March 29, 2005 through the merger of Backbone Entertainment, The Collective.〔(The Collective, Backbone laying Foundation 9 )〕 and Oregon-based developer Pipeworks Software.〔(Foundation 9 Entertainment, Inc. acquired Pipeworks Software )〕 Afterward, on May 26, 2005, F9E announced a partnership with Circle of Confusion.〔(Foundation 9 Entertainment Announces Equity Stake and Strategic Partnership with Circle of Confusion )〕 Unlike F9E's other studios, which primarily work in software development, Circle of Confusion is a production and management company that represents creative staff in entertainment. On June 1, 2006 Foundation 9 received $150 million from Francisco Partners, a private equity firm.〔(Foundation 9 Gets 'Significant' Funding Investment )〕 Foundation 9 announced the acquisition of Shiny Entertainment on October 2, 2006,〔(Foundation 9 Buys Shiny Entertainment, But Not Earthworm )〕 Amaze Entertainment on November 14, 2006,〔(Gamasutra – Foundation 9 Acquires Amaze Studios )〕 and Sumo Digital on August 17, 2007.〔(Foundation 9 wrestles with Sumo Digital – Wii News at GameSpot )〕 On May 25, 2007, the Charlottetown, PEI studio of Foundation 9 constituent Backbone Entertainment was spun off to become Other Ocean Interactive.〔(Foundation 9 says goodbye to Charlottetown )〕 Other subsidiaries include ImaginEngine (part of Backbone Entertainment) and, formerly, Griptonite Games (part of Amaze Entertainment). Digital Eclipse is not a studio under the Foundation 9 hierarchy, as all games under the Digital Eclipse brand were developed at the Backbone Entertainment studios. Digital Eclipse was originally one of the core companies that merged to form Backbone, the progenitor of F9E. The Collective and Shiny were merged in late 2007 and relocated to a new headquarters in Irvine. The resultant studio was named Double Helix in early 2008.〔(Double Helix is new Foundation 9 studio )〕 In May 2009, Foundation 9 completed the closure of its Vancouver, Canada-based studio of Backbone Entertainment, after a series of staff cutbacks beginning September 2008.〔(Vancouver's video game family tree. )〕 In July 2009, Foundation 9 closed The Fizz Factor, its Texas-based studio.〔(Foundation 9 closes Fizz Factor studio, cuts back at Double Helix )〕 Amaze was consolidated under Griptonite at the same time, and Double Helix scaled back its operations.〔(Foundation 9 scales back development capacity )〕 In August 2011, Foundation 9 sold Griptonite to Glu Mobile.〔(Glu Mobile Picks Up Griptonite, Blammo After Narrowing Losses )〕 The downsizing continued in October 2012 with the closure of ImaginEngine〔(Foundation 9 Closes ImaginEngine )〕 and significant layoffs at the remaining Backbone Entertainment studio in California,〔(Layoffs at digital game studio Backbone Entertainment )〕 with a closure of that studio also being considered.〔(Death Jr. Dev Faces Closure )〕 The original CEO of Foundation 9 was Jon Goldman, who came from Backbone, and founder of ImaginEngine. Upon the acquisition of Amaze, he was joined by COO David Mann, a co-founder of Amaze, who, on January 16, 2008, assumed the position of President.〔(Foundation 9 promotes three execs )〕 As of March 17, 2008, James North-Hearn, one of Sumo Digital's founders, has assumed the CEO position.〔(North-Hearn named Foundation 9 CEO )〕 In February 2014, the subsidiary Double Helix was acquired by Amazon.com. Following this announcement, Microsoft, the publisher of Double Helix's Xbox One title ''Killer Instinct'' told Polygon that they will start working with a "new development partner" on future updates to the game. In 2014 Pipeworks was acquired by digital bros.〔 (【引用サイトリンク】title=digital bros financial statements year ending June 30, 2014 )〕 This left only the Sumo studio in the UK as part of Foundation 9 Entertainment. In May 2015, the board of directors elected to dissolve Foundation 9 Entertainment. Sumo purchased itself out of Foundation 9 Entertainment by its own management. And in July 2015, a reboot company of Foundation 9 was going to be made. It'll be called Foundation IX2 Entertainment and will bring back all old companies. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Foundation 9 Entertainment」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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