Quote:
Originally posted by CodyJarrett
Do any of the German (or otherwise) members here know what the link between Rainbow Arts and Softgold was?
It seems that they were both bought by Funsoft in 1997, which was then bought by THQ in 1999. But, what about the earlier years?
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I've previously done a little bit of research on this one.
From what I can gather, Rainbow Arts was established as a publisher in Germany in 1984. At the time they were very keen to get a slice of the C64 market, which as you know became huge in the 80s. Softgold was a C64 developer at the time. The two companies seemingly found each other and formed what by 1987 would become the biggest publisher/developer partnership in Germany. Both companies had the foresight to become involved early on in the Amiga market, which also became quite lucrative.
I'm not sure if Softgold had an "exclusive" development contract with Rainbow Arts as, say, DMA Design might have had with Psygnosis. However, it was obvious that the two companies were very tight, to the point that Softgold established a budget label called Top Shots in the 80s, which published many of Rainbow Arts back-catalogue Amiga games.
Anyway, the partnership between the two companies seemed to extend into the mid-1990s at least where they moved on to PC (and probably other platforms) when the Amiga market went into decline.
Here is the point where my research turned up vague and confusing info. From what I understand Rainbow Arts was bought out in 1997 by Funsoft/Softgold (as opposed to Funsoft buying out Rainbow Arts/Softgold). Could be a case of the developer getting bigger than the publisher and then buying them out, or at least merging with another company to raise the money for a buyout. Whatever the case, as you stated, Rainbow Arts, Softgold and Funsoft were all acquired by THQ pretty soon after in 1999.
Hope that sheds some light on the intertwined histories of Rainbow Arts and Softgold for you
