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Loot Drop

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Loot Drop
Company typePrivate
IndustryInteractive entertainment
Founded2010
FounderJohn Romero, Brenda Romero
Defunct2015
SuccessorRomero Games
Headquarters

Loot Drop was a social video game studio that was started in San Mateo, California.[1] It was created by John Romero and Brenda Romero with veteran game designer Tom Hall heading up his own game.[2] Its tagline was "Believe in fun".[1]

Formation

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After creating the megahit social game,[3] Ravenwood Fair, John and Brenda Romero left Lolapps to co-found Loot Drop and begin making social games. Due to the success of Ravenwood Fair, several companies were interested in signing a game development and publishing deal with them.[4] RockYou was the first publisher to get to contract.[5] The game that John Romero was developing was titled Cloudforest Expedition.[6] Four months into development, RockYou signed a second development deal with Loot Drop.[7]

The studio got funding for Cloudforest Expedition[8] from social game publisher RockYou in 2011.[2] Within a year, Loot Drop had four titles in development with multiple social game publishers.[2] Romero stated that he wanted to focus on game design rather than monetizing players.[2] The studio was stated to have four teams that would grow to 10 or 11 employees each.[1]

Studio closing

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The studio encountered financial trouble in 2012, with the game Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Commander being cancelled only five months after launch.[9] This resulted in that development team being laid off.[9] They failed to fund a Kickstarter campaign for an "Old-School RPG".[9] Loot Drop continued developing games until the end of 2015. In its existence, it had developed games for RockYou, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Mogol, and Zynga.[10]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Loot Drop banks on talented game designers as it takes on social gaming's giants (exclusive)". VentureBeat. 2011-03-03. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2017-07-19.
  2. ^ a b c d "Loot Drop is John Romero's New Game Studio". Tom's Hardware. 2011-03-04. Archived from the original on 2014-10-19. Retrieved 2017-07-19.
  3. ^ Baribeau, Tami. "Ravenwood Fair Leads The Pack on This Week's List of Fastest-Growing Facebook Games by MAU". ADWEEK. ADWEEK. Archived from the original on 9 December 2018. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
  4. ^ Takahashi, Dean (3 March 2011). "Loot Drop banks on talented game designers as it takes on social gaming's giants (exclusive)". VentureBeat. VentureBeat. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
  5. ^ Romero, John. "RockYou Signs Game Development Agreement" (PDF). RockYou. RockYou. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 July 2012. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
  6. ^ Webster, Andrew (27 April 2011). "John Romero's Loot Drop reveals first social game Cloudforest Expedition". GameZebo. GameZebo. Archived from the original on 14 February 2018. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
  7. ^ Takahashi, Dean (27 April 2011). "RockYou signs second social game deal with Loot Drop". VentureBeat. VentureBeat. Archived from the original on 14 February 2018. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
  8. ^ Romero, John. "Cloudforest Expedition". Loot Drop. RockYou. Archived from the original on 14 February 2018. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
  9. ^ a b c "Old School RPG developers' Ghost Recon Commander to shut down; Loot Drop staff laid off". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on 2018-02-14. Retrieved 2017-07-19.
  10. ^ "Doom co-creator John Romero is working on a new shooter". pcgamer. Archived from the original on 2017-05-11. Retrieved 2017-07-19.
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