Ubisoft Ltd

Spaces - Guildford Units A-J, Austen House, Station View, Guildford GU1

Look at that. A 2025 game, Assassin's Creed: Shadows. I never expected that to happen when I started this blog. The most up to date I've previously been was using the 1998 cover of Starship Titanic for The Digital Village. I had plenty of choice when I was looking for an Ubisoft cover. The company has been going since 1989. Yes, I know. I know Ubisoft is a French company and they've actually been running since 1986 but this blog is called Where Were They Now? not Où Étaient-Ils Maintenant? If you want coverage of those first three years and a picture of 14, Rue Erlanger, 75016, Paris then start your own blog or send a photo to me at whereweretheynow@gmail.com

Alligata Software Ltd

178 West Street/1 Orange Street, Sheffield

This town ain't big enough for both of us. Software houses often cluster. EA has created an entire ecosystem in Guildford. Cambridge remains a hotbed of hardware and software companies. London was always big enough to support a whole load of publishers and developers, as were Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester. So why am I surprised that Sheffield was the home of Alligata Software and Gremlin Graphics/Interactive? Maybe because Sheffield doesn't feel like a big city (the offices of both companies were within easy walking distance) and partly because Gremlin got so big so quickly that it's difficult to imagine another company surviving in its shade. But Gremlin and Alligata were never really rivals because Alligata was on the way down by the time Gremlin was on the way up. 

Commodore Business Machines (UK) Ltd

675 Ajax Avenue, Slough, SL1

I'm paddling in my ignorance here. I don't know much about Commodore and my usual sources aren't helping. Much of the information online is about the history of the US parent company, Commodore International, rather than their UK arm and the sheer popularity of the Commodore 64 tends to swamp any list of results I generate. Even the normally reliable Companies House is letting me down. Their register tells me this about Commodore Business Machines (UK) Ltd; company number 00956774. 

Company name COMMODORE BUSINESS MACHINES (U.K.) LIMITED
Company number 00956774
Incorporated on 24 Jun 1969
Dissolved on 05 Dec 2000
Registered office address at dissolution Not available
Download Report Not available

Six facts and two of those are "Not available". This is going to get worse before it gets better.

Bullfrog

3 Bridge Street, Guildford, GU1 4RY

Early Electronic Arts games used to include a high minded mission statement on the inlay:

"We're an association of electronic artists who share a common goal. We want to fulfil the potential of personal computing. That's a tall order, but with enough imagination and enthusiasm, we think there's a good chance for success. Our products, like this one, are evidence of our intent."  

It's present on EA's first UK game, PHM Pegasus, but (unfortunately for irony) I can't find any examples of it being used on Bullfrog games because, famously, Electronic Arts killed Bullfrog. The paradox of course is that EA only wanted the best for Bullfrog and without their patronage we'd never have seen Populous, Syndicate, Magic Carpet, Theme Park, Theme Hospital, or Dungeon Keeper. EA nurtured Bullfrog. EA grew Bullfrog. EA supported Bullfrog. EA killed Bullfrog.

Electronic Arts

"American Invaders on the Way," was how COMPUTER & VIDEOGAMES announced the existence of Electronic Arts to British computer owners. "Electronic Arts is the name of a new American software house set up by a group of independent games designers." (January 1984 page 16 ). The news was a little out of date. The company had been founded two years previously by ex-Apple Director Trip Hawkins. Now, for the first time, its games would be available in the UK, distributed by Centresoft, who would go on to launch US Gold later in 1984. "If US are Gold then we must be Platinum!" Trip Hawkins later told C&VG*

Activision / Mediagenic / Activision Blizzard

15 Harley House, Marylebone Road, London, NW1

Good grief. No other company has sent me trekking so far around and about London and the outer reaches of the M25. I've occasionally thought I could organise these articles into nice walks. I could do you a trip around Liverpool, or Manchester, or along the line of Domark's southwest London offices. I couldn't do that for Activision. Just the addresses inside the M25 produce a walk 22 miles long. I didn't know true existential despair until I'd compiled all 13* addresses Activision UK used -and continue to use- in their long history. Even now I'm worried I've missed one**. If Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard goes through that could mean another move for the company. Oh god, no. No updates. No updates.

*Wrong. It's actually 16.
** I did.

Virgin Interactive Entertainment

@338a Ladbroke Grove, London, W10

This post should have been easy to write. I worked for Virgin Interactive Entertainment for several years but the words seemed to drip onto my keyboard and lacked any real impact. That's wrong for this incarnation of Virgin Games (parts one and two of the story are here) because the company was all about buzz and sensation (or hype and cheap shock tactics, if you are more cynical). Then I found a link to a Kickstarter for Sex, Drugs & Video Games! The 90s Virgin story- London & LA by Tim Chaney, Managing Director. The "warts and all" story of the company's rise to fame "or more correctly infamy," It sounds like an amazing work of gonzo journalism. Hyperbolic. Bombastic. Pyroclastic. It doesn't match my memory of working there but I was in the basement.

Hewson Consultants / 21st Century Entertainment

56b Milton Trading Estate, Milton, Abingdon, OX14 4RX 

I like RETRO GAMER magazine a lot but sometimes they make life difficult for me. I was in the very early stages of thinking about this update when I settled down to read issue 241, and what did I find on page 38? An article called A Tribute to Hewson by Graeme Mason. A full page on the history of the company plus another seven pages of game highlights, along with Andrew Hewson's memories of each title. [Public service announcement -Most UK libraries subscribe to a free service called PressReader which includes RETRO GAMER. If you log on via the PressReader app you should be able to see a couple of years worth of back issues. End of public service bit]. With RETRO GAMER covering the history of Hewson Consultants this is, I guess, the story of how I recently drove to an industrial estate near Oxford. I'll try not to be too passive aggressive. 

Ariolasoft

Carl-Bertelsmann-Str 161, 4830 Gütersloh

In 1983 Ariola Records, the music division of German conglomerate Bertelsmann, set up a software company. This company was named, unsurprisingly, Ariolasoft and went to become the German distributor for Activision, Electronic Arts, and the Sega Master System. The company also published original games including Vermeer, Kaiser, and Ooze: Als die Geister mürbe wurden. Ariolasoft renamed itself United Software in 1990 and was taken over by the German division of MicroProse in 1993. Which is all very interesting but this blog is about the UK software industry and Britain hasn't been a part of Germany since Doggerland was submerged by the rising North Sea.