Amaze Entertainment

Amaze Entertainment was an American video game developer from the United States that developed over 100 games, selling nearly 40 million units, for several video game platforms, with headquarters located in Kirkland, Washington. For the first years, its legal name was KnowWonder, Inc., although in 2001, KnowWonder, Inc. was renamed to Amaze Entertainment and the departments of KnowWonder was split. The handheld department led by Steve Ettinger was renamed Griptonite Games, its console department of KnowWonder, led by Stephen Clarke-Wilson was renamed Adrenium Games and the PC department retained the KnowWonder name. Amaze was founded by serial entrepreneur Dan Elenbaas and his business partners Todd Gilbertsen and David Mann. Amaze’s primary focus was licensed games based on movie franchises, comic series, and original titles for established video game franchises. Amaze grew to become one of the world's largest independent video game developers, with nearly 300 employees in four studios. Amaze was acquired by Foundation 9 Entertainment on November 14, 2006.

On January 21, 2002, Lindsay Gupton, fresh off from his work at Human Code was hired to run KnowWonder. On March 12, 2002, The Fizz Factor was established as a subsidiary, headed by Rodney Gibbs. On August 10, 2002, Scott K. Tsumara was hired to run the Japan/Asia Business Strategy, Which was evolved one year later as Black Ship Games. In 2005, all the subsidiaries were folded into Amaze Entertainment.

In July 2009, Foundation 9 abandoned the Amaze Entertainment brand and renamed the Kirkland location after the former subsidiary, Griptonite Games. On August 2, 2011, Glu Mobile acquired Griptonite Games. Its staff of 200 "approximately doubles" Glu's internal development capacity.

Subsidiaries, divisions and affiliates
During its lifespan, Amaze Entertainment consisted of several subsidiary studios, including:


 * Griptonite Games - Kirkland, WA
 * Amaze Entertainment - Kirkland, WA
 * The Fizz Factor - Austin, TX
 * KnowWonder - Kirkland, WA
 * Adrenium Games - Kirkland, WA
 * Black Ship Games - Kirkland, WA
 * Monsoon - Kirkland, WA

Games
Amaze Entertainment was widely known for developing games based on blockbuster movie licenses, including:


 * Star Wars
 * The Lord of the Rings
 * Harry Potter
 * The Chronicles of Narnia
 * Shrek
 * Spider-Man
 * Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
 * Over the Hedge
 * Barbie
 * Pirates of the Caribbean
 * Eragon
 * Monsters vs. Aliens

Other well-known media franchises Amaze Entertainment has worked on include:


 * Spyro the Dragon
 * Crash Bandicoot
 * Call of Duty
 * The Sims
 * Spore
 * Bionicle
 * Digimon
 * Samurai Jack
 * WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008
 * Azurik: Rise of Perathia