Insomniac Games, Inc. is an American video game company located in Burbank, California. It is part of PlayStation Studios. The company was started in 1994 by Ted Price as Xtreme Software and was later renamed Insomniac Games in 1995. Insomniac is best known for creating popular video games such as Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet and Clank, the Resistance series, Sunset Overdrive (2014), and the Marvel's Spider-Man series with Marvel Games. In 2019, Sony Interactive Entertainment acquired Insomniac, making it part of SIE Worldwide Studios, now called PlayStation Studios.
The company’s first game, Disruptor, was released for PlayStation but sold poorly, nearly causing the company to fail. Its next project, Spyro the Dragon, was a success and led to two follow-up games within two years. Insomniac worked closely with Sony Computer Entertainment (later renamed Sony Interactive Entertainment) to develop two successful game series: Ratchet & Clank and Resistance. These games helped the company grow financially and gain critical praise. In 2013, Insomniac began working on Fuse, a game for multiple platforms published by Electronic Arts, but it received poor reviews.
Since 2014, Insomniac has expanded its work. It created Sunset Overdrive with Microsoft Studios, partnered with GameTrust to make the underwater game Song of the Deep, and released mobile games and virtual reality projects. In 2016, the company remade the original Ratchet & Clank. In 2018, it released Marvel's Spider-Man for PlayStation 4, and in 2020, it released Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales for PlayStation 4 and 5. Insomniac’s most recent game is Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (2023), and it is currently working on Marvel's Wolverine for PlayStation 5.
Before 2019, Insomniac operated as an independent studio, creating games for Sony and other companies like Microsoft, EA, and Oculus. In August 2019, Sony announced it had acquired Insomniac, making it the 14th internal studio in SIE Worldwide Studios. Over the years, Insomniac has received recognition from critics and organizations. It was named the 20th-best video game developer by IGN and listed as one of the best places to work in America by the Society for Human Resource Management.
History
Insomniac Games was founded by Ted Price, who wanted to work in the video game industry since he was nine years old, when he saw the Atari 2600 in 1977. The company officially started on February 28, 1994.
In June 1994, Ted Price was joined by Alex Hastings, a friend who was good at computer programming. Alex’s brother, Brian Hastings, also joined the company soon after. The studio was first called "Xtreme Software," but in 1995, it had to change its name because another company used the same name. The team considered names like "The Resistance Incorporated," "Ragnarok," "Black Sun Software," "Ice Nine," and "Moon Turtle" before choosing "Insomniac Games." Ted Price said the name made sense even though it was not their first choice.
After starting the company, the team began working on their first project. They took ideas from the popular game Doom and wanted to make a first-person shooter game. The team had little experience and thought about making a copy of Doom. They chose to develop the game for the Panasonic 3DO because it was cheap to use, and they hoped the console would be successful. In one month, they created a playable demo of the game. They showed it to publishers and to Mark Cerny, an executive from Universal Interactive Studios, who was impressed. Universal helped fund and market the game, and they hired actors to film scenes. Catherine Hardwicke led the design of the game, and ideas came from the game Warhawk.
Mark Cerny gave suggestions for the game’s levels. However, the 3DO console did not sell well, so Universal advised the team to switch to Sony Computer Entertainment’s PlayStation to improve sales. The game was originally made with an engine developed by Alex Hastings and was adapted for the PlayStation in one month. The first game, called Disruptor, was released worldwide in November 1996.
Disruptor received good reviews and was called "Dark Horse of the Year" by some gaming magazines. John Romero, who created the game Doom, praised the game. Ted Price said Disruptor was "the best game that nobody ever heard of." However, the game did not sell well because it had little marketing. Despite this, Universal continued to work with Insomniac on their next project. The team felt discouraged and decided to make a new game instead of a sequel to Disruptor.
At that time, more children and teenagers were using the PlayStation, so the team wanted to create a family-friendly game instead of another violent game like Disruptor. The family game market was mostly controlled by Nintendo with games like Super Mario 64, and the PlayStation had no similar games. Mark Cerny encouraged Insomniac to create a game with a mascot that would appeal to many people. Craig Stitt, an artist from Disruptor, suggested the game should feature an anthropomorphic dragon. At the same time, Alex Hastings began creating an engine that allowed for open-world gameplay, such as letting the dragon glide through the air. The game, Spyro the Dragon, was released in late 1998.
Spyro the Dragon was well-received and won awards from publications. Sales were low at first but increased after Christmas, and the game sold over two million copies. The team grew to 13 members. Because of Spyro’s success, Insomniac was asked to make a sequel. The team worked on Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! soon after the first game’s release. They thought it was a challenge to make the sequel special. They decided to expand a mini-game from the first Spyro game, which they believed offered a different experience. They created a more mature story and advanced scenes for the game. It was released in late 1999. Alex Hastings worried about the release because the game was rushed.
The team was asked to make the third Spyro game after the release of Ripto's Rage!. To make the game more varied, they added more special moves for Spyro and more playable characters. They made Spyro’s personality more friendly for players. The company struggled to create new ideas for the sequel. During development, the team grew to 20–25 members. Brian Allgeier, who later became the director of Insomniac’s games, joined the studio at this time. Spyro: Year of the Dragon was released worldwide in late 2000. After making three Spyro games in three years, the team decided to work on a new project with new characters. Year of the Dragon was the last Spyro game made by Insomniac. Universal kept the rights to the Spyro series. This ended Insomniac’s partnership with Universal as the team began making games directly for Sony’s PlayStation consoles.
In 2000, Sony released the PlayStation 2. Insomniac’s first idea for a PlayStation 2 game was Monster Knight, a concept from 1999 that was never developed. The canceled project was revealed 13 years later. Their second idea was Girl with a Stick, which took inspiration from The Legend of Zelda and Tomb Raider. The game was meant to be serious and show Insomniac could make games other than platformers. The team worked on it for six months, creating prototypes and a playable demo. However, most staff members, except Ted Price, were not excited about the game and thought it was "one-dimensional." Sony believed the game would not sell and told Insomniac to focus on their strengths. As a result, Girl with a Stick was canceled. Ted Price said this was a lesson for the team and their first failure.
A few weeks after canceling Girl with a Stick, Brian Hastings suggested the company make a space adventure game with a science fiction theme. The game originally focused on a reptilian alien with weapons traveling across planets. The alien character evolved into a caveman and later became a fictional creature called a "Lombax." They named the creature Ratchet and created a robot companion named Clank. Ideas for the game came from manga, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, and Spyro the Dragon. To make the game different from their previous projects, they added shooting and role-playing elements. The team was excited about the project, but they could not create a demo because they lacked a suitable engine. Instead, they made "Art Nuevo de Flash Gordon," a Metropolis diorama, for Sony, which decided to help.
Games developed
Insomniac is the company that created the Spyro series. It developed the first three games: Spyro the Dragon (1998), Ripto's Rage! (1999), and Year of the Dragon (2000) for the first PlayStation console. These games are platform games where players control Spyro the Dragon as he explores a world inspired by medieval times. Spyro can glide, charge, and breathe fire. Together, the first three games sold 8,000,000 copies. After Insomniac stopped making Spyro games, Universal Studios hired other companies to continue the series. Two new subseries, The Legend of Spyro and Skylanders, were created. Microsoft Gaming now owns the franchise.
Ratchet & Clank is a series of action-adventure games with platform elements. Players mostly control Ratchet as he travels through different planets to save the galaxy. Clank can be played in some parts of the games. The series has two parts: the original series for PlayStation 2 (Ratchet & Clank (2002), Going Commando (2003), Up Your Arsenal (2004), and Ratchet: Deadlocked (2005)), and the Future series for PlayStation 3 (Tools of Destruction (2007), Quest for Booty (2008), A Crack in Time (2009), and Into the Nexus (2013)). The first three games were remastered and released as the Ratchet & Clank Collection for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. The latest game in the series, Ratchet & Clank (2016), was released for PlayStation 4. An animated film based on the series was released in 2016. After Sony bought Insomniac, a Sony executive said the Ratchet & Clank series will be important for the company. The next game, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, was announced in 2020 as a PlayStation 5 exclusive and released in 2021.
Resistance is a series of first-person shooter games set in an alternate history during the 1950s. An alien race called the Chimera has invaded Earth and turned humans into monstrous soldiers. Players control Nathan Hale in Resistance: Fall of Man (2006) and Resistance 2 (2008), and Joseph Capelli in Resistance 3 (2011). All three games were released for PlayStation 3. Additional games in the series include Resistance: Retribution for PlayStation Portable and Resistance: Burning Skies for PlayStation Vita.
Marvel's Spider-Man is a series of action-adventure games based on the superhero Spider-Man. Players control Peter Parker in Marvel's Spider-Man (2018) and Miles Morales in Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (2020). The first game was released for PlayStation 4 in 2018 and received praise from critics. It sold over 9 million copies worldwide by November 2018 and 13.2 million by August 2019, making it one of the best-selling PlayStation 4 games. The game was remastered for PlayStation 5 in 2020 and later released as a standalone title for Microsoft Windows in 2022.
Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales was first announced in 2020 and released for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 in November 2020. It was also released for Microsoft Windows in 2022.
On October 20, 2023, Insomniac released Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (2023). A standalone game called Marvel's Wolverine, set in the same universe, will follow it for PlayStation 5.
Other games developed by Insomniac include Disruptor (1996), Outernauts (2012), Fuse (2013), and Sunset Overdrive (2014). The company canceled several games, including Monster Knight, Girl with a Stick, and 1080 Pinball. Insomniac also created Edge of Nowhere, a game for Oculus Rift, which was released in 2016.
Related companies
Insomniac Games has a strong partnership with video game developer Naughty Dog. The two companies frequently share technology. Some employees from Insomniac Games left to create High Impact Games. This company later worked with Insomniac on projects such as Ratchet & Clank and Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier. Nathan Fouts, a former employee of Insomniac, started his own studio and created the game Weapon of Choice. Ryan Koons, who once worked at Insomniac, designed the game HuniePop. From 2022 to 2025, Insomniac Games partnered with Nixxes Software, another company in the same group, to adapt some of its PlayStation 5 games for Windows computers.
Accolades
In 2015, IGN ranked Insomniac Games as the 20th best video game developer of all time. The Society for Human Resource Management recognized it as one of the best places to work in America. In 2016, Fortune listed it as the 69th best place to work for Millennials.