Insomniac Games, Inc. is an American video game developer located in Burbank, California. It is part of PlayStation Studios. The company was founded in 1994 by Ted Price as Xtreme Software and was renamed Insomniac Games the following year. Insomniac is best known for creating early PlayStation characters such as Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet and Clank, and the Resistance franchise. It also developed Sunset Overdrive (2014) and the Marvel's Spider-Man series with Marvel Games. In 2019, Sony Interactive Entertainment acquired the studio, making it part of SIE Worldwide Studios (now called PlayStation Studios).
The company’s first game was Disruptor, released for PlayStation. The game sold poorly and nearly caused the company to close. Insomniac’s next project, Spyro the Dragon, was a success and led to two follow-up games within two years. The company worked closely with Sony Computer Entertainment (later renamed Sony Interactive Entertainment) to create two popular game series: Ratchet & Clank and Resistance. Both series were critically and financially successful. In 2013, Insomniac began developing Fuse, a multiplatform game published by Electronic Arts. However, the game received poor reviews.
Since 2014, Insomniac has expanded its range of games. It partnered with Microsoft Studios to create Sunset Overdrive, worked with GameTrust on the underwater Metroidvania game Song of the Deep, and developed mobile games and virtual reality projects. In 2016, the company released a remake of the first Ratchet & Clank game. In 2018, it launched its first licensed title, Marvel's Spider-Man for PlayStation 4. A second game, Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, was released for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 in 2020. The studio’s most recent project 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 publishers like Microsoft, EA, and Oculus. In August 2019, Sony announced it had acquired Insomniac, making it the 14th internal studio within SIE Worldwide Studios. Over the years, Insomniac has been recognized by critics as a respected video game developer. It was named the twentieth-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 the release of the Atari 2600 in 1977, when he was nine years old. The company officially started on February 28, 1994.
Price was joined by Alex Hastings, his college classmate and a computer programming expert, in June 1994. Hastings' brother, Brian Hastings, joined Insomniac shortly after. The studio was first called "Xtreme Software" for a year, 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." Price said the name was chosen because "it suddenly makes sense," even though it was not their first choice.
After the company was founded, it began working on its first project. The team was inspired by the popular game Doom and wanted to create a first-person shooter. The team had little experience and considered making a game similar to Doom. The game was developed for the Panasonic 3DO because its tools were inexpensive, and the team had high hopes for the console. In one month, the team created a playable demo of the game. The demo was shown to publishers and later to Mark Cerny, an executive from Universal Interactive Studios, who was impressed by the team's work. Universal helped fund and market the game, assisted with development and cutscenes, and hired actors to film real-time sequences. Catherine Hardwicke was hired to lead production design, and the game took inspiration from Warhawk.
Cerny provided feedback on the game's level design. However, the 3DO console did not sell well, and Universal suggested switching to Sony Computer Entertainment's PlayStation to improve sales. The game originally used a custom engine created by Alex Hastings and was upgraded for the PlayStation within a month. The game's debut title was called Disruptor, and it was released worldwide in November 1996.
Disruptor received positive reviews and was called "Dark Horse of the Year" by gaming publications. John Romero, founder of Doom developer id Software, praised the game. Insomniac considered Disruptor a valuable lesson in game development. Price said it was "the best game that nobody ever heard of." Due to limited marketing, the game was a commercial failure. Despite this, Universal continued to partner with Insomniac for its next project. The team felt discouraged and decided to create something new instead of making a sequel to Disruptor.
At that time, the PlayStation's user base included more children and teenagers. The team decided not to make another violent game like Disruptor and instead focused on creating a family-friendly game suitable for all ages. The family game market was dominated by Nintendo with games like Super Mario 64, while the PlayStation had no similar exclusives. Cerny encouraged Insomniac to develop a game with a mascot and wide appeal. Craig Stitt, an artist from Disruptor, suggested the game's theme should revolve around an anthropomorphic dragon. At the same time, Alex Hastings began creating an engine designed for open-world games, which allowed features like gliding for the dragon. Spyro the Dragon was released in late 1998.
The game received critical acclaim and won awards from publications. Sales were low at first but increased after Christmas, and total sales reached over two million copies. The team grew to 13 members. Because of Spyro the Dragon's success, the studio was asked to develop a sequel. The development of Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! began shortly after the release of Spyro the Dragon. The team saw the sequel as a challenge, as they needed to create new ideas to "revolutionize" the series quickly. They brainstormed ideas but eventually expanded a mini-game from the original Spyro the Dragon, which they believed offered a unique experience. The team designed a mature story and advanced cutscenes for the game. It met its release deadline and was launched in late 1999. Hastings worried about the release because the development cycle was rushed.
So we decided it was better to start a new franchise and create a new character instead of pushing Spyro again.
The studio was asked to develop the third game in the Spyro the Dragon series after Ripto's Rage! was released. To make the game more varied, the team added more special moves for Spyro and more playable characters. Spyro's personality was made more relatable to players. The company struggled to create new ideas for the sequel. During development, the team grew to about 20 to 25 members. Brian Allgeier, who later became Insomniac's game director, joined the studio at this time. Spyro: Year of the Dragon was released worldwide in late 2000. After creating three games in three years, the team decided to move on to a new project with original characters. Year of the Dragon was the last Spyro game developed by Insomniac. Universal kept the intellectual property rights to the Spyro series. This marked the end of Insomniac's partnership with Universal as the team began developing games directly for PlayStation consoles.
In 2000, Sony released the PlayStation 2, the successor to the original PlayStation. Insomniac's first idea for a PlayStation 2 project was Monster Knight, a concept designed in 1999 but never developed beyond planning. The canceled project was revealed 13 years after its creation. The second idea was Girl with a Stick, inspired by The Legend of Zelda and Tomb Raider. It was intended as a serious game to prove Insomniac could create games beyond platformers. The team spent six months on the project, creating prototypes and a playable demo. However, most staff, except Price, were not enthusiastic about the project and called it "one-dimensional." Sony believed the game would not find a market and advised Insomniac to "play to [their] strengths." As a result, Girl with a Stick was canceled. Price said the project was a lesson for Insomniac and its first failure.
A few weeks after Girl with a Stick was canceled, Brian Hastings suggested the company work on a space adventure game with a science fiction theme. The game originally revolved around a reptilian alien with weapons traveling across planets. The alien character evolved into a caveman and eventually became a fictional creature called a "Lombax." The team named the creature Ratchet and designed a robot companion called Clank. Inspirations for the game came from manga, Conker's Bad Fur Day, and Spyro the Dragon. To differentiate the project from previous games, the team added shooting and role-playing elements. The team was excited about the project, but the company could not create a demo because it lacked a suitable engine. As a result, the team developed "Art Nuevo de Flash Gordon," a Metropolis diorama, for Sony, which decided to help.
Games developed
Insomniac created the Spyro series and 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 are platform games where Spyro the Dragon explores a medieval-style world. Spyro can glide, charge, and breathe fire. The original trilogy sold 8,000,000 copies combined. After Insomniac stopped making Spyro games, Universal Studios hired other companies to develop two subseries: The Legend of Spyro and Skylanders. Microsoft Gaming now owns the franchise.
Ratchet & Clank is a series of action-adventure games with platform elements. Players control Ratchet as he travels across 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, Going Commando, Up Your Arsenal, and Ratchet: Deadlocked) and the Future series for PlayStation 3 (Tools of Destruction, Quest for Booty, A Crack in Time, and Into the Nexus). The first three games were remastered and released as the Ratchet & Clank Collection for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. The latest game, Ratchet & Clank (2016), was released for PlayStation 4. An animated film based on the series was released in 2016. After Sony acquired Insomniac, a Sony executive said the Ratchet & Clank series will remain important. The next game, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, was released as a PlayStation 5 exclusive on June 11, 2021.
Resistance is a series of first-person shooter games set in an alternate history around 1950. An alien race called the Chimera has conquered 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. The series also includes handheld games: Resistance: Retribution (developed by Bend Studio for PlayStation Portable) and Resistance: Burning Skies (developed by Nihilistic Software for PlayStation Vita).
Marvel's Spider-Man is an action-adventure game series based on the comic book 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 game was released for PlayStation 4 on September 7, 2018, and received high praise from critics. It sold over 9 million copies worldwide by November 2018 and reached 13.2 million copies by August 2019, making it one of the best-selling PlayStation 4 games. A remastered version, Spider-Man Remastered, was released for PlayStation 5 in November 2020 and as a standalone title for Microsoft Windows in August 2022.
Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales was first announced at the 2020 PS5 Future of Gaming event on June 11, 2020. It was released for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on November 12, 2020, alongside the PlayStation 5. It was later released for Microsoft Windows in fall 2022.
On October 20, 2023, Insomniac released Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (2023), followed by Marvel's Wolverine, a standalone game based on the Marvel Comics character, both 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 for PlayStation 2, and 1080 Pinball, a pinball simulation game that started development in 2007. Insomniac also created Edge of Nowhere, a game for Oculus Rift, released on June 6, 2016.
Related companies
The company has a strong partnership with Naughty Dog, a video game developer. They frequently share technology with each other. Some employees from Insomniac Games left to start High Impact Games. This company later worked together 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. HuniePop was designed by Ryan Koons, who was once an employee of Insomniac. From 2022 to 2025, Insomniac Games worked closely with its sister studio, Nixxes Software, which adapted some of its PlayStation 5 games to run on Windows PCs.
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.