Introversion Software Limited is a British video game company located in Walton-on-Thames, England. The company is best known for creating a management simulation game called Prison Architect. This game was inspired by another game called Dwarf Fortress and later helped inspire the creation of RimWorld.
History
The company was started in 2001 by three friends—Chris Delay, Mark Morris, and Thomas Arundel—who met as students at Imperial College London. At first, the company called itself "the last of the bedroom programmers" because the three worked from their homes. They later moved to an office when creating their fourth game, Multiwinia. Their first released game, Uplink, was mostly made by Chris, while Mark and Thomas managed marketing, materials, and other business tasks. A small initial investment allowed them to buy CD-Rs and printer ink. Early copies of the game were made by hand. The company quickly earned enough money to cover their costs after accepting orders. A large group of players formed, and the team, along with a new programmer named Andy Bainbridge, began making two new games.
Darwinia was released and received high praise. It was later re-released on Steam on December 14, 2005. On September 29, 2006, Introversion Software released its third game, DEFCON. Soon after, the company measured their internet data usage in terabytes for the first time. After DEFCON’s release, the team began working on a game called Subversion. However, their next project was Multiwinia, a multiplayer version of Darwinia, which was released on September 19, 2008.
Darwinia and Multiwinia were later adapted for the Xbox 360. This led to the release of Darwinia+, which included both games, on the Xbox Live Arcade on February 10, 2010.
After Multiwinia’s release in 2008, Introversion announced plans to create Subversion in December of that year. The company shared updates about the game’s development through blog posts, including details about its automatically created city areas. The game was shown at the World of Love event in 2010. In October 2011, after three years of work, Subversion was delayed.
Introversion’s next game, Prison Architect, was announced during the Humble Indie Bundle release of Introversion games and tech demos for Subversion. Information about the new game was also hidden in the tech demos as part of a puzzle.
Financial history and independence
After a quiet launch, the game Uplink became very successful in both reviews and sales for the company Introversion. At E3 2002, the team spent £10,000 in a week on speedboats and fast cars, but they felt regret as their income decreased over time. In the games industry, most of a game's total revenue is earned within the first six months. By December 2002, the publisher Strategy First stopped paying royalties for Uplink. They later filed a Consumer Proposal but were bought by Silverstar Holdings in early 2005. Even with income from direct sales, Introversion ran out of money in mid-2003. The company almost went bankrupt, selling most of their personal items, as their second project and only hope for funds—Darwinia—was delayed repeatedly.
Darwinia was finally released in March 2005, but despite strong initial sales, the game's sales dropped too low to support the company. Within six months, the developers relied on UK government benefits until November 2005, when they contacted Valve on a whim to create a digital distribution deal on their Steam platform. Valve agreed, and after an online launch on December 14, 2005, digital sales helped the company survive until the release of their third game, DEFCON.
On September 15, 2006, the day DEFCON pre-orders began, Introversion had only £1,500 left. Fortunately, the game sold much better than expected, bringing in enough money to cover the next twelve months. The company credited Valve's Steam platform for their financial success, as stated by Tom Arundel: "Steam has made Introversion a commercial success."
By early 2010, Introversion faced financial problems again. After spending over a year adapting Darwinia+ for the Xbox 360, the game failed to sell well at launch. Director Mark Morris said, "We missed the entire audience." The poor sales meant the company could not save itself, and the debt was so severe that continuing operations risked criminal charges under UK insolvency law. Tom Arundel believed they were trading while insolvent, which is a crime, and argued the company should stop immediately to avoid legal trouble.
Introversion's finances improved again in Q3 2010 when Steam achievements were added to DEFCON, leading to a sale that highlighted the game. Morris said the $250,000 from this promotion saved the company. Later, Introversion's games were included in a Humble Indie Bundle in November 2011, which sold 190,261 bundles and raised $779,026.33. The company used this money to develop their next game, Prison Architect.
As of September 26, 2015, Prison Architect had earned over $19 million in sales and sold more than 1.25 million copies. By August 2016, after the release of version 2.0, the game had reached two million players.
Their next game, Scanner Sombre, was released in April 2017 after nine months of development. It sold only 6,000 copies, and Chris Delay said it "bombed in a big way." Virtual reality support for the game was added later, compatible with the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, marking Introversion's first and only VR project.
In January 2019, Introversion and Paradox Interactive announced that the Prison Architect intellectual property was sold to Paradox for an undisclosed amount, allowing Introversion to focus on new projects while Paradox continued developing the game.
On May 28, 2022, Introversion announced their new science fiction game, The Last Starship, which entered early access on February 15, 2023. The game left early access on February 3, 2026.