Majesco Games Corporation (formerly Majesco Sales Inc. and Majesco Entertainment Company) is an American video game publisher and distributor located in Hazlet, New Jersey. The company was originally named Majesco Sales and was founded in Edison, New Jersey, in 1986. It remained a privately held company until it completed a reverse merger takeover of ConnectivCorp, a company without operations, on December 5, 2003. This merger made Majesco a public company and a subsidiary of ConnectivCorp. ConnectivCorp later changed its name to Majesco Holdings Inc. on April 13, 2004.
On December 1, 2016, Majesco Entertainment was acquired by PolarityTE, Inc., a biotech company, through another reverse merger takeover. As a result, Majesco officially stopped all video game operations on December 8, 2016. In mid-2017, the company’s chief executive officer, Jesse Sutton, reacquired Majesco through a management buyout and continued to operate it as a privately held company. On January 15, 2018, Liquid Media Group announced its acquisition of Majesco.
History
Majesco started by re-releasing old video games that other companies had stopped making. By lowering prices and later arranging the rights to make games for Nintendo and Sega systems, the company found a way to succeed in a specific area of the market.
Later, Majesco worked with Sega to produce a version of its Genesis console (called Mega Drive outside North America) that had been replaced by the 32-bit Saturn. It released this version in 1998 as the Genesis 3 and later made a version of the Game Gear handheld called the Game Gear Core System. In 1998, Majesco signed a deal with Hasbro Interactive to publish their games for 8-bit handhelds and 16-bit consoles, including the Game Boy Color.
The company shifted its focus to making games in-house, starting with a brand called Pipe-Dream Interactive because many doubted its ability to make the change. The company was started by two employees of Morning Star Multimedia, Dan Kitchen and Kevin Mitchell. Majesco had a deal with Red Storm Entertainment to bring Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six to the Sega Dreamcast in 1999. Pipe-Dream Interactive, a Majesco subsidiary, later made games for Hasbro Interactive on the Game Boy Color and Sega Dreamcast in 2000, including Q*Bert. In 2000, Majesco signed a deal with Activision to release classic games on the PlayStation 2 and Game Boy Advance. The next year, Majesco partnered with THQ to bring its Game Boy Advance games to Europe, and later signed a deal with Codemasters to publish two PlayStation 2 titles.
Majesco focused on making games for consoles like the GameCube, Game Boy Advance, Xbox, and PlayStation 2. Some of its releases included Bomberman titles for the GameCube and Game Boy Advance. It also published computer games developed by Terminal Reality, such as BloodRayne and BloodRayne 2.
In 2003, Majesco planned to publish Black 9, but the game was canceled when developers had completed about 85% of it. The company faced financial problems with games like Psychonauts, which sold poorly despite praise, and Advent Rising, which was criticized for being released too early. Around this time, Majesco’s best-selling titles were the GBA Videos for the Game Boy Advance and the game Jaws Unleashed.
On January 19, 2006, Majesco canceled two games it planned to publish: Demonik and Taxi Driver. The company’s president, Jesse Sutton, said it would focus on budget and handheld games in the future. After that, Majesco successfully published games like Cooking Mama for the Nintendo DS in North America.
On September 14, 2006, Majesco released Advent Rising and re-released BloodRayne and BloodRayne 2 on Steam. On November 6, 2007, Majesco opened a new development center in Los Angeles for casual games. On December 10, 2007, Majesco announced a rhythm game, Major Minor's Majestic March, for the Wii. In 2008, Majesco launched an online version of Bananagrams on Facebook. In 2009, it released BloodRayne and BloodRayne 2 on GOG.com. In 2011, Majesco acquired assets from Quick Hit to expand its social gaming strategy.
After a difficult year in 2013, Majesco expected to grow in 2014 but continued losing money, leading to the closure of Midnight City and the cancellation of the console version of Gone Home.
On August 12, 2015, Majesco announced a new CEO and reduced its workforce to five employees. The company shifted focus to mobile and downloadable games, including Glue and a new A Boy and His Blob title.
On December 9, 2016, Majesco stopped operating in the entertainment industry and merged with PolarityTE, a biotech company. In 2017, PolarityTE sold Majesco’s assets, leading to its rebirth as an independent company.
On November 9, 2017, Majesco re-entered the video game industry by releasing Romans from Mars on Steam. In 2018, Liquid Media Group bought 51% of Majesco, and Jesse Sutton became its Gaming Advisor. The company announced Coba: Tale of the Moon for the Nintendo Switch in 2018.
In 2020, Ziggurat Interactive acquired several Majesco-owned intellectual properties, including BloodRayne and Advent Rising. Ziggurat planned to update BloodRayne for modern systems and continue the franchise.
In 2021, Majesco announced Monster Tale for the Nintendo Switch, though it had not been released by February 2025. Liquid Media Group no longer lists Majesco as a subsidiary, and Jesse Sutton remains a board member but is not employed by the company.
Controversies and lawsuits
Majesco was accused by former employees of Taldren, Inc. of making the company close in an effort to take control of the Black9 intellectual property. These employees said the company delayed payments for project milestones and used help from programmers to try to control the game's source code.
To promote the release of Advent Rising, a contest was held on Xbox Live offering $1 million to the first player who found a set of hidden symbols in the game's levels. On August 15, 2005, the contest was canceled because organizers said there was no fair or secure way to continue. Majesco gave players the choice of two free games (BloodRayne 2, Guilty Gear X2 #Reload, Psychonauts, Raze's Hell, or Phantom Dust) and an apology on its website as compensation.
In 2005, a class action lawsuit was filed by shareholders who said Majesco sent products to retailers knowing they would be returned to increase revenue and raise the stock price. In 2006, another lawsuit was filed by Trinad Capital Master Fund, which accused Majesco of poor management. This case was settled in 2007.
In 2011, Majesco was one of several companies sued for allegedly breaking patents related to motion controls in Nintendo Wii video games. In 2018, the Federal Circuit court ruled in favor of Majesco and the other defendants in this case.
Subsidiaries
- Pipe Dream Interactive
- Majesco Studios Santa Monica
- Midnight City: On August 29, 2013, Majesco Studios announced the start of a new independent game publishing company called Midnight City. This company was created to help independent game developers share their games on gaming consoles.