2015, Inc.

2015, Inc.

Type	Private
Industry	Video game development
Founded	1997 (1997)
Founder	Tom Kudirka
Headquarters	Tulsa, Oklahoma Omaha, Nebraska
Key people	Tom Kudirka (CEO)
Products	SiN: Wages of Sin Medal of Honor: Allied Assault Men of Valor
Subsidiaries	Trainwreck Studios
Website	2015games.net

2015, Inc. also known as 2015 (pronounced "twenty-fifteen") and 2015 Games is an American video game development company, best known for developing the highly successful video game Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, published by Electronic Arts.

History

2015, Inc. was founded by Tom Kudirka in 1997. He assembled a team of developers by researching people who were participating in the FPS MOD community. After months of working online and mostly only communicating via ICQ instant messenger his team created a Quake Mod as a playable demo to show off their talent. Kudirka sent the demo to Activision who was so impressed with their work they awarded 2015 a contract developing the expansion pack to their upcoming game entitled SiN, developed by Ritual Entertainment.

Kudirka moved all of his team members to Tulsa, Oklahoma to begin work on the expansion pack SiN: Wages of Sin. The seven developers who spent over six months online creating the demo met one another for the first time. Three of the seven developers lived in a house rented by Kudirka where the living-room made up the development studio. The team was Tom Kudirka, Ken Turner, Zied Reike, Carl Glave, Benson Russel, Paul Glave and Michael Boon, who Kudirka relocated from Tasmania Australia to Tulsa, Oklahoma.

SiN: Wages of Sin

Wages of Sin was the official expansion pack for Ritual Entertainment’s game SiN. The game was published by Activision and released for the Windows platform in February 1999. The game ultimately sold more units than the original title, thus showing the amount of piracy at that time.

During the 1999 E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) Kudirka met developers from Valve Software at a Microsoft party. They expressed how much they liked Wages of Sin and wanted 2015 to work on an expansion pack to Valve's mega-hit video game Half-Life. Gearbox Software was currently working on the first expansion pack, Half-Life: Opposing Force so a meeting was set up with Gabe Newell. Terms were soon agreed upon and development began on the second expansion pack for Half-Life. To assist in the development of the project Kudirka hired developers such as Steve Fukuda, Justin Thomas, Preston Glenn, Robert Field, Todd Alderman, Earl Hammon Jr., Brad Allen, Jon Olick, Adam Bellefeuil and Jeff Heath. The development of the expansion pack was going very well. The development team was evolving into a group of very talented developers. The team was confident the second expansion pack would again exceed expectations. 90 days from going gold the project was cancelled.

In September 1999, 2015 hired Jason West as a developer, who convinced Vince Zampella to also join as lead producer.

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault

Main article: Medal of Honor: Allied Assault

In May 2000 Kudirka received a phone call from someone claiming to be Steven Spielberg's assistant. They wanted to know if 2015 would be interested in developing a World War II first-person shooter video game with a story-line created by Steven Spielberg. Development began on Medal of Honor: Allied Assault soon after. To assist in the development of such a high profile title Kudirka hired additional developers such as Nathan Silvers, Paul Messerly, Keith Bell, Mackey McCandlish, Chance Glasco, Jason West and Radomir Kucharski, who Kudirka relocated from Katowice, Poland.

The game was published by Electronic Arts and released for the Windows platform on 22 January 2002 in North America and on 15 February 2002 in Europe. The game was a critical and financial success with many considering Medal of Honor: Allied Assault to have pioneered the cinematic first person shooter genre. The game provided a substantial push for Electronic Arts' Medal of Honor series.

Following the release, a group of developers left 2015 to form Infinity Ward, a studio that would become known for the Call of Duty series based around the same concept.

Men of Valor

Main article: Men of Valor

In 2002, 2015 began development on its own intellectual property, Men of Valor, a first person shooter simulating infantry combat during the Vietnam era. Men of Valor follows Dean Shepard and his squad of Marines from the 3rd Battalion of the 3rd Marine Division through 13 missions of the Vietnam War, including missions at the height of the Tet Offensive. In historically-based scenarios, the player assumes a variety of roles in which they man the door gun on a Huey helicopter, steer a riverboat along enemy-infested shores, battle their way through enemy tunnel complexes, and call down fire as a forward observer. Mission types include pilot rescues, recon patrols, POW rescue, and search-and-destroy ops.

Men of Valor was published by Vivendi Universal and released for Xbox on 19 October 2004 in North America and on 5 November 2004 in Europe. The game was released for Windows on 29 October 2004 in North America and 12 November 2004 in Europe.

On 14 April 2015, it was announced that Nordic Games had closed an asset purchase agreement with 2015 to acquire the Men of Valor IP.

Trainwreck Studios

In late 1999 Kudirka created a separate development division of 2015 called Trainwreck Studios, a subsidiary specializing in mid-price to budget games. Under that name, a few titles were created: Laser Arena in 2000, CIA Operative: Solo Missions in 2001, and then Time Ace in 2007 for the Nintendo DS.

Games developed

Year	Game	Publisher	Genre	Platform(s)
				Windows	Mac OS	Xbox	Nintendo DS
1999	SiN: Wages of Sin	Activision	First-person shooter	Yes	Yes	No	No
2000	Laser Arena (as Trainwreck Studios)	ValuSoft	First-person shooter	Yes	No	No	No
2001	CIA Operative: Solo Missions (as Trainwreck Studios)	ValuSoft	First-person shooter	Yes	No	No	No
2002	Medal of Honor: Allied Assault	Electronic Arts	First-person shooter	Yes	Yes	No	No
2004	Men of Valor	Vivendi	First-person shooter	Yes	No	Yes	No
2007	Time Ace (as Trainwreck Studios)	Konami	Combat flight simulator	No	No	No	Yes

External links

Official website