10 Video Games That Killed Companies

After the major success of Doom and Quake, there seemed to be a lot of tension between ID’s creative heads John Romero and John Carmack.

As a result, the team split and whilst Carmack went off to make Quake 2, Romero started up a new company called Ion Storm along with Tom Hall. The company was founded in Dallas, Texas in 1996, and swiftly afterwards a new branch opened in Austin, Texas in 1997 with help from Eidos studios.

Each company started working on different projects. The first game made in Dallas was was Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3, which is now largely forgotten, but Dallas’ second game – Daikatana – is wholly unforgettable. It’s the game that ruined John Romero’s reputation in the game industry by becoming a commercial and critical flop.

Ion Storm Dallas had to try and make up for the failure that Daikatana had brought, but Tom Hall's Anachronox was unable to bring Ion Storm Dallas out of the red.

The Dallas headquarters had to shut its doors in July 2001, and the Austin branch, who made the amazing Deus Ex in 2000, became the new headquarters, practically saving Ion Storm from destruction.