Avalanche Software

Avalanche Software, LLC is a video game developer studio, founded in October 1995 by four lead programmers from Sculptured Software. The company has developed for every console platform since the Mega Drive/Genesis and Super NES days and has grown to a staff of over 100 since its inception. The company is headed up by CEO John Blackburn.

The studio had been acquired by The Walt Disney Company in 2005, and spent the next ten years developing Disney-related titles, including the toys-to-life game Disney Infinity in 2013. By 2016, the toys-to-life market had started to falter, and Disney closed down the studio in May 2016. The studio was acquired and re-opened by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment on January 24, 2017, with Blackburn returning as CEO. The first game from the company under their new owner was Cars 3: Driven to Win, a tie-in game for Cars 3.

History
Avalanche Software was incorporated on October 3, 1995, by John Blackburn, Todd Blackburn, James Michael Henn and Gary Penacho, four programmers that previously worked at Sculptured Software.

On April 19, 2005, Buena Vista Games (later renamed Disney Interactive Studios), the video game publishing arm of The Walt Disney Company, announced that they had acquired Avalanche Software for an undisclosed sum. In November 2006, Buena Vista Games formed a sister studio, Fall Line Studio, that would create Disney titles for Nintendo DS and Wii platforms. Disney Interactive Studios (DIS) merged Fall Line Studio into its sister studio, Avalanche Software, in January 2009.

In October 2012, Disney Interactive Studios announced "Toy Box", a cross platform gaming initiative where Pixar and Disney characters will interact from a console game to multiple mobile and online applications. In January 2013, Avalanche Software unveiled the toys-to-life cross-platform game Disney Infinity based on Toy Story 3: The Video Game's "Toy Box" mode crossed with a toy line.

On May 10, 2016, with a lack of growth in toys-to-life market and increasing developmental costs, Disney discontinued Disney Infinity and closed down Avalanche Software, and Disney Interactive Studios as a whole. Many former Avalanche Software workers were employed by castAR to create a new studio in Salt Lake City.

On January 24, 2017, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced it had acquired the studio from Disney, including its Octane engine software, and re-opened the studio, with Blackburn returning as its CEO. The studio's first title under their new owner was Cars 3: Driven to Win, a companion game based on the Cars 3 film.