| Crave Entertainment | |
| Type: | Subsidiary |
| Fate: | Dissolved |
| Founder: | Nima Taghavi |
| Location: | Newport Beach, California, United States |
| Industry: | Video games |
| Homepage: | CraveGames.com |
Crave Entertainment (aka Crave Games) was an American video game publisher founded in 1997 by Nima Taghavi. Its headquarters was in Newport Beach, California. It was acquired by Handleman Company in 2005 in a deal valued up to $95,000,000 but was then sold to Fillpoint LLC in early 2009 for only $8,100,000 due to Handleman's bankruptcy and pending liquidation. During its lifetime it published games for Dreamcast, Wii, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 64, GameCube, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Xbox, and Xbox 360. Crave mainly focused on budget titles, and imported games such as Tokyo Xtreme Racer series.
Crave Entertainment was founded in 1997 by Nima Taghavi as a subsidiary of distributor, SVG Distributions. The company was headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in San Francisco, Tokyo, Paris, and Hamburg.[1] In 1998 the company acquired Lobotomy Software, the creators of Death Tank and PowerSlave.[2] That same year the company also acquired Big Rain, a studio formed by former Squaresoft veterans and founded its first internal studio, Craveyard Studios.[3] [4] [5] In 1999 Crave signed an exclusive five year licensing deal for the video game rights to Ultimate Fighting Championship.[6]
The company briefly held a European distribution deal with Square Europe in 2000.[7] In November 2000, Crave announced that they would sign a European co-publishing and distribution deal with Ubi Soft.[8]
In 2005 the company and its parent company were acquired by Handleman who would later sell the publisher to Fillpoint in 2009.[9] [10] In 2006, it formed a partnership with Oxygen Interactive via Liquid Games, whereas Liquid Games would market its titles by Crave Entertainment for the European market.[11]
During Fillpoint ownership, the company launched its own label for its family friendly gaming, Red Wagon Games.[12]
On August 15, 2012, Fillpoint LLC filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, with Crave ceasing operations.[13] In 2023, the website was revived with a Coming Soon page by Fillpoint and Throwback Entertainment.[14]