2015 (company)

2015, Inc.
TypePrivate
IndustryVideo games
FoundedMay 1997 (1997-05)
FounderTom Kudirka
Headquarters
Tulsa, Oklahoma
,
US
Key people
Tom Kudirka (president)
Products
Number of employees
25 (2010)
Divisions
  • Trainwreck Studios
  • Tornado Studios

2015, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Tom Kudirka founded the company in May 1997, using connections with Ritual Entertainment to develop Sin Mission Pack: Wages of Sin (1999). It further developed Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (2002), after which the majority of the development team left for Infinity Ward, and Men of Valor (2004). A number of smaller games were developed through Trainwreck Studios (founded in 2000) and Tornado Studios (founded in 2008), including Laser Arena (2000), Time Ace (2007), and Project Runway (2010).

History

Tom Kudirka, originally from Omaha, Nebraska, and an alumnus of Bellevue West High School, had studied business information systems and electronics before moving to Tulsa to work for Lucent Technologies as a field engineer.[1][2] Thereafter, he had established multimedia companies, including one dealing with speech recognition.[3] Because Kudirka "thought he was bored", he founded 2015 in Tulsa in May 1997.[4][5] The name was said to have been chosen for an undisclosed "very significant" reason, although Kudirka later said he did not know what it meant.[4][6] Kudirka recruited developers he had discovered online and had them relocate to Tulsa.[7][8] The designer Zied Rieke was the first hire.[9] Through Kudirka's connections with Ritual Entertainment and its CEO, 2015 came to develop Wages of Sin, an expansion pack for Ritual Entertainment's 1998 game Sin.[7][8] It was released in February 1999.[6] On April 3, 2000, 2015 announced the opening of its Trainwreck Studios division for budget-price games with a wider target audience.[10] The first game therein, Laser Arena, was designed to be playable by Kudirka's three-year-old son and released in September 2000.[6][11] 2015 was simultaneously working on its third game, Heavy Gear Extreme. The company grew to 15 people, requiring it to expand its office space at 8282 South Memorial Drive.[6] The second Trainwreck Studios game, CIA Operative: Solo Missions, was released in May 2001.[11]

2015 was reported as developing Half-Life: Hostile Takeover as an expansion for Half-Life in November 1999.[12] It was scheduled for release in August 2000 but canceled by the publisher Sierra Entertainment by this time.[13][14] As Kudirka reported to id Software that he had been taken off a project, the studio referred him to the director Steven Spielberg.[2] His company DreamWorks SKG had experimented with developing a personal computer follow-up to Medal of Honor but decided to work with an external partner instead. In May 2000, 2015 began work on what became Medal of Honor: Allied Assault.[15][16] According to Kudirka, shortly before the release of Allied Assault, the studio director of development Vince Zampella began secretly meeting with Electronic Arts to establish a separate studio and take over most staff. Out of 27 employees, 20 had resigned by the end of the month.[17][18] Zampella and Jason West founded Infinity Ward, which ultimately hired 22 former 2015 staffers.[19] Rieke, who also left, said the development team had bonded but sought to work under a different management.[9] In response to the departures, Kudirka filed a lawsuit against Zampella, which was settled when Activision bought a 30% stake in Infinity Ward.[17] Allied Assault was a critical and commercial success, selling 1.5 million copies within a year.[20]

In January 2003, Vivendi Universal Games announced Men of Valor as 2015's next game for Windows and the Xbox.[21][22] By March, 2015 had grown to 39 people, with John Whitmore as the new director of development.[23] Men of Valor, released in 2004, was not as commercially successful as Allied Assault and subsequent attempts to pitch games to publishers failed.[24] The company laid off an unspecified number of staffers in March 2005, although Kudirka denied rumors that the company was closing.[25][26] He soon dissolved 2015 and moved to Florida, returning to Tulsa when he realized he wanted to continue working on video games.[24] Konami Digital Entertainment released Time Ace, developed under the Trainwreck Studios name, in June 2007.[27]

On September 24, 2008, Kudirka announced that 2015 had received "several million dollars" in funding from private investors, with which it opened another division, Tornado Studios.[28] The new studio started out with two people, including Kudirka, and sought to make casual games, including for the Wii.[24][29] At the same time, 2015 was to continue making action games.[24] By March 2009, Tornado Studios had 15 employees and was nearing the release of its first game, Powerbike, through Majesco.[24] The game was released in April under the Trainwreck Studios name.[30][31] Its first game was Project Runway, initially called World of Fashion until Atari signed to publish it and licensed the series's name.[32][33] It was released in March 2010.[34] In November, Tornado Studios released Fun with Death for iOS devices.[35] Kudirka said that the rise of digital distribution allowed Tornado Studios to self-publish its games, aiming to release as many games as possible.[36] A third game, Anomaly for personal computers and for the PlayStation 3 via PlayStation Network, was two-thirds-complete by this time and scheduled to be released by April 1, 2011.[29][36] Tornado Studios had 25 employees, including contractors, at this time.[29]

In April 2015, Nordic Games bought the Men of Valor intellectual property from 2015.[37][38] By 2017, Kudirka had returned to Omaha and created vGolf, a mixed reality golf simulator.[2][39]

Games developed

Year Title Publisher(s) Platform(s)
1999 Sin Mission Pack: Wages of Sin Activision Windows
2002 Medal of Honor: Allied Assault Electronic Arts Mac OS X, Windows
2004 Men of Valor Vivendi Universal Games Windows, Xbox

Trainwreck Studios

Year Title Publisher(s) Platform(s)
2000 Laser Arena ValuSoft Windows
2001 CIA Operative: Solo Missions
2007 Time Ace Konami Digital Entertainment Nintendo DS
2009 Powerbike Majesco

Tornado Studios

Year Title Publisher(s) Platform(s)
2010 Project Runway Atari Wii, Windows
Fun with Death Tornado Studios iOS

Canceled

References

  1. ^ Cambron, Melanie (February 2003). "A Chat with Tom Kudirka, President & CEO, 2015, Inc". GIGnews.com. Archived from the original on April 11, 2003.
  2. ^ a b c Irish, Melissa (November 7, 2017). "Alumni presents about business success at Bellevue West". The Thunderbeat. Archived from the original on October 1, 2023. Retrieved June 2, 2026.
  3. ^ DarkViper (January 12, 1999). "Tom Kudirka Interview". ActionXtreme.com. Archived from the original on May 6, 2000.
  4. ^ a b "Company". 2015. 2000. Archived from the original on August 2, 2001.
  5. ^ "Team". 2015. 2000. Archived from the original on August 3, 2001.
  6. ^ a b c d e Colberg, Sonya (June 12, 2000). "Somebody's gotta do it: Local software company wins with computer games". Tulsa World. p. A-7. Retrieved June 2, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ a b Rahey, Abe (July 25, 1998). "Interview with Tom Kudirka, President of 2015". Ritualistic. Archived from the original on January 29, 1999.
  8. ^ a b Forman, Josh (November 25, 1998). "The Official Expansion Pack". Gamer's Alliance. Archived from the original on January 29, 1999.
  9. ^ a b Dring, Christopher (November 1, 2013). "The Medal of Honor killer: A Call of Duty story". MCV/Develop. Archived from the original on July 30, 2024. Retrieved June 2, 2026.
  10. ^ Callaham, John (October 12, 2000). "Laser Arena Interview". Stomped. Archived from the original on October 19, 2000.
  11. ^ a b "News". Trainwreck Studios. 2000–2001. Archived from the original on November 20, 2003.
  12. ^ a b Ajami, Amer (November 23, 1999). "New Half-Life Add-on Coming". GameSpot. Archived from the original on March 1, 2000.
  13. ^ Laprad, David (March 18, 2000). "New Half-Life Expansion Coming". The Adrenaline Vault. Archived from the original on June 7, 2000.
  14. ^ Laprad, David (August 7, 2000). "Confusion Surrounds Half-Life Add-On Pre-Sales". The Adrenaline Vault. Archived from the original on May 21, 2001.
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  24. ^ a b c d e Evatt, Robert (March 24, 2009). "Tornado Studios Looking Past Stereotypical Gamers". The Oklahoman. p. 2B. Retrieved June 2, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
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  30. ^ Harris, Craig (February 26, 2009). "Nintendo Updates DS Releases". IGN. Archived from the original on February 20, 2019. Retrieved June 2, 2026.
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