10 It Was Founded In 1994 By Ted Price

Ted Price, Insomniac’s founder, graduated from Princeton University and was working a job unrelated to the industry before starting the company in February of 1994. He was quickly joined by Al Hastings the same year.

Impressively enough, both people are still with the company after more than 25 years. Few gaming companies manage to last this long, and it does not look like Insomniac will go away anytime soon.

9 Sony Bought Them In 2019 For $229 Million Dollars

Insomniac was independent for most of its existence, only being bought by Sony in 2019 for more than a quarter of a billion dollars. This figure is pretty impressive.

The acquisition ultimately makes sense, considering how many of its franchises are associated exclusively with PlayStation, including Resistance: Fall of Man, Ratchet and Clank, and Spider-Man.

8 Universal Interactive Studios Funded Their First Game

The company’s first game was an FPS called Disruptor. It was originally pitched as a 3DO game, but Mark Cerny of Universal Interactive Studios (who would later become the architect of the PS4 and PS5) convinced Insomniac to put it on the PS1 due to the 3DO’s decline in popularity.

Disruptor is heavily inspired by Doom and was critically acclaimed. Unfortunately, the praise did not translate to outstanding sales. Disruptor has full motion video cinematics directed by Catherine Hardwicke, who would go on to direct Twilight.

7 The Names Before Insomniac

Insomniac went through several different names before settling on the final title. The first official title of the studio was Xtreme Software, but this had to be changed because of an already-existing company with the same name.

Brainstorming sessions came up with names like Ragnarok Software, Resistance Incorporated, and Ice Nine, the last of which is a reference to the Kurt Vonnegut novel Cat’s Cradle. Ice Nine was the closest contender before Insomniac, but another company’s name caused them to go with Insomniac, a name with no special relevance.

6 Fuse Was Their First Non-Sony Console Game

The company has stayed close to Sony throughout its life, which made many believe it was already owned by the console manufacturer for years. In fact, the first console game to release on other platforms was 2013’s Fuse, a co-op shooter. It was published by EA and also released on the Xbox 360.

In the next generation, Insomniac would even release an Xbox One exclusive, Sunset Overdrive. Fuse was not particularly beloved, but Sunset Overdrive is considered a cult classic.

5 Spyro Was Made To Appeal To A Bigger Demographic

Because of Disruptor’s commercial failure, Insomniac decided not to make another FPS for the PlayStation. Mark Cerny suggested the company try and make a family-friendly title that eventually became Spyro the Dragon.

Nintendo was dominating the younger audiences and the PS1 had fewer titles for kids. The idea of making a game about a dragon partially came from the film Dragonheart. Spyro is not only a joy to play, but the large open areas are a technical marvel for the console.

4 Spyro: Year Of The Dragon Was Made In 10 Months

Game development in the late 90s was not as complicated as it is today. Still, to make a game in under a year was impressive. The third Spyro game, Year of the Dragon, spent a minuscule ten months in development from 1999 to 2000, right as the PS2 was coming out.

Year of the Dragon is significantly larger than the prior entries and even includes additional playable characters. Adversely, the first Ratchet and Clank game was delayed out of the PS2’s launch and only came out in 2002.

3 Before Ratchet & Clank, There Was Girl With A Stick

After Spyro, the developer wanted to make a more mature game for the PS2. This project was dubbed Girl with a Stick by the studio and was to be an epic fantasy adventure inspired by The Legend of Zelda. The team worked on it for a long time and even had a playable demo.

Sony ultimately was not satisfied with the demo and even most of the development team was dispassionate about the project. Ted Price admits to pushing the project further than it should have because of his own enthusiasm. Fortunately, Ratchet and Clank proved a huge success for them.

2 The Many Names For Ratchet And Clank Games

The Ratchet and Clank subtitles are often puns, some of which are innuendos. Each one has numerous rejected working titles. The reasons for the rejection become abundantly clear once you read what they were.

Parents would understandably be hesitant to buy their child a co-op game on the PS3 called Ratchet And Clank: 4Play or Multiple Organisms. 2013’s Into the Nexus was also at one time called Into the Nether Regions.

1 Naughty Dog Shared Technology With Insomniac

Naughty Dog and Insomniac have always seemed like family. Both Spyro and Crash came to prominence on the PS1 and each game often contained demos for the other. For Ratchet and Clank this relationship continued.

The two entered into an agreement where Naughty Dog would share some of its technology for Insomniac’s Ratchet and Clank and Insomniac would divulge any improvements they were able to make on the existing technology. This proved extremely advantageous for Insomniac.

NEXT: Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart Developer Welcomes Housemarque To The PlayStation family