Mindscape SA

Mindscape, as we know it now, is the result of a turbulent change of events spanning 15 years which took the company on a rollercoaster ride, soaring it to huge success, plumpeting it to the brink of extinction and back again.

Roger M. Buoy, previously an Executive Vice President with Scholastic, Inc., founded Mindscape, Inc. in 1983.

Located in Northbrook, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, Mindscape, Inc. was a very successful publisher and distributor of Commodore, Amiga and DOS games as well as educational software and applications. In 1986/87, Mindscape acquired software companies Scarborough Systems, Learning Well, and CBS Interactive Learning.

In March 1990, The Software Toolworks of Novato, California, acquired Mindscape, moved it to California and set it up as an independently operated division. The deal, worth $40 million, included Mindscape's licensing arrangement to design game cartridges for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Mindscape founder Roger Buoy remained on board but stepped down from management in 1992.

On 11 April 1994, The Software Toolworks and Mindscape, Inc. were acquired by London-based media group Pearson, plc for about $500 million. The resulting company was renamed Mindscape, Inc. once again. Acquisitions by Mindscape, Inc. while Pearson, plc owned the company included Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) (in Oct. 1994), which operated as a development subsidiary, and MicroLogic Software, Inc. (in Sept. 1995). Pearson, plc formed Mindscape Online Publishing for digital publishing and distributing during this period.

In 1995, these office locations were listed in a press release, and the company was referred to as Mindscape Entertainment:

• Azusa, California
• Northridge, California
• Naperville, Illinois
• Mindscape International Ltd. (West Sussex, England)
• Mindscape International GmbH (Kaarst/Ruhr/Dusseldorf, Germany)
• Paris, France
• Castle Hill, Australia

In 1997, Mindscape was reported as headquartered in Novato, Calif., with offices in Canada, England, France, Germany, Japan and Australia.

The next couple of years caused the most upheaval for Mindscape. In a nutshell, Mindscape was bought and sold three times in the span of three years. First acquired by The Learning Company (TLC) (1998), then sold to Mattel, the toy company, along with TLC (1999), and TLC/Mindscape was sold yet again to the Gore Technology Group (2000). (See the History items for more details.) Luckily most of the Mindscape companies and divisions were kept separate as a unit and did not get absorbed by any other entity. The only exception to this was the United States location in Novato, California, which became part of The Learning Company somewhere along the way.

Mindscape's ultimate salvation came in 2001 when Frenchman Jean-Pierre Nordman, formerly managing director of TLC's international division TLC Edusoft, came forth and acquired all of the Mindscape subsidiaries from the Gore Technology Group. Former executives of The Learning Company (TLC), Brøderbund Software and Mindscape joined the company with Nordman as CEO. They named it Mindscape SA.

Mindscape SA was headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, France, a suburb west of Paris. The company specialized in the editing and publishing of educational and recreational software in three principal products lines: youth-oriented games, family oriented games and educational software.

Following poor results in the 2000s, the company announced its exit from the games industry on 10 August 2011, and was liquidated on 24 August 2011. The Australian and Dutch subsidiaries were unaffected by this. The Dutch subsidiary Mindscape B.V. subsequently took over core operations.

Mindscape SA subsidiaries:

• Mindscape Asia Pacific Pty Ltd. (Australia)
• Mindscape Northern Europe BV (The Netherlands)
• Mindscape Germany GmbH (Germany)
• Mindscape (UK) Ltd (United Kingdom)
• Mindscape Latin America (New York)
• Mindscape Japan

Mindscape SA acquisitions:

• Montparnasse Multimedia (acquired April 2002)
• Alsyd (acquired July 2003)
• Coktel Vision (acquired in 2005)
• OpenMind International (acquired November 2006)
• Kaolink SAS (acquired in 2008)