Black Ops Entertainment was an American video game and mobile app developer located in Santa Monica, California. From 1994 it developed sixteen games for several platforms, including the PlayStation, Nintendo 64, PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox. After the games team was shut down in 2006, founder John Botti continued to use the name while developing stock trading apps for iOS and Android. The last of these was aiTrader in 2019.
History
The company was founded by four MIT graduates in 1994, who developed a SNES Volleyball prototype. Virgin Games contracted them to produce Agile Warrior, which necessitated recruiting a larger team. Initially developing out of their homes, the studio later established their Santa Monica office.
Black Ops became known for their line of sports titles, including their contributions to the NCAA Basketball series. The developer received an AIAS award in 2000, with Knockout Kings 2000 winning console sports game of the year. In the early 2000s, Black Ops released two street basketball titles; Street Hoops and AND 1 Streetball. The decision to move to street basketball as opposed to continuing with NCAA came from a desire to be able to develop "unique play styles with no rules", and avoid the need for permission from the NCAA. The team size peaked at 30 developers during the development of Street Hoops in 2002.
The video game studio shut down in 2006, though John Botti continued producing iOS and Android apps under the moniker such as iTraderPro (2011) and aiTrader (2019).
Titles Games YearTitlePlatform(s)Publisher1995Agile Warrior F-111XPC, PS1Virgin Interactive1996Black DawnPS1, Saturn1997Treasures of the DeepPS1Namco/Sony Computer Entertainment1999Knockout KingsPS1, N64EA Sports1999Warpath: Jurassic ParkPS1EA Games/DreamWorks Interactive007: Tomorrow Never DiesEA Games/MGM InteractiveNCAA March Madness 2000EA Sports2000007: The World Is Not EnoughEA GamesKnockout Kings 2001PS1, PS2EA SportsNCAA March Madness 2001PS12002Knockout Kings 2002PS2, XboxStreet HoopsPS2, Xbox, GameCubeActivision2003Terminator 3: Rise of the MachinesPS2, XboxAtariAmerica's 10 Most WantedPC, PS2Encore Software/Play-It2004The X-Files: Resist or ServePS2Vivendi Universal Games2006AND 1 StreetballPS2, XboxUbisoft
Apps ITrader Pro (2011) Avattire (2014) Californiageddon (2017) Ace Driver (2018) aiTrader (2019)
References
External links Blackops.com: Black Ops Entertainment games GameSpot company entry — (archived)