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Company Background
ZOO Digital was
founded in 1999 as a web development business. It reversed into AIM-listed Kazoo3D in 2001 and ceased its web development operations to focus on interactive entertainment. It began development of proprietary
technologies allowing greater interactivity to be acessed from consumer DVD players and rolled out its resulting DVD-Extra technology the following year. The Company also entered the mainstream video games business
in
2002 with the acquisition of Digital Worldwide, a Game Boy Advance publisher. ZOO's CEO, Ian Stewart, founded and ran Gremlin, a UK-based games publisher sold to Infogrames in 1999 for £20m and it is no surprise therefore that ZOO is becoming more games publisher than technology licensor.
At present, ZOO operates two distinct divisions, games and interactive DVD publishing (ZOO Digital Publishing) and interactive DVD technology licensing (ZOOtech). The games business now focuses on all platforms
principally through licensing third party (overseas) published
titles or ancillary SKUs (such as the PC version of a console game). The Company also has internal development as a result of the opportunistic purchase (from administration) of developer Hothouse Creations in early 2004.
ZOO raised £5.75m in December 2003 and £3m in May 2005. The Company currently employs over 125 staff, 75 of which are part of ZOO Digital Publishing (including 35 developers).
Activities
Zoo operates three divisions:
Games publishing: principally through licensing finished product but also through funding and producing titles both from third party and internal development.
Games development: The former Hothouse
Creations team now acts as an internal development division for ZOO and is currently creating Crimelife for Konami.
DVD-Extra: ZOO's proprietary enhanced DVD interactivity technology (protected by over 40
international patents), licensed to Universal, VCI and T-Online with others expected to follow. .
Key Titles:
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