Vicious Cycle Software

Vicious Cycle was founded in 2000 by Eric Peterson, Dave Ellis, Marc Racine, and Wayne Harvey after layoffs at the local MicroProse development studio (then a Hasbro Interactive studio) forced several game developers into finding other work. Racine resigned as Vice President and Director of Production in the Spring of 2005 to pursue other ventures. Ellis left the company in the Summer of 2000 but returned in 2005 to take a position as a game designer. Vicious Cycle has released titles for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and PlayStation Portable systems as well as the Microsoft Windows platform.

On June 20, 2007, Vicious Cycle was acquired by D3 Publisher and became a fully-owned subsidiary of their D3 Publisher of America division, a second‐tier subsidiary of D3 Inc. Vicious Cycle released Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on February 26, 2009. On October 1, 2009, they announced Matt Hazard: Blood Bath and Beyond for Xbox LIVE Arcade and the PlayStation Store for winter 2009.

On September 4, 2014, Vicious Cycle was acquired by Little Orbit. As the final two games (Adventure Time: Finn & Jake Investigations and Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends) neared completion, several rounds of layoffs reduced the studio to a skeleton crew. Vicious Cycle closed its doors permanently on January 31, 2016.

Technology

In 2005, Vicious Cycle announced the release of their Vicious Engine game engine. The Vicious Engine was a complete game development middleware solution for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation Portable, GameCube, Wii and Microsoft Windows. It was one of the first game engines to offer full support for the PSP and Wii platforms.

The second version of the Vicious Engine, Ve2, was released on March 25, 2009, at the Game Developers Conference. It specifically featured improvements for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Monkey Bar Games

Monkey Bar Games was the children's division of Vicious Cycle Software. The label was mainly associated with games based on licensed children's properties. Monkey Bar was formed in November 2005, with Dora the Explorer: Journey to the Purple Planet and Curious George being the first two titles released under the label.