Hidden Path was founded in 2006 by Michael Austin, Jim Garbarini, Dave McCoy, Jeff Pobst, and Mark Terrano. In 2008, Hidden Path released its first original title,
Defense Grid: The Awakening for Windows and in 2009 for Xbox. A downloadable title,
Defense Grid garnered high acclaim with its twist on tower defense and has sold over half a million units since its release. In 2009, Hidden Path began working with
Valve to update and maintain
Counter-Strike: Source, first released in 2004. Hidden Path worked with Valve developing
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
CS:GO debuted at PAX Prime 2011 and released on August 21, 2012 for
Windows,
OS X,
Linux,
PlayStation 3 (PlayStation Network), and
Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Arcade). Continuing the company's trend of revisiting older series, Hidden Path released
Age of Empires II: HD Edition on Valve's
Steam platform in 2013, which serves as an updated version of
Age of Empires II, released in 1999 by
Ensemble Studios and
Microsoft. In addition to updating the graphics and multiplayer capabilities of the base game and its original expansion, Hidden Path paved the way for a new expansion after 14 years called
The Forgotten. According to Valve, the reason they are often collaborating with Hidden Path Entertainment is that they have known them for a while and their offices are "right around the corner". Hidden Path has also contributed model work on
Left 4 Dead 2. They also collaborated with Valve on the
You Monster! expansion pack for
Defense Grid which features the character
GLaDOS from the
Portal video game series. In March 2021, it was announced that Hidden Path was developing "a
AAA, third-person, open-world"
Dungeons & Dragons game with
Whitney "Strix" Beltrán as the
narrative director. Jason Schreier,
Bloomberg News, commented that the cancellation of multiple unnamed video game projects by
Wizards of the Coast in January 2023 led to a small layoff at the company and that "the reorganization will land hard for several independent studios such as Boston-based
OtherSide Entertainment and Bellevue, Washington-based Hidden Path Entertainment, both of which were working on games for Wizards of the Coast". However,
Polygon reported that "Beltrán confirmed in a tweet that the studio's D&D game is still in development, and that it is actively hiring for the project". On February 7, 2024, CEO Jeff Pobst announced on
LinkedIn that the company would be laying off 44 employees after it was unable to secure funding for an unannounced RPG project. ==List of video games==