, in which the Dallas studio was located
Formation Ion Storm was founded by
John Romero,
Tom Hall, Todd Porter and Jerry O'Flaherty on November 15, 1996, with its headquarters in
Dallas, Texas. Hall came up with the name, the "Storm" part coming from Porter's first project for the company. The company had signed a licensing deal with
Eidos Interactive for six games, and the founders planned to scoop up titles from other companies that were close to completion, finish them, and push them out quickly to bring in initial revenue. In a fashion similar to other
dot com busts, the company spent lavishly on office decor and facilities for employees. The corporate headquarters of Ion Storm were located in Suite 5400, of space in a penthouse suite on the 54th floor, the top floor, of the
Chase Tower in
Downtown Dallas. Ion Storm spent $2 million on the facility. Lisa Chadderdon of
Fast Company said that the penthouse location was "unusual". For the first ten years after the construction of the JPMorgan Chase Tower, the penthouse location had been unleased.
Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3 The company's first attempt at game development was Todd Porter's
real-time strategy Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3.
Dominion was already partially completed by Todd Porter's previous employer,
7th Level, and was expected to take $50,000 and three months to complete. Instead, development continued for over a year, and cost over $100,000. When it was finally released in 1998 it received poor ratings and equally poor sales.
Daikatana John Romero's
Daikatana was meant to be finished within seven months of the founding of Ion Storm and was to use the
Quake engine. From very early on in the game's development,
Daikatana was advertised as the brainchild of John Romero, a man famous for his work at id Software in the development of
Wolfenstein 3D,
Doom and
Quake.
Time magazine gave Romero and
Daikatana glowing coverage, saying "Everything that game designer John Romero touches turns to gore and gold." During that time, in April 1999, publisher Eidos Interactive acquired a 51% stake in the company, in exchange for advances to the developers. An early advertisement for
Daikatana, created by marketer
Mike Wilson and approved by Romero, was a red poster with large black lettering proclaiming "John Romero's about to make you his bitch", a reference to Romero's infamous
trash talk during gaming. Nothing else was featured on this poster but a small tag-line reading "Suck It Down", an Ion Storm logo and an Eidos logo. However, already behind schedule, the decision was made to port the entire game to the
Quake II engine, six months into development.
Daikatana was ultimately released three years late in Spring 2000, after its promised launch date of Christmas 1997. The game was released to middling critical reviews, and an aggressive advertising campaign in 1997 touting Romero's name as the reason to buy the game backfired as fans grew angry over delays. it, too, was commercially unsuccessful on its release in June 2001. The Austin office remained open to produce
Deus Ex: Invisible War and
Thief: Deadly Shadows until Spector's departure to "pursue personal interests outside the company" in 2004. A number of other senior staff also left at about the same time. After finishing its six game contract, on February 9, 2005,
Eidos announced the Austin office would also close, meaning the end of Ion Storm as a company. == Games developed ==