Red Bear Interactive

Red Bear Interactive, shortened to RBI, is a Canadian video game company founded in 1996 and based in Vancouver. It develops and releases its first game that same year: Powers. Known in particular for the Original Trilogy series of games, the company completely changed its identity in 2008 to make games with a more mature and serious look, to overcome its funding problems of 2005. Today, the company has managed to overcome its financial problems and is able to create games as smoothly as before. It also publishes a few games for outside companies.

## History

### Starting years

The Red Bear Interactive adventure began in 1996 with its first game: Powers. Released at the time on the SNES, the game was well-received, even though it was criticized for copying Earthbound. So it was that RBI released Powers 2, with an all-new scenario that was no longer a copy but a real inspiration from Earthbound. Nintendo wants a sequel to Powers 2, but RBI prefers to work on the Playstation side on a new game called "Alban". This event will result in RBI games being banned from Nintendo consoles. After losing its main publisher, the company had to find a new one, and Toys for Bob volunteered to help with Alban. Alban's first game was released in 1997, and was described as mediocre because of its lack of inspiration. It was also criticized for using the same gameplay as Crash Bandicoot, released a year earlier. It was this game that gave birth to Spyro.

### Golden age

After this failure, the company decided to release Powers 3, this time edited by Square, and it was released on Playstation the same year. This game was considered to be the best in the series and brought in a lot of money for the company, which was able to enter its Golden Age, and after two years of development, Alban 2 was released and became a new success for the studio, which, in one year, developed Alban 3 and became the first game published by RBI itself, enjoying the same success as Powers 3. It's decided, the company no longer needs to contact publishers for their games, they've made a name for themselves in the world and can do it themselves. And that's what they do with the Trimax trilogy. Unfortunately, the September 11th attacks force the studio to delay the release of the second game. They lost a lot of money, and Three-max was the last game of their Golden Age, with a rather mixed review.

### Dark age

The studio took a huge risk and decided to launch three new games in the same year. The first two games were a huge failure for the company, as they were released far too early and were full of bugs, forcing RBI to recontact a former publisher: Toys for Bob. The company was forced to find publishers for the next games, as it no longer had the means to finance itself, but money would be hard to come by, even if it tried to bring back the Trimax series. The games released during this period were judged to be bad, with equally stupid scenarios, because they were mainly made for children, and it was this reflection that gave the company the idea of completely changing its identity to create games for an older public, often for teenagers.

### Renaissance

It was during this period that RBI games changed completely, offering more mature games while retaining some of the childlike charm of their predecessors. And then in 2011, the first game with a realistic look was released, called "Nobody is Alive", and it quickly became one of RBI's most popular games. This game managed to leave its mark on the company forever, and seeing that it was a real success, a sequel was released two years later. A whole new series of narrative games named Loyd's Life came onto the market to keep fans waiting for Nobody is Alive 2. The company began publishing games during this period, starting with Dark Fantasy Tale, a collaboration with SIE Santa Monica Studio, the studio behind God of War.

### Silver age

It was during this period that the company released the most games, starting with Blake the Panda, which was somewhat overlooked as it was still a platform game. The company was able to release Nobody is Alive 3, renowned for its online mode, which gave RBI time to work on one of their biggest games: Crossover Story. All the previous games have been combined into one, and it's one of the wackiest ideas of RBI's entire career. After that, the company released a reboot of Trimax, and the covid-19 crisis enabled them to release remakes of Alban and Powers. A prequel to Nobody is Alive was also released, but the best is the MMO RPG based on the Powers universe.

### Coming years

Having learned from its mistakes, the company is planning an Alban 4 and a Killios 4. Unfortunately, a hacker has leaked the list of upcoming games, many of which are still unnamed, but we do know that a visual novel based on the Trimax universe is in development, even if many people think it's a joke. A third game on Loyd's Life will be released and a Nobody is Alive game is still in development, as are the Time Assassin and We Spy games. We don't know if this one is a sequel or a completely different game. A remake of Trimax is on the way, but the most intriguing game is a sequel to Crossover Story, which will feature even more characters, especially those from the published games who will be appearing for the first time.

## Trivia

* RBI was initially a small indie game studio recruited by Nintendo
* The bear in the logo is named Koda
	+ The name was revealed at the Comic-Con 2009
	+ He share the same name than one of the main character of Brother Bear

* Nobody really know who founded RBI