Guerrilla Cambridge

Studio logo as Guerrilla Cambridge, from 2012 to 2017

**Guerrila Cambridge**, also known as **SCE Cambridge** prior to 2010, was a British game development studio located in Cambridge, England. It was a first-party studio under Sony Interactive Entertainment and was founded in 1997.

As SCE Cambridge, it was formed from Sony's acquisition of CyberLife Technology's game division, and worked on developing games for Sony's line of PlayStation consoles. It was best known for the creation of the *MediEvil* horror-themed action-adventure game series, as well as 2009's PlayStation Portable title *LittleBigPlanet*.

In 2010 the studio was restructured by Sony to act as a sister-studio to Guerrilla Games, Sony's Dutch development studio best known for *Killzone*. The studio released two titles under their new label, *Killzone: Mercenary* to the PlayStation Vita and *RIGS: Mechanized Combat League* to the PlayStation 4's PlayStation VR headset.

The studio was shut down in 2017 as part of Sony's regulatory review process.

## History

### 1996 - 1997: Origins

CyberLife was a British technology developer that originally went by the name **Millennium Interactive**. It renamed itself as the development of artificial intelligence and "artificial life" simulations became the company's main business. By 1997, CyberLife was working on two games, *Frogger* and *Beast Wars: Transformers* to be published by Hasbro Interactive.

### 1997 - 2001: Formation and early years

On July 15th 1997, Sony Computer Entertainment announced its acquisition of CyberLife's gaming division through its London-based division. The newly established SCE Cambridge Studio integrated members of the bought-out team, while CyberLife would rename itself years later into Creature Labs before ultimately shutting down in 2003.

Between September and December of the same year, SCE Cambridge launched its two Hasbro projects to mixed responses. Both games were also released for Microsoft Windows and Mac.

SCE Cambridge's first project under Sony was *MediEvil*, which originally began development as a multi-platform project under Cambridge's previous owner Millennium Interactive. The project was eventually shown to Sony, who was impressed by the game's tech demo, signed to fund and publish it as a PlayStation exclusive, and initiated an acquisition process of the future of SCE Cambridge.

Sony's acquisition of SCE Cambridge was completed six months into the publishing deal, which helped easing the team's financial stress. *MediEvil* was described as a "huge learning project" for SCE Cambridge according to director Chris Sorrell, as the team was inexperienced in 3D games. *MediEvil* was ultimately released on October 1998, releasing to positive reviews and strong sales, selling at least 400,000 copies in Europe by 1999.

Following the positive response to *MediEvil*, Sony commissioned SCE Cambridge to follow the game with a sequel. Sony instructed the team to develop the game prior to the end of the PlayStation's lifespan. Development was headed by James Shepherd who took over from Sorrell as the game's director. *MediEvil 2* was released to positive reviews similarly to its predecessor, and was awarded BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Award for best console game of 2000.

After the release of *MediEvil 2*, SCE Cambridge began to focus on other projects. Their first game outside the series was 2001's *C-12: Final Resistance*. *Final Resistance* received mixed reviews and was unfavorably compared to SCE Bend's *Syphon Filter*.

## Games

### As SCE Cambridge Studio

* *MediEvil* (1998)
* *MediEvil 2* (2000)
* *C-12: Final Resistance* (2001)
* *Primal* (2003)
* *Ghosthunter* (2003)
* *MediEvil: Resurrection* (2005)
* *24: The Game* (2006)
* *LittleBigPlanet PSP*(2009)
* *TV Superstars* (2010)

### As Guerrilla Cambridge

* *Killzone: Mercenary* (2013)
* *RIGS: Mechanized Combat League* (2016)

### Other titles

* *Killzone 2* (support; primarily developed by Guerrilla Games)
* *Killzone 3* (support; primarily developed by Guerrilla Games)

## References

***MediEvil***
*MediEvil* - *MediEvil 2* - *MediEvil: Resurrection*

**Other Titles**
*C-12: Final Resistance* - *Primal* - *Ghosthunter* - *24: The Game* - *LittleBigPlanet PSP* - *TV Superstars* - *Killzone: Mercenary* - *RIGS: Mechanized Combat League*

**Technology**: Decima