Cor-Son Games

Cor-Son Games was a game developer owned by The Corning/Emerson Group. It was formed following the acquisition and rebranding of the Sheffield-based Data Ministry. They operated the label as a publisher of unlicensed NES games, but rechristened it in 1990 after the new staff moved to the US, establishing its new office out of an abandoned strip-mall in Dallas, Texas, but eventually had different offices and teams set up in Las Vegas, Memphis, Boston and Salt Lake City, the latter four were used for licensed games while the first was used for more professional titles.

While the company took on the Cor-Son name, they originally operated under a proxy, Alive Systems, in its first two years to work around the limitations of NES carts. Alive Systems was also used to symbolize the remaining staff from Data Ministry who were still based in Sheffield, which lasted until 1994 due to financial issues. Cor-Son had a proper start in 1990, where they produced ports of arcade and computer games for the Game Boy.

The company was known for collaborating with multiple developers on their games, which was done to allow games to be produced quicker and scrounge up funds to obtain licenses. While they were an American company since 1994, they received backing from Canadian outlets since it was cheaper to produce content there. Cor-Son found themselves collaborating frequently with Radical Entertainment and (for a while) Electronic Arts Canada.

In 2014, Cor-Son announced that they would be exiting the gaming industry, as they were uncertain of the future of console gaming. They refused to produce games for the XBOX One, they had little faith in the Wii U and tensions have been apparent between them and Sony since 2002, where Cor-Son refused to take direct involvement in the PS2 and found it difficult to develop for the PlayStation 3. They intended to keep producing games for the XBOX 360, but turned on it since it would lead to poor sales as that wasn't a currency system anymore.

The remainder of the company was sold to Take Two Interactive, with the deal being completed by the end of the year and it getting shut down.