Ion Storm (developer) / Eidos Interactive (original publisher)

Ion Storm was an American video game developer founded in 1996 and best known for high-profile (and high-ambition) projects such as Deus Ex (developed by Ion Storm Austin) and Daikatana (developed by Ion Storm Dallas). The studio was notable for its high-profile founders and leads (including industry figures such as John Romero, Tom Hall, and Warren Spector) and for attempting auteur-driven, narrative-forward game design at a time when such approaches were less common in mainstream PC titles. Ion Storm gained a mixed reputation: critical acclaim for some projects (Deus Ex is widely regarded as a landmark RPG/immersive-sim) alongside high-profile commercial and management struggles on others; the company ceased active development in the early 2000s and is now defunct.

Eidos Interactive was the original publisher of Deus Ex and a major UK-based games publisher in the 1990s and 2000s. Over time Eidos evolved through multiple acquisitions and restructurings; its legacy brands and studios...