Tantalus Media

Tantalus Entertainment was founded in 1994 by programmers Andrew Bailey and Trevor Nuridin from Beam Software.^[2][3] It was briefly acquired by Perfect Entertainment in 1995, where the company was tasked with porting Stargate to SNES and Wipeout to Sega Saturn.^[4][5] It was sold back to the directors in 1999 and renamed Tantalus Interactive. Its first original game was South Park Rally, released for the PlayStation, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo 64, and Sega Dreamcast by Acclaim Entertainment in 2000.^[6][7]

By 2001, the company was on the verge of bankruptcy when Tom Crago joined as CEO.^[3] Tantalus developed a game engine that allowed 3D graphics on the Game Boy Advance. It released conversions of ATV Quad Power Racing in 2002^[8] and Monster Truck Madness in 2003.^[9] Top Gear Rally was released 2003, which proved to be a success.^[10] It won 'Best Game' at the 2003 Australian Game Developer Conference Awards in Melbourne.^[11] Between 2003 and 2009, the company released several games under its Black Market Games banner.^[12] Tantalus further made a name for itself by porting Unreal II to Xbox in 2004.^[4] Bailey also won a 2004 AGDC award for his contributions to the CRIS GBA game engine.^[13] That year, the company also announced it had established Tantalus Asia, a joint venture based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia that would focus on developing games for mobile devices.^[14][15]

Tantalus began developing Anaka as a jump n' run title for the Game Boy Advance in 2003.^[16] However, unable to find interest from a publisher, Tantalus and Act3animation made a 300,000 AU$ animated help entice investors.^[17] It ultimately aired on Nickelodeon in 2005.^[18] In 2006, a touch-only Nintendo DS demo was created. Players could control the character indirectly by touching the screen where they wanted them to go. It was a mix between a jump n' run and a traditional adventure game.

Tantalus then began developing for the Nintendo DS, releasing the successful Pony Friends game in 2007. It sold one million units in a year, making it the largest-selling single-format game developed in Australia.^[19] The studio was the only independent developer that year to have three games among the 100 top-selling titles worldwide.^[20] Crago bought out the company's shareholders and renamed it Tantalus Media. He then immediately sold a share to private equity company Netus.^[3][4][19] A second studio in Brisbane was opened in 2008.^[21][22]

However, the 2007-2009 financial crisis proved to be disastrous for Tantalus and the Australian video games industry. In 2009, Tantalus closed its Brisbane office,^[23][24] while also making much of the staff in the Melbourne office redundant.^[25] In 2010, CEO Tom Crago re-acquired the studio from Netus.^[4]

In 2010, the company launched Straight Right, a new label that would target the core gaming market. It released Need For Speed: Shift 2 - Unleashed for iOS in 2011.^[26][27][28] The label also released Wii U ports of Mass Effect 3 in 2012 and Deus Ex: Human Revolution in 2013.^[26] That year, Tantalus was approached by Nintendo to develop the HD remaster of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. The game released in 2016.^[4][29] The studio ported Cities: Skylines to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in 2017^[30][31] and Nintendo Switch in 2018.^[32] In 2018, it was announced that Tantalus would bring Stellaris, a grand strategy game, to Xbox and PlayStation.^[33]

In March 2021, Keywords Studios acquired 85% of Tantalus Media for US$46.8 million.^[34] The two companies then formed Keywords Australia as a joint venture overseen by Crago.^[35] In 2022, the company established Tantalus South in Adelaide and Tantalus North in Brisbane, joining Tantalus Melbourne.^[36][37] In 2024, Tantalus was among the studios that partnered with Google to develop games for the Fitbit Ace LTE activity tracker.^[38] The company also developed new DLC for Cities: Skylines.^[39] At the end of the year, Crago stepped down as CEO of Tantalus and Keywords Australia.^[40]