# Westwood Studios - House: Developer - Date: 1985–2003 - Canonical: https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/westwood-studios/ > A Las Vegas studio that made SSI's real-time D&D dungeon crawler Eye of the Beholder and its own Lands of Lore before inventing the modern real-time strategy game with Dune II and Command & Conquer. **Why it matters:** Westwood carried the real-time dungeon crawl of Dungeon Master into official Forgotten Realms games with Eye of the Beholder, then took its fantasy craft into Lands of Lore and Kyrandia while reshaping PC gaming with real-time strategy. ## Quick answers **What was Westwood Studios?** A Las Vegas studio that made SSI's real-time D&D dungeon crawler Eye of the Beholder and its own Lands of Lore before inventing the modern real-time strategy game with Dune II and Command & Conquer. **When was Westwood Studios founded?** Westwood Studios was founded in 1985 and was based in Las Vegas, Nevada; it closed in 2003. **Who founded Westwood Studios?** Brett Sperry and Louis Castle. **What is Westwood Studios known for?** Eye of the Beholder. **What happened to Westwood Studios?** Acquired by Virgin in 1992 and by Electronic Arts in 1998 for $122.5 million; merged into EA Los Angeles and closed on March 31, 2003. ## History Brett Sperry and Louis Castle met in Las Vegas in late 1983 and in 1985 went into business together as Brelous Software — a blend of their first names — before renaming the company Westwood Associates. Their first work was unglamorous but formative: converting games between computers, from 8-bit machines to the new 16-bit Amiga and Atari ST, for publishers such as [Strategic Simulations, Inc.](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/strategic-simulations-inc/) That porting work taught the small team how to make graphics and interfaces feel smooth on each machine, and it led to original commissions. Westwood's first original title was *Mars Saga* (1988), and it built *BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception* for Infocom the same year. For SSI, which held the [TSR](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/tsr/) computer license for [Advanced Dungeons & Dragons](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/advanced-dungeons-and-dragons/), Westwood made the action-adventure *Hillsfar* (1989), the dragon-riding game *DragonStrike* (1990) and then the game that made its name in fantasy, [Eye of the Beholder](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/eye-of-the-beholder/) (1991), followed quickly by *Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon*. In 1992 Virgin Games bought the studio, which became Westwood Studios. Under Virgin it released *Dune II* (1992), the template for the real-time strategy genre, and *Command & Conquer* (1995), whose series Guinness World Records later credited with 30 million sales. In August 1998 [Electronic Arts](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/electronic-arts/) bought Westwood and its sister studio Burst from Virgin for $122.5 million. The studio's late projects included the online space game *Earth & Beyond* (2002), which disappointed its publisher. In January 2003 EA announced that it would fold Westwood into EA Los Angeles, and the Las Vegas studio closed on March 31, 2003. Some of its veterans founded Petroglyph Games the next month. ## Notable work *Eye of the Beholder* took the real-time, grid-based [First-Person Dungeon Crawlers ('Blobbers')](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/dungeon-crawler/) popularized by FTL's [Dungeon Master](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dungeon-master/) and set it beneath the city of Waterdeep in the [Forgotten Realms](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/forgotten-realms/). Four adventurers moved as one [blob](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/blobber/) through stone corridors while [kobolds](https://www.lanternhall.org/bestiary/kobold/), [beholders](https://www.lanternhall.org/bestiary/beholder/) and a [mind flayer](https://www.lanternhall.org/bestiary/mind-flayer/) came at them in real time; the game translated D&D rules into mouse clicks on portraits and weapons. SSI sold more than 129,000 copies of it; first released for MS-DOS and the Amiga in 1991, it was later ported to the PC-98, Super NES and Sega CD. When Westwood moved to Virgin, SSI made *Eye of the Beholder III* in-house. Westwood kept the style but set it in its own world with *Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos* (1993), a lavishly animated first-person RPG, followed by *Guardians of Destiny* (1997) and *Lands of Lore III* (1999). The studio also made the fairy-tale adventure trilogy *The Legend of Kyrandia* (from 1992) and the action RPG *Nox* (2000). ## Legacy Westwood is remembered above all for real-time strategy, but its fantasy work mattered. *Eye of the Beholder* proved that official [AD&D](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/advanced-dungeons-and-dragons/) games could be fast and tactile rather than purely turn-based, and it brought the [Dungeon crawl](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/dungeon-crawl/) to a large console and computer audience before 3D engines took over. Its line runs from *Dungeon Master* to modern grid-based crawlers, just as its real-time strategy games opened the way for the fantasy RTS of [Blizzard](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/blizzard-entertainment/). Westwood's closure became a lasting example of EA's consolidation of acquired studios, a story repeated with [Origin Systems](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/origin-systems/) and [Mythic](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/mythic-entertainment/). ## Facts - Brett Sperry and Louis Castle founded the company in Las Vegas in 1985 as Brelous Software, soon renamed Westwood Associates. - Westwood began with contract work, porting games between 8-bit and 16-bit computers for publishers including SSI. - For SSI it made Hillsfar (1989), DragonStrike (1990) and Eye of the Beholder (1991), which SSI sold more than 129,000 copies of. - Virgin acquired Westwood in 1992; it then left Eye of the Beholder behind and created its own series, Lands of Lore. - Electronic Arts bought Westwood and sister studio Burst from Virgin in August 1998 for $122.5 million. - EA closed the Las Vegas studio on March 31, 2003; some veterans founded Petroglyph Games the following month. ## Sources and further reading - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westwood_Studios) - [Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos (Wikipedia)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lands_of_Lore:_The_Throne_of_Chaos) --- From The Lantern Hall (https://www.lanternhall.org/), a museum of fantasy literature and roleplaying games.