Tradewest was an Americanvideo game company based in Corsicana, Texas that produced numerous games in the 1980s and early 1990s. The company was the publisher of the Battletoads and Double Dragon series in North America and the PAL region. The name was revived in August 2009 by Midway Games's former European subsidiaries which rebranded themselves as Tradewest. They inherited the name from the American parent company which had owned the Tradewest trademark since 1996.
History
Original company
Tradewest was founded in 1985 by Leland Cook, his son Byron Cook, and John Rowe. Tradewest started out by manufacturing SNK's Alpha Missionarcade game in the United States, followed by Ikari Warriors and Victory Road before shifting away from the coin-op arcade game business to concentrate on the home console market. In 1987, Tradewest purchased Cinematronics of El Cajon, California whose previous games included Dragon's Lair and Space Ace and renamed it The Leland Corporation. John Rowe was chosen to run the El Cajon office as he already had a successful history in video games as executive vice-president of SNK's U.S division. Tradewest operated three companies: Tradewest, Inc, Tradewest International and The Leland Corporation. It released video games in the late 1980s and early 1990s for consoles mainly from Nintendo and Sega. In 1994, Tradewest was unsuccessfully sued by Philips Corporation and Lockheed Sanders for an alleged patent infringement in the art of an arcade video game.
Dissolution and aftermath
Tradewest was acquired by WMS Industries in April 1994, and a new company called Williams Entertainment, Inc. was formed with Rowe and the two Cooks as its heads, thus signaling the end of Tradewest. Williams Entertainment became WMS's official division and entrance to the video game console market. In 1996, WMS was losing interest in video games and, as such, Williams Entertainment was transferred to Midway who renamed the division Midway Home Entertainment, Inc.. Like it was the case with WMS, the division served as Midway's foothold to the home console market, who could now publish video games in-house without having to rely on other publishers. Both the Corsicana, Texas and a new R&D facility in San Diego remained opened within Midway who continued to employ Byron Cook and John Rowe ; developing and publishing games for GameCube, Xbox, Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Windows. Byron Cook resigned from Midway in 2001. The following year, Midway's head office in Chicagoshut down the Corsicana location. Byron Cook is now serving as a RepublicanState Representative in Texas for the Corsicana district. John Rowe became the founder, president and CEO of High Moon Studios until 2001. John Rowe continues to be an award-winning photographer who spends much of his time in Africa and Asia photographing disappearing indigenous people and cultures.
European revival
15 years after the original American company dissolved, the Tradewest name was revived in Europe in 2009 by the former Midway UK and France publishing divisions following a management buyout. On August 19, 2009, Midway Games Ltd and Midway Games SAS were sold to Spiess Media Holding UG owned by Martin Spiess. A new German holding company, Tradewest Games Holding, was created to manage the French subsidiary Tradewest Games SAS, and the two English subsidiaries Tradewest Games Ltd and Tradewest Digital. Tradewest Games Holding, along with its subsidiaries, vanished in 2013.
