Bronzelight Studios

Bronzelight Studios was a North American game publisher, founded by former Playfair crew member Gregory Bouchard and established in 2000 as an offshoot of the company. While Playfair officially renamed itself to Bronzelight that year, the name was still kept as a sublabel for more kid-oriented/licensed fare until it was retired in spring 2002, leading to Bronzelight identifying itself only as such from there on out.

After its first release in late 2000, the multi-platform game SolarStones, releases were sporadic during the years of 2001 up to 2005 when (following Magic World's sale of the publisher entirely to Bouchard and his cohorts that year) it began publishing full-time until its closure in 2008 amidst finance issues, accusations of poor workplace ethics, bribery and Bouchard's tax evasion arrest etc.

Like Playfair before them, their products consisted mainly of licensed games from studios such as Magic World and Cinemator but also expanded to include contacts with media companies such as Universal Cartoon Studios, Scholastic, Lionsgate, 4Kids Entertainment, Corus Entertainment and so forth. This was despite plans for the publisher to act as a subsidiary geared more towards developing original intellectual properties, but some Bronzelight titles not based on anything previously existing were also made (albeit under contractual requirements).

Similar to Phoenix Games, [https://www.mobygames.com/company/8920/blast-entertainment-ltd/#:~:text=Blast!%20Entertainment%20Ltd.%20is%20a,at%20the%20younger%20children's%20market. Blast! Entertainment] and Data Design Interactive, Bronzelight achieved notoriety for the badness of some titles (though overall a more hit-and-miss track record), all of which were generally offered at budget prices to try and entice families and casual gamers (especially in multipacks). They were also noted for the unusual practice of acquiring many of Nintendo's earliest cases for Nintendo DS games also able to contain Game Boy Advance cartridges in order to sell anywhere between two to four games (up to two on each system) in multipacks.

In the publisher's earliest years, many of the games were initially limited in sales as exclusives to store chains such as Toys "R" Us, Walmart, Zellers and Target but they eventually began selling stock in a wider range of retailers.

Marketing practices
At some point after Bronzelight Studios established itself more like a full-time publisher in the fall of 2005, when they started to attain notability for the inconsistent quality of their output and attempts to lure young gamers and their parents with lower prices, the publisher also began using their connections with store chains (particularly Toys "R" Us and Zellers) for another marketing attempt that some consumers saw as an act of bribery.

Particularly in the case of the publisher's Captain Flamingo games, the publisher arranged for free DVDs to be sold in Zellers and Toys "R" Us outlets across Canada with a promo video describing the game and a few bonus episodes of the cartoon. The promo videos in question have been derided on the Internet for largely neglecting to describe the game, with very little gameplay footage being shown.

Also, Bronzelight allegedly did this as damage control in response to increasing negative reviews of the publisher's output by then.

Accusations of poor treatment and work ethic
Many employees of Bronzelight (especially at the headquarters in Toronto) came forward about Bouchard and his inner circle's poor business practices. For instance,n anonymous graphic designer in charge of cover art and manuals recalled being forced to work overtime without further pay when release schedules were tight; also that Bouchard would occasionally berate her for the resulting designs "not looking good enough", even to the point of tasking someone to stand over her until an artwork was deemed "just right".

Some contact developers were also given this treatment, as was the case with Pocket Artists. Being one of the few developers the studio could establish long-term relationship with who was proficient in developing for Nintendo's handheld systems, they were constantly swamped with assignments from Bronzelight. Marty Faye-Wilkinson (at the time head of Pocket Artists) said that it caused enough stress for everyone involved that they "had little time to truly innovate with the game engine we programmed".

Pocket Artists v. Bronzelight Studios (2008)
One of Bronzelight's final game releases for the Game Boy Advance, the poorly-received Captain Flamingo: U R In VR, was the subject of a kerfuffle between the publisher and long-time contact developer Pocket Artists, who otherwise took no part in the game whatsoever.

The game was developed in-house at Bronzelight Studios using Pocket Artists' assets and handheld game dev engine yet the latter studio still received credit on the final product, including their logo in the introductory sequence. Pocket Artists were reportedly furious about their name being attached to an infamously low-quality product.

Pocket Artists' then owner Marty Faye-Wilkinson filed a lawsuit against Bronzelight's owner Gregory Bouchard, alleging that the engine and assets from Captain Flamingo (developed by the same team in 2006) for the GBA were used for U R in VR with neither the studio's express permission nor prior knowledge. Bouchard, meanwhile, denied the accusations and argued he was under the impression that Bronzelight effectively owned the rights to every developer's contribution to the publisher's catalogue.

Eventually, shortly before Bronzelight's closure in spring 2008 (whilst debts were owed and Bouchard was being investigated for tax evasion/finance irregularities), the publisher was forced to pay Pocket Artists a $1.5 million CAD settlement in compensation. After receiving the money, Pocket Artists decided to go dormant later in 2008 and did not reopen for business until 2010 (with a restructuring and recovery for employees who had suffered Bouchard's abuse until then).