to work for in America.
http://www.insomniacgames.com/index.php
VIDEO GAME DEVELOPER INSOMNIAC GAMES RANKED THIRD AMONG TOP 50 BEST COMPANIES TO WORK FOR IN AMERICAhttp://www.insomniacgames.com/
"Ratchet & Clank® Creators Become First Video Game Company Named to Annual "Best Small & Medium Companies to Work for in America" List."
BURBANK, Calif. (JUNE 20, 2005, 10:15 a.m. PST): Proving that making video games can be just as enjoyable as playing them, Insomniac Games today became the first video game company named to the "50 Best Small & Medium Sized Companies to Work for in America" list. The list was announced before an audience of 12,000 at the Society for Human Resource Management's (SHRM) 57th Annual Conference & Exposition in San Diego.
Insomniac Games, an independent console video game developer with 145 employees, was included in the top 25 small companies list. The company ranked third. This is the second year of the list, which ranks the top 25 small and top 25 medium companies in America that have used smart people management strategies to develop successful organizations with highly productive and satisfied workforces.
The winning organizations, which range in size from 50 to 999 employees, were announced by SHRM – the world's largest association devoted to human resource management – and selected and ranked by the Great Place to Work® Institute (GPTW). The results were based on a randomly distributed employee opinion survey. Each company evaluated was given a score based on employees' responses to a detailed questionnaire about the organizations' workplace cultures. Company programs and practices were also taken into account.
"It's a real honor to be included among the 25 best small companies to work for in America because the ranking is based on our own employees' attitudes about Insomniac Games," said Ted Price, founder and president of Insomniac Games. "This reaffirms that the collaborative approach we’ve taken over the years works. It's the suggestions that people at Insomniac make and the pride they have in the company that have allowed us to maintain the same 'small company culture' we established 11 years ago."
In addition to being the first video game company listed on the "50 Best Small & Medium Sized Companies to Work for in America" list, Insomniac Games is also the first North American video game developer to be honored in any ranking compiled by GPTW. The organization is perhaps best known for producing Fortune magazine’s annual "100 Best Companies to Work for®" list, which ranks companies with more than 1,000 employees. Two video game publishers have made GPTW's "100 Best Companies to Work for in America" list since it was first published in 1984.
Insomniac Games is best known for creating the multi-million unit selling Ratchet & Clank® and Spyro the Dragon™ franchises for the PlayStation® game console and PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system. The company is currently developing Ratchet: Deadlocked™ for Fall 2005 release on PlayStation 2.
About Insomniac Games
Insomniac Games is an independent video game developer that has released award-winning hits for PlayStation® game console and the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system for 11 years. The company created the first three Spyro the Dragon™ games and the Ratchet & Clank™ franchise, which have combined to sell nearly 19 million units worldwide. Additional information can be found on the company's website at http://www.insomniacgames.com/.
And there not to far from where I live. Awesome!
I did play demos of the Spyro games and they didn't seem particularly bad or anything, but I wouldn't even have imagined somebody describing them as one of the few 32bit games that had a "soul" 
