type online gaming network founded 1999 1999 defunct march 16 2012 2012 03 16 headquarters dublin ireland key people dylan collins website www.jolt.co.uk jolt online gaming was 1 2 an online gaming company hosted in ireland . its main site provided news reviews and interviews concerning upcoming games on consoles and computers while its gaming network jolt online gaming network hosted and published free to play browser based games . notable works included utopia utopia kingdoms legends of zork and nationstates 2 . as of march 14 2012 jolt s ceo richard barnwell announced through the utopia kingdom s forum that the company would be closing in the next couple of days it s my job to oversee the games studios and all of the people and games within them . so as you can imagine utopia kingdoms has been a big part of my life . it s therefore with disappointment i have to share the news with you that jolt will be closing down at the end of the week march 16th 2012 . richard barnwell 3 contents 1 history 2 hosted games 2.1 championship manager rivals 2.2 earth 2025 2.3 utopia 2.4 utopia kingdoms 2.5 legends of zork 2.6 hattrick 2.7 trukz 2.8 playboy party 2.9 nationstates 2 3 references history edit founded in 1999 jolt online gaming was based in europe with servers across the usa . jolt was known as one of the pioneers of the supply of rentable servers to online gaming clans . jolt was acquired by omac industries a company based in dublin ireland in june 2008 . 4 on november 8 2009 the website silicon republic confirmed that gamestop had acquired a stake in jolt making a major undisclosed investment . 5 6 the jolt online gaming network had been noted for releasing browser based games using the names and fictional worlds of older games or franchises . their business models often employed micropayment systems as well as basic banner advertisements . hosted games edit championship manager rivals edit championship manager rivals is a football soccer game playable through the facebook 7 website . it was officially released on wednesday june 1 2011 by jolt online and developed by beautiful game studios . 8 the game is the most successful game that jolt currently has with a user base of 30 000 mau monthly active users . 9 jolt announced updates including player vs. player gaming which would allow friend s teams to play against each other . 10 with the recent changes the company is experiencing as of march 16 2012 the future of championship manager rivals is unknown . the game s forum is down 1 and the company has not specified how the company s closure will affect the game . there are no noticeable changes in game and no downtime reported . earth 2025 edit earth 2025 was a browser based massive multiplayer internet based strategy game originally created and run by mehul patel . it was first officially brought online in 1997 and acquired by jolt through the 2008 sale of swirve.com to omac industries . in 2008 jolt acquired this game along with swirve s utopia . on november 4 2009 jolt announced that they would no longer be continuing the game when the current rounds end in december citing an over abundance of technical problems which allegedly made continuing support untenable . 11 utopia edit utopia is a browser based massive multiplayer internet based strategy game originally created and run by swirve.com . it was first officially brought online in 1998 and acquired by jolt through the 2008 sale of swirve.com to omac industries . in 2009 jolt recoded the game in an effort to remedy gameplay issues that jolt reported as being a result of hacker attacks . 12 the new code was brought online as beta version of the game the first since 1996 . jolt passed development and maintenance of the game to frontsquare solutions in 2010 . utopia kingdoms edit utopia kingdoms is an online strategy game related to the universe of utopia which was released in early 2009 and originally promoted as a kind of sequel . 13 utopia kingdoms allows players to pick a race from the original game and build a kingdom juggling buildings resource manufacturing and high risk combat . it was made in conjunction with xs software and is based on their game khan wars . on 16 november 2010 jolt announced that utopia kingdoms would be discontinued after the 31st of january 2011 citing lack of development resources . 14 around the same time jolt online who had already been developing a re release of utopia kingdoms game on facebook announced it officially on november 11 2010 in the game s facebook page . 15 the original official forum announcement was lost due to data failure on or around december 21 2010 16 the forum announced a second welcome to current utopia kingdoms players on december 22 2010 . 17 which was thought to be the official release of the game although it wasn t. 18 jolt online s ceo richard barnwell communicated that the company s closure will not affect utopia kingdoms i believe so much in the future of the game i ve taken it on personally . utopia kingdoms has just become an indie game it will remain alive and you can continue to play as you have been . i hope the following questions and answers help explain the situation further . richard barnwell 3 the game currently has a user base of 8 000 mau monthly active users . 19 legends of zork edit main article legends of zork legends of zork was a casual adventure game that was released in april 2009 20 that took place in the zork universe a text based adventure game created in the 1980s for the pc . it was released on april fool s day 2009 to mixed reviews with some saying that it had little to do with the original zork . 21 other more recent reviews of the game were more positive describing later features added to the game with puzzles that would make the original zork developers proud . 22 finally on may 24 2011 two years and one month after its release ; jolt online announced the game closure to players in game . 23 hattrick edit main article hattrick hattrick a swedish based sports game agreed to allow jolt to host their game and make it available to more countries including the u.s. u.k. ireland and australia . 24 trukz edit trukz was a text based game that allowed the player to create a truck driver and simulate the multitude of struggles cargo truck drivers endure on the road the goal being upgrading their vehicle with commissions earned from the shipping and earning achievements for playing . the game used google maps to point out cities they visited or pass on their drives . on 16 november 2010 jolt announced that trukz would be discontinued after the 31st of january 2011 citing lack of development resources . 25 playboy party edit playboy party was a short lived online game released on facebook around november 30 2010 . 26 27 the game was released after jolt failed to launch the long promised playboy manager game that they had planned in conjunction with playboy 28 since 2009 . the game consisted in the player being a talent agent managing supermodels in an attempt to beat other agents to a prized spot as a playboy supermodel . 29 it was announced in may 2009 and garnered media coverage from well known publications such as the wall street journal and forbes . 30 the original playboy manager website contained the options to pre register beta sign ups 31 and subscription to updates as well as promotional content . the playboy party game in facebook 32 was poorly managed requiring a reset that made players start from scratch on march 31 2011 . 33 it was closed six months later on september 12 2011 . 34 nationstates 2 edit nationstates 2 was a sequel to the popular society simulation game jennifer government nationstates which lost its authorization 35 after not meeting its contractual obligations to the owner of the original nationstates . nationstates 2 was unpopular next to its predecessor suffering from technical issues and was later discontinued . after it was taken down the owner of nationstates author max barry reclaimed the domain and encouraged users to return or try the original version which was now proudly jolt free . 36 references edit lydias lydias . big news a game changer a message from richard barnwell . forums.joltonline.com . retrieved 2012 03 16 . as of march 2012 jolt online gaming has ceased trading . . joltonline.com . retrieved 2012 03 16 . a b ukfb forums.joltonline.com big news a game changer elliott phil 2008 06 18 . omac industries acquires jolt online gaming . kennedy john 2009 11 08 . gamestop acquires stake in jolt online . siliconrepublic.com . retrieved 2009 11 09 . studio profile jolt online . edge online.com . 2011 09 15 . retrieved 2012 03 16 . first1 missing last1 in authors list help championship manager rivals football & soccer game in facebook . jolt and beautiful game studios . retrieved 2011 10 30 . jolt online gaming launches championship manager rivals . jolt and beautiful game studios . retrieved 2011 10 30 . championship manager rivals football & soccer . appdata . retrieved 2011 10 30 . championship manager rivals manage your dream team to the top in our latest facebook game . jolt . retrieved 2011 10 30 . earth announcement jolt forums . forums.joltonline.com . retrieved 2009 11 09 . utopia announcement jolt forums . forums.joltonline.com . retrieved 2009 11 04 . guttridge luke 2009 02 26 . jolt online confirms utopia sequel . utopia kingdoms forums 2010 11 16 . utopia kingdoms closure announcement . verily we welcome thee lords and ladies to utopia kingdoms on facebook . joltonline.com . 2010 11 11 . retrieved 2011 05 28 . apology announcement . joltonline.com . 2010 12 22 . retrieved 2011 05 28 . first1 missing last1 in authors list help welcome . joltonline.com . 2010 12 22 . retrieved 2011 05 28 . first1 missing last1 in authors list help utopia kingdoms released as a free facebook game . brightsideofnews.com . 2010 12 22 . retrieved 2011 05 28 . first1 missing last1 in authors list help utopia kingdoms . appdata . retrieved 2012 03 16 . graft kris 2009 01 14 . zork mmo announced . biggs john 2009 04 03 . legends of zork this is not the zork you re looking for . crunchgear.com . retrieved 2009 04 09 . washburne robert 2009 09 30 . legends of zork just adventure . justadventure.com . retrieved 2009 10 05 . legends of zork game closure . joltonline.com . 2011 05 24 . archived from the original on july 26 2011 . retrieved 2011 05 28 . first1 missing last1 in authors list help jolt 2009 09 23 . jolt and hattrick announce international team up . trukz forums 2010 11 16 . trukz forum and game closure . archived from the original on december 1 2010 . nsfw jolt online releases new game playboy party . allfacebook . 2010 11 30 . gamershell 2010 11 30 . jolt launches playboy party . jolt online gaming and playboy enterprises inc. announce playboy manager the massively casual online game . jolt . 2009 05 06 . kee tameka 2009 05 11 . yes you too can manage a playboy playmate virtually at least . washingtonpost.com . retrieved 2009 10 05 . kennedy john 2009 06 04 . playing the game irish playboy builds a global online empire . siliconrepublic.com . retrieved 2009 11 09 . playboy manager announced it s a casual