Iron Galaxy Studios

A studio built on helping other studios

Iron Galaxy Studios was founded on 15 August 2008 by Dave Lang, in Chicago, Illinois, shortly after Midway Games began winding down. Lang had worked at Midway and used contacts in the industry to win early porting and technical-support contracts, which let a small team stay busy while it learned to ship games on many platforms. The studio has remained independent since that first year of contract work.

That origin shaped the company. Iron Galaxy describes itself as one of the world's largest independent game developers, but its business has always mixed contract work with its own projects. The studio takes on ports, co-development, full lead development and technical consulting, and it has studios in Chicago, Orlando and Nashville, with staff spread across those locations. Contract work funds the business, while original projects give the team something to build from scratch.

What Iron Galaxy actually does

Much of the studio's reputation comes from moving games between machines. It has ported titles in the Batman: Arkham and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series, brought The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Diablo III to Nintendo Switch, and handled other conversions that publishers needed done well on unfamiliar hardware. Porting is unglamorous work, and it depends on understanding a finished game's code rather than inventing.

The studio has also led development. Microsoft hired Iron Galaxy to take over Killer Instinct after Double Helix Games left the project, and it built Seasons 2 and 3 of that fighting game. Later it led Rumbleverse, its own battle-royale project, which showed the studio could originate a game as well as adapt one. Those credits sit alongside its many porting and support jobs.

Spyro Reignited Trilogy

Spyro Reignited Trilogy began at Toys for Bob, which rebuilt the first three Spyro games for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2018, with Activision publishing. Iron Galaxy's role was co-development, and its own project page credits the studio with helping the collection reach PC. The PC version arrived on Steam in September 2019, about a year after the console release.

The job suited Iron Galaxy's strengths. A remastered trilogy has to look and run consistently across consoles and computers, and the studio's porting experience was the point. The Steam release lists both Toys for Bob and Iron Galaxy as developers, with Activision as publisher, which is a fair summary of who did what. The same period saw the studio doing similar work on other publishers' back catalogues.

Business and ownership

Iron Galaxy is privately held and independent, which sets it apart from many of the partners it works for. In 2016 Adam Boyes, a former PlayStation executive, became chief executive, taking over from founder Dave Lang, who stayed with the company to work on prototypes and business development. The studio had around 130 employees at the time, and the appointment marked a shift from a founder-led shop to a more corporate operation.

Boyes stepped down from the role in 2024, part of a difficult stretch for the wider industry. Despite the churn at the top, the company has kept its core identity: a support studio that large publishers trust with their most valuable games, and one that occasionally steps forward with a project of its own. Its client list has stayed long across several console generations.

How to read a support studio

Iron Galaxy's name often appears second on a box, and that placement can be misleading. A port or a co-development credit is real work, sometimes the work that decides whether a game holds up on a weaker machine or an unfamiliar controller. The studio's own site is unusually direct about this, listing its capabilities and services rather than claiming authorship or a single creative vision.

For players, that makes Iron Galaxy easy to miss and hard to judge. The useful question is not whether it invented a franchise but whether the version it touched was solid. On that measure, the studio's long client list and its repeat business from major publishers are the strongest evidence available. A support studio is ultimately judged by whether other studios keep calling.

Quick facts

Founded 15 August 2008 by Dave Lang in Chicago, Illinois. Headquarters in Chicago, with additional studios in Orlando, Florida and Nashville, Tennessee. The company is independent and privately held. Its services include ports, co-development, lead development and technical consulting, offered to major publishers and developers across many genres and platforms. It has worked on fighting games, family platformers and big licensed releases alike.

Notable work includes Killer Instinct Seasons 2 and 3, Rumbleverse, and ports such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Diablo III on Nintendo Switch. On Spyro Reignited Trilogy the studio's listed role is co-development, with Toys for Bob leading the 2018 console release and Iron Galaxy helping bring the collection to PC in 2019. Adam Boyes led the studio as chief executive from 2016 until 2024.

Games

• Apex Legends
• Batman: Arkham City
• Borderlands 2
• Borderlands: The Handsome Collection
• Darkstalkers Resurrection
• Divekick
• Fallout: New Vegas Remake
• Killer Instinct: Definitive Edition
• Rumbleverse
• Spyro Reignited Trilogy
• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4
• Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection
• Wreckateer

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