Route des Dolines
Sophia-Antipolis
06560 VALBONNE
FRANCE
Founded in
1984
Software Notes
From http://www.intellivisionlives.com/bluesky/people/companies.html
In February 1983, Mattel Electronics opened a programming office in le parc international d'activités de Valbonne Sophia Antipolis, a heavily-wooded technology park 10 miles inland from the south coast of France, midway between Cannes and Nice. With a staff of programmers half recruited in London and half in Paris, the office was to develop Intellivision and Colecovision games that would reflect and appeal to a European sensibility.
When it came time to shut down Mattel Electronics, it turned out that because of French labor laws and the financial incentives Mattel took advantage of to move into Valbonne Sophia Antipolis, legally the French office couldn't be closed; Mattel would have to find a buyer. So while all other Blue Sky Rangers were laid off in January 1984, the programmers in France stayed on the payroll, working on games that Mattel had no intention of releasing. Ultimately, Director Tim Scanlan found investors so the division could become independent. Renamed Nice Ideas, they continued videogame programming, selling games to INTV Corp. and Coleco, among others.
Nice Ideas managed to keep going for a couple of years, but eventually they, too, closed their doors. Most of the British programmers returned to England; most of the French programmers moved to other jobs in the same technology park.
