Shockwave.com, or Shockwave, is an online and offline video games distributor and game portal. It is owned by Addicting Games, Inc., based in Los Angeles, California, United States. It was launched by Macromedia on August 2, 1999, to promote the company's Shockwave and Flash players, both used on the website. As of 2005, the website had 22 million users. By 2010, it hosted more than 400 games in a variety of genres. The corporate owner, also known as Shockwave.com, was based in San Francisco. Following the dot-com bubble, the company merged with Atom Corporation in 2001 to form AtomShockwave Corporation. It was renamed Atom Entertainment in 2006, and was purchased by MTV Networks for $200 million. Defy Media purchased the website in 2014, before Addicting Games eventually took over. History Early history In February 1998, Macromedia launched the website ShockRave, featuring various interactive games and cartoons. The website's purpose was to showcase projects that developers had created using Macromedia's animation software. Shockwave.com was announced on May 24, 1999, as an expansion and replacement of ShockRave. Shockwave.com was formed to promote Macromedia's Shockwave and Flash players, both of which the new website would require. At the time, 100 million people around the world had Shockwave and Flash installed on their computers. Shockwave.com was formed as a separate but wholly owned business within Macromedia, with its own finances. Its CEO was Stephen Fields, a former executive for Disney Interactive Studios. Shockwave.com was launched on August 2, 1999. The website included cartoons, games such as Centipede and Missile Command, an MP3 directory, and a program for creating animated greeting cards. The company, also known as Shockwave.com, was based in San Francisco and had 50 employees. Critics were skeptical that an entertainment-based website such as Shockwave could succeed, in part because of bandwidth limitations. However, Shockwave gained several notable investors in its first six months, including James H. Clark, Michael Moritz, and Robert A. Daly. The majority of the website's revenue would come from advertising. DoubleClick provided advertising services for Shockwave during the first six months. As the website gained popularity, Shockwave began handling advertising itself. In October 1999, Macromedia announced that it had plans to spin off Shockwave as its own independent company. Macromedia chief executive Rob Burgess said about Shockwave, "It's an entertainment company and we are a software company. You need to run those two things as separate operations". One possibility