The Digital Village
The Digital Village was a digital media company based in
Covent Garden, London WC2 in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1994. The science fiction/comedy writer Douglas Adams was Chief Fantasist and one of the founding members, along with Robbie Stamp, who is the Executive Producer of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie, released worldwide in 2005. At its highest point in October 2000, the company had over 40 employees.
TDV produced the video game Starship Titanic, and started H2G2, a community site dedicated to producing what is referred to as the Earth edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
The company was renamed after its main asset in 2000, to h2g2. Following the dot-com crash in 2001, many h2g2 staff continued to work without pay until the h2g2 site, brand and several staff moved to the British Broadcasting Corporation. The game division became a new company, Phase 3 Studios, which continued for several months under the ownership of PAN Interactive, but ultimately closed in 2002. The 3D game of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy it was working on was never released.
Adams died suddenly on 11 May 2001, although the company's fate had already been sealed by that time.
