Laurant Weill

Laurant Weill discovered computers at the age of thirteen when his father took him to a computer exhibition. This led him to study computer science as well as biochemistry. At the age of seventeen he developed commercial management software... which he marketed himself. At the age of eighteen, with some friends, he designed his own computer based on the 68000 processor, just a few months before its release! But Thomson will not be interested in this machine, which was ahead of its time...

While doing his military service, Laurant Weill set up a boutique, Ellixspecialising in British microcomputers Oric. The shop quickly became the official importer in France, and was a huge success. Laurant, his friends and even some of the shop's customers began creating games, and he realised that there was a real market for this fledgling industry.

So it was in September 1983, after his studies, that he formalised with Marc Bayle France's leading video games company, Loricielswhose name, found by his wife in a hurry at the INPI, is a contraction of " Oric "and Software ". Nevertheless, the company published on most of the microphones of the time and Laurant Weill also created or participated in other companies such as Microïds, Brøderbund Europe or even Evolutionwho developed the word-processing software supplied with theAmstrad CPC.

The release of The Golden Eagle in 1985 confirms Loriciel - the " s "In 1987, when the company changed its logo, it lost none of its status as market leader in France. West Phaser3D glasses for Jim Power... But the company went bankrupt in 1992 after three years of difficulties, largely due to the arrival of Japanese consoles, which were closed to French publishers. In 1994, Laurant Weill founded Visiwarewhich has rapidly become the world leader in games for interactive television.

Its main interactive channel, Playin'TVis distributed in 77 countries. More recently, the company Sync (an offshoot of Visiware) is already a major player in the 'second screen', enriching TV programmes and adverts on mobiles.