Bullfrog Productions was founded as a separate entity after Commodore mistook Taurus for a similarly named company.

Molyneux's last project with Bullfrog was Dungeon Keeper, and as a result of his dissatisfaction of the corporate aspects of his position, he left the company in July 1997 to found Lionhead Studios.

In 1982, entrepreneur Peter Molyneux met Les Edgar at an audio electronics shop called PJ Hi-Fi.

[5] At some point, Molyneux accepted a deal to export money systems to Switzerland and baked beans to the Middle East.

[3][4] Molyneux was invited to Commodore Europe's headquarters, where he was offered several Amiga systems and a space at a show in Germany.

2,000 copies were sold to a company in the United States, giving Molyneux and Edgar funds to sustain Taurus.

[3] According to Edgar, it was around this time Bullfrog was founded in preparation for the day when Acquisition was no longer important and they could focus on games.

[6] Bullfrog was originally a brand of Taurus; Molyneux explained that this was because they wanted to avoid confusion over business software and money-making opportunities.

[6] Molyneux did not expect it to be successful,[3] yet in 1989, the game received 10 awards, and another 12 the following year, with sales reaching one million copies.

[3] He travelled to universities, including Cambridge, where he offered computer scientists and banks the chance to come to the gaming industry.

[12][13] A 1995 article in GamePro stated that "Bullfrog's work has been termed some of the most innovative by industry leaders, and it's pioneered different genres of software.

"[14] The same year, Next Generation similarly asserted that "Bullfrog has earned a reputation as one of the most consistently innovative and imaginative development teams in the world.

[25] He described Bullfrog becoming part of a multinational company as "a very big change" and worked for Electronic Arts to assist with the transition.

[26] Although Molyneux had said that Bullfrog's products would not suffer as a result of Electronic Arts' purchase,[27] the number of games in development meant that there was less time to refine them (despite the company's growth rate), affecting their quality.

[4] After Electronic Arts' purchase, Molyneux was told to release a game, namely Magic Carpet 2 or Dungeon Keeper, within six weeks.

[4][13] Around this time, Bullfrog had a reputation for having largely ignored 16-bit game consoles, and Syndicate Wars was the company's first title originally developed for a console—the PlayStation.

[13] As Molyneux had been made vice-president of Electronic Arts, his corporate role and responsibility increased considerably and he began making frequent trips to San Francisco.

[4][28][29] In response, Electronic Arts banned him from its offices, forcing him to move development of Dungeon Keeper to his house.

"[28] He also said that Electronic Arts had been "unbelievably patient"[28] and thanked vice-president Mark Lewis for campaigning for Dungeon Keeper's completion.

[33] Mark Healey (the lead artist for Dungeon Keeper)[30] stated that the company "felt more like a chicken factory" after Electronic Arts' takeover and compared it to being assimilated by the Borg.

[6] In 2008, Electronic Arts' president John Riccitiello corroborated these sentiments by admitting that their "dictatorial managerial approach" had suppressed Bullfrog's creativity.

[36] Sean Cooper (the designer of Syndicate)[6] said that if he could travel back in time, he would probably force Molyneux to refrain from selling Bullfrog to Electronic Arts.

[37] When Dungeon Keeper was nearing its completion in 1997, Molyneux, Rance, and Mark Webley (the project leader for Theme Hospital)[38] founded a new company, Lionhead Studios, that July.

[11] Shortly before Molyneux's departure, Bullfrog announced that the games then in development may be the final ones released for MS-DOS.

[50] The reason for the change in platform focus was so Bullfrog could create games with Windows in mind and use "powerful features" (such as 3D acceleration), which were difficult to use with MS-DOS.

[11] Dungeon Keeper 2 had a new development team led by Nick Goldsworthy,[30] previously an assistant producer for Theme Park at Electronic Arts.

[52] During the development, Colin Robinson was interviewed for the role of Bullfrog's chief technical officer,[35] and helped the project succeed.

[53] Corpes left to found the studio Lost Toys with Jeremy Longley (who had worked on Theme Hospital, Syndicate Wars, and Populous III) and Darren Thomas (who had worked on Dungeon Keeper and Magic Carpet 2, and was the lead artist on Theme Park World),[35][54] which Edgar supported financially.

[26] Corpes stated that he was inspired by Mucky Foot Productions running its own affairs and that it was "quite embarrassing to still be working for the Borg".

[55] In August 1999, Electronic Arts appointed Ernest Adams as the lead designer of the fourth instalment in the Populous series, Genesis: The Hand of God.