RIP Paul de Senneville

 

Obituary: Delphine Software founder Paul de Senneville died at age 89

In 1988, de Senneville founded the studio that would come to create Flashback and the Moto Racer series.

Game Developer

By Justin Carter

June 26, 2023

 

Paul de Senneville, a music producer who founded game developer Delphine Software International, passed away at 89 years old. According to French outlet Le Trot, de Senneville died over the weekend on June 23.

Born July 30, 1933, de Senneville founded the French record company Delphine Records (named after his eldest daughter) in 1974 with his business partner, noted music composer Olivier Toussaint. In 1988, he formed Delphine Software International (DSI) as an extension of the record company.

DSI was headed up by Paul Cuisset. Prior to its closure in 2004, the studio created titles such as 1991's Another World, 1992's Flashback (the best-selling French video game of all time), and 1994's Shaq Fu.

In 1993, de Senneville helped co-found DSI's subsidiary studio, Adeline Software International (named after his other daughter). The studio released a handful of games, including the two-title Little Big Adventure series, before it closed down in 2004 alongside its parent studio.

On Twitter, indie studio 2.21, which is developing a remaster of Adeline's Little Big Adventure, memorialized the late de Senneville. "Our thoughts are with [Paul's] family," the developer wrote. "Thank you, Paul, for your immense contributions to the gaming industry."

Outside of those two studios, de Senneville's career was tied up in music. From the late 1970s up to 2004, he composed music that would be played by other artists, such as Richard Clayderman, Jean-Phillipe Audin, and Diego Modena. He and Toussaint also composed music for films, including 1984's Irreconcilable Differences.

Paul de Senneville began his career as a journalist working for big French newspapers such as “France Soir” and “Paris-Presse”, then he became a TV program producer.  As director of a record company, Disc AZ, he started working with his passion: music.

Success came very quickly and in 1976, Paul de Senneville set up his own record company, Delphine Productions (named after Paul’s first daughter, Delphine), with Olivier Toussaint.

Delphine in one of the leading French music exporters to the world market.  It is also the only company specialising in instrumental music.  Nowadays, the Delphine group represent 15 companies dealing with various activities: an advertising film and clip production company, an agency for advertising and casting actors and a casting agency as well as two modelling agencies.

Paul de Senneville is a very famous French composer and has worked with the top French artists such as Mireille Mathieu, Michel Polnareff, Dalida, Claude François…  He composed Richard Clayderman’s first success: “Ballade pour Adeline” (named after Paul’s second daughter, Adeline).  Since then, by playing Paul’s music, Richard Clayderman has become the French artist with the highest record sales in the world.  Actually, more than 100 million albums have been sold in 57 different countries, representing 290 Gold records and 90 Platinums.

de SENNEVILLE, Paul (Paul Marie André Senneville)

Born: 7/30/1933, Pairs, Île-de-France

Died: 6/23/2023, France

Paul de Senneville’s westerns – writer, composer:

The Indians (TV) 1964 [screenwriter]

Convoy of Women – 1974 [composer]

Lucky Lucky and the Daltons – 1974 [composer]