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Chair Entertainment

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Chair Entertainment Group, LLC
Company typeSubsidiary of Epic Games
IndustryInteractive entertainment
Computer and video games
Founded2005; 19 years ago (2005)
South Jordan, Utah, U.S.
HeadquartersSalt Lake City, Utah, U.S.
Key people
Donald Mustard (founder, creative director)
Geremy Mustard (founder, technical director)
ProductsUndertow
Shadow Complex
Infinity Blade
Infinity Blade II
Infinity Blade III
OwnerEpic Games
Number of employees
22[1] (2014)
ParentEpic Games
Websitechairentertainment.com

Chair Entertainment Group, LLC (commonly referred to as Chair Entertainment, stylized as ChAIR) is an American video game developer based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

History

Chair Entertainment was formed in 2005 by Donald Mustard and Geremy Mustard, CEO Ryan Holmes, and other key Advent Rising[2] core design team members Bert Lewis, Orlando Barrowes, Nathan Trewartha, Cameron Dayton and Jared Trulock. Soon after, Chair licensed the literary rights to its Empire property to best-selling author Orson Scott Card.[3] The novel Empire was published by Tor Books and debuted as a New York Times Best-Seller in November 2006. Card has since released the literary sequel Hidden Empire and committed to writing additional novels for the series. Chair also secured an option with Joel Silver and Warner Bros. for the Empire movie, which is currently in development.[4] Additionally, Chair has retained the rights to produce future video games and comic books based on its Empire property.[5]

Chair began production on its first Xbox Live Arcade game, Undertow, in the fall of 2006. Released on November 21, 2007, Undertow is a fast-paced, action-shooter that takes place entirely underwater. Upon release, Undertow won numerous E3 and Editor's Choice awards and was named Xbox Live Arcade Game of the Year by Official Xbox Magazine.

On January 29, 2008, Chair announced it had acquired the interactive rights to Orson Scott Card's novel Ender's Game with plans to adapt the best-selling novel as a digitally distributed video game for all viable downloadable platforms.[6][7][8] On May 20, 2008, Chair Entertainment was acquired by Epic Games.[9] On August 19, 2009, Chair released its second game, Shadow Complex, exclusively for Xbox Live Arcade. The game was published by Microsoft Game Studios and won more than 45 Game of the Year and 35 E3 and Editors Choice Awards. The game was released to positive reviews, with a score of 88 out of 100 on Metacritic.com as of July 10, 2010.[10] Shadow Complex featured a story written by famed comic book author Peter David and was set in Chair's Empire universe.

On September 1, 2010, Chair's next title, code-named "Project Sword", was announced at the Apple Fall Event 2010.[11] The game, Infinity Blade, a sword fighting title playable on iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, was released December 2010, and is the first game on Apple mobile devices powered by Unreal Engine 3. It utilizes Apple's new GameCenter online gaming service. A tech demo for UE3, entitled Epic Citadel was released on iTunes the same day as a free download (though it was created by Epic Games, not Chair).

In October 2010, Chair relocated from Provo, Utah to Salt Lake City, Utah. Chair relocated to its current studio in South Jordan, Utah in 2013.

On December 14, 2010, Chair Entertainment confirmed in an interview that it had ceased development on the video game version of Ender's Game in favor of a continued focus on developing its own original intellectual properties.[12]

During the Apple Fall Event 2011, Infinity Blade II was announced, with new features and visuals which took advantage of the next generation of iOS hardware (the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S). The game was released on December 1, 2011.

On January 5, 2012, Epic Games announced that the Infinity Blade franchise had generated over $23 million in revenue.[13]

In August 2013, Chair released the literary sequel, Infinity Blade: Redemption, also written by Brandon Sanderson.

At the Apple iPhone 5S conference on September 11, 2013, Infinity Blade III, allegedly the final Infinity Blade game in the series, was announced by Donald Mustard and Geremy Mustard, who took the stage to provide a live demo. Infinity Blade III debuted at #1 on the App Store on September 18, 2013. The game featured the exclusive debut of the original, Infinity Blade-inspired song "Monster" from award-winning alternative rock band Imagine Dragons.

In late 2015 Chair released a remastered version of Shadow Complex for Windows PC with a PlayStation 4 and Xbox One release announced for early 2016.[14]

Games

Books

References

  1. ^ Kietzmann, Ludwig. "Epic's Mark Rein on UE4, Epic Baltimore and Gears of War: Judgment".
  2. ^ "Chair Entertainment – About Chair". Retrieved January 29, 2008.
  3. ^ "Chair Entertainment Projects Page". June 27, 2006.
  4. ^ "Joel Silver builds 'Empire' with Chair". November 13, 2006. Archived from the original on October 11, 2007. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ "MTV News Feature on Chair". August 5, 2007.
  6. ^ "Newsweek Exclusive: Chair Entertainment Reveals Plans for 'Ender's Game' Video Games". Archived from the original on January 31, 2008. Retrieved January 29, 2008. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ "Press Release: Chair Entertainment Acquires Interactive Rights for Ender's Game". January 29, 2008. Retrieved January 29, 2008.
  8. ^ "Exclusive Interview: Chair Entertainment's Donald and Geremy Mustard Shed Some Light On 'Ender's Game'". Archived from the original on January 31, 2008. Retrieved January 29, 2008. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ Brandon Boyer (May 20, 2008). "Epic Games Acquires Undertow Developer Chair". GamaSutra. Retrieved May 20, 2008.
  10. ^ "Metacritic Page for Shadow Complex". Retrieved August 22, 2008.
  11. ^ "Project Sword Announcement". Retrieved September 1, 2010.
  12. ^ "Chair Puts Ender's Game On Hold". December 14, 2010.
  13. ^ "Infinity Blade franchise grosses over $30 million". January 5, 2012.
  14. ^ "How Shadow Complex led Chair to Infinity Blade, to Star Wars and to J.J. Abrams". Polygon. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
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