Ender’s Game Now A Reality
By William on Tuesday, January 29th, 2008 at 11:26 AM PST In Game Companies, Gamer Life, Games
Last June, David of Gaming Today interviewed Orson Scott Card and discovered many interesting facts. Our article was picked up by many media outlets and really put the gaming spotlight on the possibility that Orson Scott Card’s books were worthy of becoming video games. A little more than 6 months later, Chair Entertainment has announced a partnership with Orson Scott Card to start working on a game. They have purchased the rights to use the Ender’s Game series of books to create a gaming series based on the writings of Orson Scott Card. I’m not sure how much our articles had to do with this decision, but we certainly were the catalyst for the idea receiving plenty of attention in the video game world. We look forward to seeing what direction Chair takes with this.
Top 5 Novels That Should Be Games
Gaming Today’s Exclusive Interview with Author Orson Scott Card
The full Press Release follows:
Salt Lake City, Utah – January 29, 2008 – Chair Entertainment Group, an independent video game production company and creators of the award-winning Undertow, and bestselling author, Orson Scott Card, today announced their partnership to create the first-ever video games inspired by the legendary “Battle Room,” featured in the beloved literary classic, Ender’s Game. Ender’s Game is an award-winning, international bestseller and one of the most popular science fiction novels ever written.
Under the terms of the agreement, Chair has obtained the exclusive rights to develop Ender’s Game “Battle Room” video games across all next-generation consoles, handheld platforms, and PC. In collaboration with Orson Scott Card, Chair will begin development later this year with the first offering expected for release via downloadable platforms.
“I have been a huge fan of Ender’s Game since I was ten years old, so it is a true honor for our team to be entrusted with creating the first video game inspired by this classic story,” said Donald Mustard, creative director at Chair Entertainment Group. “Our goal is to create an authentic Ender’s Game experience that delivers awesome gameplay and can be enjoyed by both longtime fans and gamers new to the series.”
“From the moment I started working with Donald Mustard and his team at Chair, I knew that these were the guys I wanted to do the first Ender’s Game video game,” said Orson Scott Card. “It’s not enough to slap the Ender’s Game name on just any game - it has to be exciting, memorable, and endlessly replayable. Chair shares my understanding of this and I am looking forward to working with them to ensure the game is as authentically Enderish as possible.”
In the fictional Ender’s Game universe, humanity is at war with an alien species known as the Formics, and Battle School is the training ground for the future leaders of Earth’s International Fleet. Taken at a very young age, Earth’s most brilliant children undergo a rigorous training designed to teach advanced military theory where strategic and tactical glory is won in the null gravity battles known to the elite students simply as the game! Through simulated war games and training conducted in the Battle Room, the children rise through the ranks of Battle School to become Earth’s only hope for victory.
The two parties previously collaborated on the Chair Entertainment Group property Empire, which the Company introduced in 2006 with the launch of an Orson Scott Card-written bestselling novel of the same name. A feature film based on Empire is in development by Warner Brothers and Chair has future plans for video games and comic books based on the property.
Gamers and long-time Ender’s Game fans are invited to share their thoughts on Orson Scott Card’s popular website, www.hatrack.com, and the official Chair forums at: http://www.chairentertainment.com/community/forums/
About Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card is the award-winning author of the national bestsellers, Shadow of the Giant and Shadow of the Hegemon, and of the beloved classic, Ender’s Game, published by Tor Books. He is a professor of literature and writing at Southern Virginia University and lives with his family in Greensboro, North Carolina. For more information on Orson Scott Card, please visit his official website: www.hatrack.com
About Chair Entertainment Group
Founded in 2005, Chair Entertainment Group is an independent video game production company committed to creating blockbuster entertainment franchises through development of its original intellectual properties. In 2006, Chair launched its first original property, Empire, as a best-selling novel written by Orson Scott Card. A feature film based on Empire is in development by Warner Bros. and Chair has future plans for video games and comic books based on the property. In November 2007, Chair launched Undertow, an award-winning underwater action shooter for Xbox LIVE Arcade. Additional information, artwork, and gamer forums can be found at: www.chairentertainment.com
Congratulations.
Is this really going to be like Ender’s Game where the players will think they’re just playing a video game but are truly destroying a whole population? haha - the game will interesting though ….
It’s not much of a shock to me, Orson and the Mustards got along famously when they were working on Advent Rising for the Xbox (which STILL isn’t backwards compatible for 360… nuff said). Here’s to (raising a glass) to O and the M’s to another great sci-fi epic. Hopefully they make enough coin on this venture to buy back the right to Advent Rising from the prennial underdogs at Majesco Entertainment! (Majesco, you’ve ruined so many good games… you should be punished!, Advent Rising, Psychonauts to name two… ok there… the never released Half Life for Dreamcast, shame on you!)
There is one thing that will make this game infinitely more fun. Multiplayer Battle Room online. Especially on the Wii. You could make teams or join a team, or however that would work and battle in a 3D battle room scenario online with other people. A one player game would be fun of course, but it would be amazing to play other people as a team.
Oh MY GOD!!!
Finally! I love this book so much, to make it a game would be sooo awseome!
Your article has nothing to do with this. Card has a history of working with friends, and he likes the people at Chair. The video game rights to “Ender’s Game” didn’t revert to Card until just recently — since they’d previously been held by Warner as part of their package for the EG movie — and I imagine that Chair snapped ‘em up immediately.
Thrilled to hear about this - I am a teacher who loves this book and loves to teach it because it turns people into readers who previously may have never read a book before. My students will also love this game.
But, additionally, I would love to have the psychological “mind game” be a game as well - the playground, fairyland, the giant, the castle, the room at the end of the world… Obviously, the “game” version would want to be other, different places riffing off of the original ideas from the book. If you want more ideas on this, just contact me.